BIOGRAPHY
His breakthrough in television came after he won a Bass Charrington Fringe Award with Art Depot's production of his play 'Sweet As A Nut' in 1990, the script of which found its way onto the desk of the producer of 'Casualty'. One of the six episodes Dave went on to write - 'Give Us This Day' - featured Helen Baxendale in an early role as the victim of a religious cult and was chosen as one of the six best ever episodes put forward for the general public to vote on.
Dave's other television work amounts to over a hundred scripts for shows including Eastenders, Medics and The Bill. In the mid Nineties he joined television legend Tony Jordan to work on the Neil Morrissey vehicle 'The Vanishing Man', writing two of the six episodes that were made.
He was still pursuing acting work and In the early Nineties Dave was beginning to get noticed on television with supporting roles opposite Neil Pearson and Harry Enfield. However, now married and with a young son he put his acting career on hold to concentrate on writing.
In 1996 Dave began a long association with the New Zealand-based production company 'Cloud 9'. He was lead writer and sometime script consultant on five series of their flagship teen saga 'The Tribe' and worked on many other shows for the company, including their adaptations of 'Swiss Family Robinson' and 'William Tell'. He spent time in Hollywood working with William Shatner, (also for Cloud 9), on an adaptation of his novel 'Delta Search' and has also worked in Australia and New Zealand.
Dave has always written for children. His most recent work includes 'Dennis the Menace' , 'Thomas the Tank Engine' and 'The Adventures of Voopa the Goolash'. He has also recently co-written a pilot for a new kids' sitcom called 'Milton'. Dave now lives in Chingford North London with his partner, actress Hannah Kelly. He uses his middle name to distinguish him from various other Dave Foxes and wishes to point out that the photo above is an old one. He no longer owns that jumper.
David Richard Fox is a writer, actor and occasional theatre director with a CV as long as both his arms, (which is very long indeed). He was born (in 1954) in Tynemouth, England, to parents who met while serving in the Royal Navy. Joe Fox, Dave's dad, was a talented pianist who worked in engineering and his mum, May, held various secretarial jobs while bringing up Dave and his sister Pamela.
A Geordie by birth, Dave came south at the age of two when the family relocated to Enfield, North London and eventually Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, (Dave going to school at nearby Richard Hale in Hertford). He got a degree in Graphic Design from Kingston Polytechnic (now the University) but the lure of the stage was too great and he switched to acting, eventually writing his first stage play in 1978 at the age of 24. Since then his career has seen him appearing on, (as well as writing for), the stage, radio, and most often, television.
Lacking formal training Dave learned his craft the hard way - by putting himself in front of an audience at every opportunity and seeing what happened. His earliest plays were performed at Chats Palace, a well-known community centre and arts venue in the East End of London. There he was privileged variously to run a theatre workshop, write Christmas pantos and write and perform in his own plays with the newly-emerging 'East End Theatre Group'.
During the Eighties Dave gained a wealth of experience working for companies as diverse as Pit Prop and Action PIE, Theatre Venture, Red Shift, Covent Garden Community Theatre and Bedside Manners. In 1988 he briefly formed his own company, 'Nineteen Ninety Theatre', to produce his one-man show 'Through a Glass Onion', which he performed in various London venues.
Dave got many excellent reviews for his acting on stage and soon moved into radio where he was given lead roles in several primetime plays. He was Barry in 'Hero' by Roderick Graham, and went on to play bad boy Neville in Radio 4's soap opera 'Citizens' for a year.
Dave has won several awards for his writing. Click here.
Click here to read about Dave's Hollywood adventure.
