Darren Rapier

Drama and Media Professional

Darren Rapier trained at Rose Bruford College, graduating in 1995 with a degree in writing. He has written for film, television, radio and theatre. Plays include The Thieftaker, about the first real gangster in early Eighteenth Century London; People in Glass Houses, a futuristic absurd comedy; Smoke, a play with music, about the railway ‘improvements’ and clearances of 1863; Boom, a community play set in 1936, about the housing boom in the South East; Extensions of Love, about one woman’s obsession with another; Worlds Apart, set in India and the UK and Jam Tomorrow, a community play set in 1968. Adaptations for children have included The Snow Queen, The Little Mermaid, 1001 Arabian Nights and Clara and the Nutcracker. Short plays include The Gallery, the ten-minute musical Dying for a Kipp at Greenwich Theatre and Killer Graphics, a short opera with music by Sam Hall. In 2007 he wrote and co-directed Payback for Greenwich and Lewisham Young Peoples’ Theatre and Departures for the National Youth Theatre. He has written and directed six short films (It Is,  The Race, Blind Man's Bluff, Fairy on the Run, Sealed with a Kiss and Sections) has been a writer on Doctors and EastEnders for the BBC and has two feature films in production  one in post-production and one in pre-production, as well as one in development. Darren has been short-listed for the Carl Forman Award at BAFTA, is a selected short film writer for TAPS, was a finalist in the BBC Talent Television Drama initiative in 2002, reached the final 1% of 5,000 scripts in 2024's BBC 'Open Call' and is a member of BAFTA Connect. His radio play Vital Statistics was part of BBC Radio Drama/Hampstead Theatre’s ‘Stages of Sound’ 2006 and he was a staff writer on BBC Radio's continuing drama series Silver Street. Other directing work has included many large-scale projects, including Our Town Story at the O2 for the millennium and a short devised show for Her Majesty the Queen.  Acting work has included Casualty, Little Howard’s Big Question and the feature films When Did You Last See Your Father, The Be All and End All and Never Had a Chance.   Darren is Artistic Director of Spanner in the Works, who run drama-based workshops in schools, hospitals and museums and a freelance drama trainer and facilitator.   He is also Company Director at Tualen Pictures.