Dean Cavanagh

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Dean Cavanagh is a writer born in Cottingley, Bradford, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in 1966.

He started his writing career in freelance journalism contributing to UK magazines such as The Face, Melody Maker, I-D & New Musical Express. In 1990, in the height of the acid house culture, when local pirate radio airplay made Bradford a significant player in the north west dance music scene, he founded the club culture magazine Herb Garden and a band with best friend Enzo Annecchini. His dance music outfit, Glamorous Hooligan, was picked up by Warner Bros. offshoot Arthrob, and in 1995, they released a critically acclaimed album ‘Naked City Soundtrax’.

As a musician, he featured on the late John Peel's Sounds of the Suburbs show, in the late 1990s [1].

As an up-and-coming clubland promoter, he organised popular house music, techno, and drum and bass nites in Bradford, called Tolerance as a club promoter, before moving on to Leeds, where he promoted the successful Soundclash club happenings bringing in respected DJ's such as Andrew Weatherall, Adrian Sherwood and Saul Kane.

His professional writing came later. His first short story Mile High Meltdown was included in the best selling Disco Biscuits anthology, published by Sceptre, and brought rave reviews, but it was music that first introduced him to the public domain.

Music journalism was where he begun his career. As a journalist, he's been a contributor to The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday Magazine, New Musical Express, Melody Maker, Positive Energy of Madness,The Face, as well as the Herb Garden, and i-d. He has also worked in copywriting, penning many commercials and working alongside director John McFarlane, before progessing to writing theatre plays and movies. Dean wrote a late night cult sitcom called Honky Sausages that McFarlane directed for UK Play TV.Dean developed many projects with Terry Gilliam's producer, Ray Cooper for John Kamen's company Radical Media.

Dean works regularly with Irvine Welsh. Their play Babylon Heights was performed in Dublin, Chicago and San Francisco, in Spring 2006. Shooting on their screenplay The Meat Trade starring Robert Carlyle and Colin Firth and directed by Antonia Bird begins shooting in summer 2008.

In 2004, Dean and Irvine were BAFTA nominated for their BBC Three short film Dose starring Jonathon Lewis Owen, Kate Jarman and Julia Davis and directed by Philip John.

Irvine Welsh and Dean Cavanagh have a number of projects in development with companies such as Channel 4, HBO and Public Pictures. One of these projects concerns youth suicide (Irvine Welsh is a patron of a youth suicide charity) and the duo hope to go into production in mid 2008 for transmission in 2009.

"Wedding Belles" a feature film written by Irvine Welsh and Dean Cavanagh that was transmitted to critical acclaim by C4 in March 2007. It stars Shirley Henderson (A Cock and Bull Story, 24 Hour Party People, Marie Antoinette) Michelle Gomez (Green Wing, Acid House), Shauna McDonald (The Descent), Kathleen McDermott (Morvern Callar) and Jonathon Lewis Owen (Dose). It is produced by Jemma Rodgers (League of Gentlemen) and directed by Philip John. Cavanagh and Welsh co-executive produced Wedding Belles.

Dean has done a number of script doctoring assignments for companies such as Endemol, Raw Pictures and Warner Bros.. Fearful of being pigeonholed, he comments that he doesn't really have a niche, but does tend to veer towards projects that challenge the viewers assumptions.

Dean and Irvine have an ambitious 3 season, six part TV series called "The Food Chain" that was developed for HBO. They now plan to make it for British TV.

In a recent interview for The Independent he said he watched hardly any British TV and that he was influenced by TV shows such as The Wire stating that it is "simply a work of art, the most compelling and truthful TV series ever made", Carnivàle, The Sopranos and The Shield. Cavanagh is an often outspoken critic of what he sees as the "moronizing" of British TV.

Cavanagh and Welsh are currently writing a feature length screenplay called "The Choir" for Granada Television 25/8/07 and developing projects with Philip John under their company Jawbone Ltd.

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