Biography
Job Title: Senior Lecturer: Acting
Courses Taught: BA(Hons) Acting, BA (Hons) Actor Musician, BA (Hons) Musical Theatre
Specialisms: Drama, Directing, Dramaturgy, Filmmaking
Dermot is a maker and educator working with drama to collaborate on, tell, and hone stories that seek to question and engage.
Professionally, he works regionally, nationally and internationally, on, and for, stage, screen, and radio drama. He has gained industry recognition for his performance work from the BBC (NBF fellowship prize, 2009) and been part of an Olivier nominated season (Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, 2007). His directorial work has seen him nominated twice as Best Director at the Black British Theatre Awards (2022, 2024), co-direct an award-winning supporting performance (BBC Audio awards, 2024), as well as numerous directorial awards for his film work as a writer/producer/director. As a dramaturg and reader he works regularly with new writing, is a reader for several organisations and has sat on the jury of the Alfred Fagon Awards since 2023.
His academic work focuses on actor training, contemporary performance, dramaturgy and new writing. He is the editor of Being Black and British: Before, During and After Drama School (Routledge 2025) and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Class & Culture.
His work in the education sector is underpinned by the philosophy of ‘throwing ladders back down’. He actively uses his extensive industry experience to underpin his work in training and teaching aiming to encourage the next generation of storytellers to be bold, honest, truthful, engaging and engaged.
