Tommy Donbavand
About Author
Tommy Donbavand was born in Liverpool, but knows hardly any of The Beatles. When he was 9 years old his parents moved to Lancashire and, because they didn't trust him to forward their post, he had to go with them.
After training as a straight actor, Tommy immediately became a clown called Wobblebottom and toured the UK entertaining children. He then took to the seas and performed for several years on board Ukrainian cruise liners (he is still the only person he knows who can call bingo in Russian).
Back on dry land, Tommy joined the cast of the hit West End musical, 'Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story' as the Clearlake MC, staying with the show for a total of eight years - including stints on the UK tour and Toronto productions. He remains amazed the producers let him loose with a microphone in front of 1,000 people every night.
Shortly after the millennium, Tommy wrote four books of children's activities and projects, including 'Boredom Busters' and 'Quick Fixes For Kids' Parties'. He became a regular guest on radio shows across the UK, including BBC Radio 2's Steve Wright In The Afternoon, as the 'kids entertainment guy'.
When 'Buddy' ended, the writing took over and Tommy moved to the north of England to pen plays for a children's theatre company. Over the next few years he wrote dozens of articles for such publications as 'Junior Education' and the 'Times Educational Supplement', and also scripted five episodes of the Children's BBC series, 'Planet Cook'.
Turning to fiction, Tommy first wrote five titles in Egmont's 'Too Ghoul For School' range, and then created 'Scream Street' - a series of comedy horror novels for 7 to 10 year olds - for Walker Books. 'Scream Street' has now been more than doubled from a 6 book to a 13 book series.
Tommy's latest books include an educational drama book for Network Continuum called 'Making a Drama Out of a Crisis' and 'Zombie!' - a horror novel for struggling readers, written for Barrington Stoke.
After spending a year as the writer-in-residence at Seven Stories, the centre for children's books in Newcastle, Tommy is now proud to be the first RIF Ambassador for Reading Is Fundamental (part of the National Literacy Trust). He has started to see sleep as a waste of good writing time...
Author link
http://www.tommydonbavand.com ; http://www.screamstreet.co.uk
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