Derek is an Award Winning Irish Writer who has thirteen professional credits to date, including, critically acclaimed “Bound”, “Angel”, “A Nice Bed to Die In”, “A Mother’s Love” and the much lauded “Queens of Pimlico”, all of which played to sell out audiences throughout some of Dublin’s most popular theatres. His plays “My Second Self” and “Two Sides of a Coin” were selected to be a part of the 2013 and 2014 International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival. Derek has also had short pieces staged in New York City as part of The Break Away Project’s “Creating Connectivity” ; been selected for The New Theatre’s New Writing Week in 2013 and 2015 ; partook in the “spcedLIMERICK” collaborative ; commissioned by and acted as script doctor for other theatre companies, and was selected by Dublin Theatre Festivals “Play On” initiative in 2013 where he was mentored by The Royal Court London’s Graham Whybrow.His collaborative short documentary “Visionaries” about visually impaired musicians (funded by Galway Film Centre and Galway County Council) has been accepted into The 23rd Chicago Irish Film Festival, Irish Film London: St. Patrick’s Day Festival 2022 and Fastnet Film Festival 2022. In 2023 his short narrative film “The Black Keys” will be released to the international film festival circuit by Clap ‘n Load Studios (Dir. John Kelly) and his Award-Winning Play “Exhibition” (Dir. James Power) will be staged in September under his co-founded new media company, Two Rooks Mate. Since 2022 he has worked on numerous projects writing copy and scripts for Canadian based clients with Creative Ors. (Vancouver). In 2021 he was appointed In-House Writer for Clap ‘n Load Studios and is a member of the Writers Guild of Ireland.