Daf James

(He/Him/They/Them)

Daf’s breakthrough project is the scripted television drama Lost Boys & Fairies.

Making the transition from theatre to screen can be an arduous journey, as Welsh creator, writer, composer, performer and novelist Daf James discovered. Following an English Literature degree from Edinburgh and a doctorate in Theatre Studies from the University of Warwick, Daf built a successful career as a playwright, composer, and performer, but found breaking into English-language television tricky. Over the next decade, he would win a Total Theatre Award for his alter-ego Sue, write several critically acclaimed plays, as well as 10 episodes of the show Gwaith/Cartref (2012-2015), but it took a long time to land his first full commission, Lost Boys and Fairies (2024, BBC).

This three-part drama combines many of the themes that have made his theatre work so popular – everything from tackling identity politics and marginalised voices to being Welsh and complex family dynamics – to paint a bold, humorous and poignant portrait of queerness, parental responsibility and love. What clearly shines through is Daf’s passion for writing characters empathetically, with the story’s philosophical themes providing a vital way to portray and process often difficult life experiences, an aspect of the show that connected deeply with its devoted audience.

In their own words…

“The responses we’ve had to Lost Boys and Fairies, and the way people have shared their own stories, feels like magic to me… Telling stories is a way of not feeling lonely anymore. If you put your own lived experience onscreen, it can connect with people. It’s a really powerful medium and it’s something I don’t take lightly. Most people want to tell their story. Most people want to be seen, to be heard, and to be understood. The fact I get to do that for a living is a real privilege.”