Ian worked as a film journalist, interviewing many big Hollywood names, before starting to write for theatre in 2009. His play, ‘Sherica’, was selected for the 2011 24:7 Manchester Theatre Festival where it won both Best Play and the Audience Choice Award. It was also selected for the Library Theatre’s Re:Play festival and won a prestigious Manchester Theatre Award.
‘Sherica’ also led to Ian being short-listed for the BBC’s Alfred Bradley Bursary Award and he is currently a member of BBC Writersroom’s Northern Writers Group. His stage adaptation of ‘The Best’, an unfilmed Jack Rosenthal screenplay about George Best, won a Manchester Theatre Award in 2013. Other plays include ‘Wednesday’, ‘Big Sid’ – another Rosenthal adaptation – and ‘South’, the latter developed with the support of Arts Council England and the Peggy Ramsay Foundation.
For the screen, Ian has written a trio of short films – Balance, One of the Crowd and The Ghosts of Abercwmboi. He is currently under commission from Movie Mogul Ltd to write a trilogy of films entitled The Skindred Chronicles, fantasy/sci-fi movies aimed at teens and young adults.
In addition, Ian has a number of drama projects in development with various production companies, for audio, TV and film.
He continues to work as a freelance journalist – mainly on film – and has written for a wide variety of publications and websites including Empire, Hotdog, SFX, FilmFour, Musicweek, The North Guide, The Leeds Guide, The Big Issue and is a regular contributor to Video On Demand site VODzilla.co — his reviews and articles here.
Based in Cheshire, Ian also works as a visiting lecturer at the University of Chester, delivering modules on Scriptwriting and Film Studies.