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Daran Little (born 11 May 1966) is a BAFTA-winning and Emmy Award-nominated British television writer. He is the only writer to pen more than 100 episodes of both '' Coronation Street'' (from 2000 until 2010) and '' EastEnders'' (from 2010 onwards).


Career


Early career

While at
Manchester Polytechnic Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...
, he wrote his dissertation about Coronation Street and
Tony Warren Anthony McVay Simpson (8 July 1936 – 1 March 2016) publishing under pen name Tony Warren, was an English television screenwriter and actor, best known for creating the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street''. He created other television dramas ...
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 Elizabeth Mary Driver, (20 May 1920 – 15 October 2011) was a British actress and singer, best known for her role as Betty Williams in the long-running ITV soap opera, ''Coronation Street'', a role she played for 42 years from 1969 to 2011, a ...
'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 Sean Tully is a fictional character from the British soap opera ''Coronation Street'', played by Antony Cotton. He made his first appearance during the episode broadcast on 13 July 2003. Following that appearance, the character returned full-t ...
,
Archie Shuttleworth The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the ITV soap opera '' Coronation Street'' in 2002, by order of first appearance. Hazel Wilding Hazel Wilding first appears on 23 January 2002 when cab driver Vikram Desai (Chri ...
, 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 Lime Pictures, formerly known as Mersey Television, is a British television production company, founded by producer and writer Phil Redmond in the early 1980s. They produce award winning drama, and entertainment shows, for the international ma ...
. The series was not recommissioned for a second series. He joined the
Hollyoaks ''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera '' Brookside''. Since 2005, episodes have been aired on sister channel E4 a ...
writing team, writing 12 episodes before moving to New York to work on " All My Children".


American ventures

ABC Daytime ABC Daytime (sometimes shortened to ABC-D or ABCD) is a division responsible for the daytime programming block on the ABC Network and syndicated programming. The block has historically encompassed soap operas, game shows and talk shows. Histor ...
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 ''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (not the real-life similarly-named Genoa City, ...
'', reuniting with
Mal Young Mal Young (born 26 January 1957) is a British television producer, screenwriter and executive producer. Career Mersey TV Young began his career in graphic design. At age 27 he began working in television, on the Channel 4 soap opera '' Brook ...
. 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''. In September 2010 his drama '' The Road to Coronation Street'' was broadcast on BBC4, telling the story of ''Coronation Streets conception 50 years earlier, centering on
Tony Warren Anthony McVay Simpson (8 July 1936 – 1 March 2016) publishing under pen name Tony Warren, was an English television screenwriter and actor, best known for creating the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street''. He created other television dramas ...
. 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 ''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera '' Brookside''. Since 2005, episodes have been aired on sister channel E4 a ...
". He rejoined ''EastEnders'' in 2013 as part of
Dominic Treadwell-Collins Dominic Treadwell-Collins (born 26 August 1977) is a British television producer, known for his work on the soap operas ''Family Affairs'' and ''EastEnders'', creating the ''EastEnders'' spin-off series '' Kat & Alfie: Redwater'' and Executive P ...
' team, receiving acclaim for an episode where Johnny Carter came out to his father Mick, played by
Danny Dyer Danial John Dyer (born 24 July 1977) is an English actor and presenter. Dyer's breakthrough role was as Moff in ''Human Traffic'', with other notable roles as Mick Carter in EastEnders, Billy the Limpet in '' Mean Machine'' and as Tommy Johns ...
.


Reality

Little worked as story producer on the first series of ITV2 structured reality show ''
The Only Way Is Essex ''The Only Way Is Essex'' (often abbreviated as ''TOWIE'' ) is a British reality television series based in Brentwood, Essex, England. It shows "real people in modified situations, saying unscripted lines but in a structured way." Originally b ...
'' 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 a direct descendant of Alfred the Great and
William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
, as well as famed Australian bush wrangler Daniel Priest. 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." He currently lives in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
with his husband.


Awards and nominations

*2006 - BAFTA nomination - '' Coronation Street'' *2009 - EMMY nomination - '' All My Children'' *2010 - EMMY nomination - '' All My Children'' *2011 - RTS winner Best Single Drama - '' The Road to Coronation Street'' *2011 - New York Film & TV Festival winner - Best International Programme - '' The Road to Coronation Street'' *2011 - BAFTA winner: Best Single Drama - '' The Road to Coronation Street'' *2011 - Broadcast Digital Awards: Best Scripted Program winner - '' The Road to Coronation Street'' *2011 - RTS North West winner: Best Scriptwriter - " The Road to Coronation Street" *2020 - EMMY nomination - ''
The Young and the Restless ''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (not the real-life similarly-named Genoa City, ...
''


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Little, Daran 1966 births Living people Alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University Writers from Manchester British soap opera writers LGBT writers from England 21st-century LGBT people