Timothy O'Donnell commenced his dance training at his mother's ballet school at age seven. In 2001 he joined The Australian Ballet School where he received several awards including the Jacob Bloch Memorial Award and first place in The Australian Institute of Classical Dance’s national choreographic competition.
After he graduated in 2004, he joined West Australian Ballet. While with the Company he performed multiple principal and soloist roles in ballets such as Coppèlia, Cinderella,The Red Shoes, The Nutcracker and Romeo and Juliet. O'Donnell was also fortunate enough to work closely with many celebrated national and international artists such as Paul Lightfoot, Petr Zuska, Simon Dow, Matjash Morzewski and Ivan Cavallari. In 2007, he was awarded "Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer" at the West Australian Dance Awards.
O'Donnell continued to choreograph at West Australian Ballet, and in 2009, he won first place and the Audience Choice Award in Milwaukee Ballet's International Choreographic Competition, Genesis, for his work The Games We Play. He returned to Milwaukee Ballet in 2010 to create Boléro-Let There Be Light. That same year he became a co-director of Ludwig, an Australian dance company, where he worked for major dance events including the Australian Dance Awards and as a choreographer on "So You Think You Can Dance-Australia." Since joining Milwaukee Ballet in 2012, O'Donnell has appeared as Marcello in La Bohème.