I grew up in a council estate on the south coast of England and left school with no GCSEs. At sixteen I worked in a factory, where I made 1447 five-wire circuits a day. Luckily for me from a young age I loved creating stories and as bad as my secret teenage poetry was, when others decided my life was set, I had something inside me that needed more. I didn’t understand it, I never thought ‘I want to be a writer’ because I could hardly write, it would be fourteen more years before I was told that I was dyslexic.

 

At eighteen I got a bank loan to buy a PC because my lack of hardware was why I didn’t write, at twenty-one I bought a solo ticket to Thailand because my lack of travel was why I didn’t write. It took me twenty-eight years to realise that it was my lack of education. I was living in Cyprus when I phoned Kingston University about doing a creative writing degree through clearance, after a long phone call in which I may have blended the truth with fiction, I was in.

 

During my degree and despite a fear of public speaking I discovered stand-up comedy, A year later I walked on stage at the Hackney Empire Theatre and performed in front of a thousand people. I worked as a stand-up comedian for ten years travelling the world and writing/performing multiple shows at the Edinburgh festival. I've hung up the microphone for now to concentrate on writing and family.

 

A few years ago, I completed my MA in television and radio scriptwriting and have since won a short film competition for my script ‘Angel Falls’ which went on to win multiple awards at different film festivals around the world. My writing covers a range of genres, but I have three television pilots finished, and treatments for other concepts. I have started writing my first book using stories from stand-up to help people get over their fear of public speaking.

 

That sixteen-year-old factory worker now has a one-year-old son, an understanding wife, and an expensive mortgage, he has done more than predicted and can call himself a writer, but he still has that something inside him that needs more. 

 

Luke

Now a grown-up.