Darren started playing the drums at the age of 8. He took lessons at his local school in New Malden, Surrey and progressed to local orchestras and Big Bands. At the age of 14 he studied at Trinity College of Music Juniors, followed by Leeds College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He then went on to occupy the drum chair in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra for three years, performing all over the country, as well as appearing several times at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London and recording numerous albums with the band.

Darren played in Hyde Park as part of the live broadcast on BBC1 with Ladysmith Black Mambazo for the Queens' Golden Jubilee celebrations, working with George Martin and the late film composer Michael Kamen. He has also performed live with Clare Teal, Will Young and Gareth Gates, The Pop Idol Big Band, Patricio Buanne, Seth Lakeman, recorded music for the Opera 1984 in Covent Garden with conductor of The New York Symphony Orchestra, Lorin Mazel and has drummed for The Rat Pack Show in The West End and European tour. He has also been the house drummer at Ronnies Scotts Jazz Club.

Darren can be seen performing regularly with Sax Appeal, Clare Teal, Bob Martin, Holly Penfield, The London Jazz Orchestra, Jim Mullen, Kelvin Christian, Zena James and other jazz and pop groups throughout the country.

As well as his live playing, Darren has provided the music for numerous film soundtracks, including Ella Enchanted for Miramax films and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, in which he also appears. His television credits include Midsummer Murders (ITV) The Debt (BBC) Ready When You Are Mr Magill (ITV) The Reversals (ITV) and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Channel 4) and has recently been in the studio, recording all the music for the Jerry Anderson cartoon, Dick Spanner!

Darren co-leads a new jazz quintet called Centre-Line, with Russell Van den Berg (sax). The band are busy gigging around London and you can check out information on the band, listen to tracks, see photo's of the band live and in the studio, and also read quotes and testimonials from Peter Erskine, Jazzwise Magazine, Tim Garland, The Vortex Jazz Club and The Guarian. Click here.

Playing the drums has given Darren an opportunity to travel the world. His tours have included Argentina with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, The North Sea Jazz Festival, Holland and The Plovdiv Jazz Festival in Bulgaria. He also participates in the annual Paradise Jazz Festival in Cyprus, performing with singer Anita Wardell.

Darren also teaches drums and is currently the drum tutor for The Purcell School Of Music and The Royal Masonic School For Girls. He has given workshops at several schools and music courses around the country, including the Glamorgan, Guildhall, Royal Academy of Music Jazz Summer Schools and The Wavendon Jazz Course. In February 2002 he was invited to Cyprus by the British Council to give workshops in jazz.

Teachers studied with include Dave Hassell, Bob Armstrong, Ralph Salmins, Trevor Tomkins, Mike Smith, Tenna Lyle, Simon Purcell, Pete Churchill, and The BBC Symhony Orchestras Kevin Nutty and John Chimes.

VoiceOver Artist

Darren has a home studio and is available for voiceover work. He will deliver straight reads and narrations, Podcast introductions, commercial on-hold messages, upbeat and trendy promos, jingles and has an incredible range of charatcers, impressions and voices, perfect for wacky reads, and cartoons! He is able to read in a wide variety of styles, accents and voices and is happy to deliver scripts in a number of formats such as MP3, WAV and AIFF. As he is based in London, Darren is happy to travel to studios anywhere in London or the South East. See the VoiceOver page for more more details and to listen to his showreels.