Daran Little 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 and - EastEnders. 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 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".
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. 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 showThe 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."
