Daran Little

Daran Little (born 11 May 1966) is a BAFTA Award-winning and EMMY nominated British television writer. He is the only writer to pen more than a hundred episodes of both Coronation Street (from 2000 until 2010) and - EastEnders (from 2010 onwards). He currently lives in LA where he is developing his own dramas and reality shows.

Career

While at Manchester Polytechnic, he wrote his dissertation about Coronation Street and Tony Warren who became his mentor and insisted the Producers gave him a job. After graduating, he was taken on by Granada Television as an archivist. He has written eleven books, both fiction and non-fiction, about the show and its characters and co-wrote Betty Driver's autobiography.

Little left Granada in 2006 after writing 95 episodes of the Street and introducing the first gay character, Todd Grimshaw. He created the characters Sean Tully, Archie Shuttleworth, Bev Unwin and Eric Gartside who was played by Peter Kay. He created, wrote and produced a 20-part series called Hollyoaks: In the City for Mersey Television. The series was not recommissioned for a second series. He joined the Hollyoaks writing team, writing 12 episodes before moving to New York to work on "All My Children".

American ventures

ABC Daytime hired him to be a creative consultant on All My Children. He worked closely with Brian Frons, Barbara Esensten, James Harmon Brown, Charles Pratt, Jr. and Julie Hanan Carruthers. He was an Associate Head Writer from 14 July 2008 to 2 November 2009.

In 2018, Little was hired as story consultant on the CBS Daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless, reuniting with Mal Young. Little's first episode aired on 3 December 2018.

Back in Britain

In 2009 he returned to Coronation Street, writing a further 9 episodes. On 2 March 2010 it was confirmed that Little had left Coronation Street and joined its rival EastEnders.[1] In September 2010 his drama The Road to Coronation Street was broadcast on BBC4, telling the story of Coronation Street's conception 50 years earlier, centering on Tony Warren. The drama won Best Single Drama in the 2011 BAFTAs and Royal Television Society and Little won the Best Scriptwriter at the RTS North West awards. In 2013 Little wrote a comedy pilot "Kitten Chic" about a psychotic fag hag that aired on Sky Living and rejoined the writing team of "Hollyoaks". He rejoined EastEnders in 2013 as part of Dominic Treadwell-Collins' team, receiving acclaim for an episode where Johnny Carter came out to his father Mick, played by Danny Dyer.

Reality

Little worked as story producer on the first series of ITV2 structured reality show The Only Way Is Essex before helping to cast, set up and story produce all series of E4's BAFTA winning show "Made in Chelsea". To date he has worked as Story Executive on all 19 series and Summer specials. He is also an Executive Producer on ITV2's "The Real Housewives of Cheshire".

Personal life

Little is gay but married a woman when he was younger, saying "I'm gay and I got married in a church... to a woman... because I feared being gay in a world that didn't accept me. That was 25 years ago."[2]

Awards and nominations

References
  1. Green, Kris (2 March 2010). "Corrie writer joins 'EastEnders' team". Digital Spy. Retrieved 3 March 2010.
  2. Little, Daran (11 December 2012). "Twitter / DaranLittle: I'm gay and I got married in ..." Twitter. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
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