Lee Daniel - Screenwriter/ filmmaker
Drama? I was born into it.
My parents were absolute professionals. The neighbours thought so. As did the paramedics, teachers, social workers and police who regularly pulled up outside our house, demanding to be let in.
So here I am. Fate. And drama it most definitely is.
That mix of heritage and lived experience fuels my storytelling: London/ Scotland - outsiders, rule-breakers, and the “ordinary extraordinary.” My work balances rawness with lyricism, exploring crime and community, sisterhood and survival.
RECENT WORK: Filmmaking/ TV
Feature documentary: The Super Responders. 26/27
The Debt Collector - a neo-noir feature/ TV series. BFI Funded development. 25/26
Easy Money, TV BBC Voices. 23/24
SHE TOWN film script placed in the top 1% of entries to the BBC Open Call. 2022.
I am a disabled and an active campaigner for Breast Cancer Now and MetUp UK, bringing the same passion for truth and survival into both my advocacy and my filmmaking.
Hello
I'm based in my adopted spiritual home: Brighton. I love it here but rarely write about this beautiful place. Instead I find myself going back to that estate in NW London. The place where I fled from aged 16. And sometimes I visit that seaside shanty town that we stayed at when I was a child but that now makes the headlines with its drug statistics and anti-social behaviour. Occasionally I'm in 1950s Dundee, hanging out with the matriarchs of that town the way that my mother would have done. So yes, you get the picture some places have set up permanent residence in my mind. And they continue to fascinate me and influence my work.
My Story
Storytelling is my passion. It's how I make sense of who I am. It's how I process everything that has happened in my life. As well as writing what you might call gritty working-class drama or 'domestic noir' scripts (that focus on the psychological battle of the sexes), I have recently fallen in love with filmmaking. I guess it's the fun, kinaesthetic, creative nature of it that I find so appealing. Being with a crew is like having a dozen experienced and expert hands all supporting the script 'baby'. There's nothing quite like that buzz.
Education and previous experience
I was one of those kids who missed a lot of schooling because of my chaotic background. So it is kind of amusing that I ended up years later as a primary school teacher. |And in my mid-twenties I got myself some discipline, qualifications and went to UCL to study Art History (BA hons). Making me the first person in my family to get a degree.
And I ended up teaching in schools and moving into my specialism of teaching Dance and Gymnastics. Dance has always been in my life and as a youngster I danced in pop videos and later moved into teaching. In fact, I still run a movement club for children alongside writing scripts.
(www.fantasticgymnastics.co.uk is my website)
123-456-7890