Darren Horne

Darren was born in May 1977 in Gosport, Hampshire to a military family. His father Trevor Horne was a Commander in the Navy, and his grandfather, uncle and aunt all held various positions in the military. His two younger brothers, Stuart and Adam later joined the Royal Marines. After spending his early childhood living in Collier Row, Romford, Essex, the family moved to Plymouth, Devon when he was 10. He stayed based there until his early twenties, at first pursuing a career in the Bar Trade where he worked in a variety of well known Plymouth pubs such as The Pig and Truffle, The Two Trees and Kitty O'Hanlans. However it wasn't until he became a Bars Manager at the Theatre Royal that his passion for the arts was ignited.

This led him to enroll in a degree as a mature student at the Plymouth College of Art and Design, where he studied for a HND in Animation and Creative Media, and then achieved a First Class Honours Degree in Photomedia and Design Communication (2004). His early films were often a mix of animation and live action and he fulfilled multiple crew roles, writing, directing, producing, editing and often acting in them. From here he moved to Keswick, in the Lake District.

He began Teacher Training by enrolling on a Post Graduate Certificate in Education at Carlisle College (2005). This led to a part time job lecturing at what was the Cumbria Institute of the Arts, and later became The University of Cumbria.

Teaching at the University of Cumbria in Carlisle and Managing the independent 2 Screen Cinema, The Lonsdale Alhambra, in Penrith. He is about to start pre-production on a short film titled Conventional Thinking. [March 2009]