Aaron is a queer, working-class scriptwriter born and raised on a council estate in Bermondsey, south-east London.
His childhood wasn’t the easiest. His mum worked multiple jobs to look after the family, at times all six of them in their two-bedroom flat. Growing up in Bermondsey taught Aaron a lot of vital life lessons, like the importance of resilience and having a thick skin and how to run in platform shoes. He’s proudly working-class and very close to his family.
Aaron didn’t go to secondary school; overcrowding and a shortage of spaces across the schools in the city meant he was left on waiting lists and eventually forgotten by local authorities. The family couldn’t afford private schooling or tutoring, and so for five years Aaron was left at home.
There wasn’t much else for him to do except to watch tv and film and read as much as he could. Aaron started teaching himself on subjects he found interesting based on what he read and saw. His love for tv and film started when he would stay up late watching films (that he was probably way too young for) and repeats of old tv shows. He fell in love with any and everything written by Terry Pratchett, and watching Russell T Davies’s Doctor Who era made him hellbent on one day writing for and show-running the show.
When he saw the first episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race, watching in secret in his room at night with the volume turned down to almost zero so no one would hear, that Aaron’s queer education started. He learned everything he could about queer culture and media, from Stonewall and Marsha P. Johnson, to Paris is Burning and Queer as Folk. Having no real social life, he less lonely knowing there were people like him in the world even if he didn’t have access to them yet.
Because he was able to tailor his own sort of guerrilla education, Aaron built up a titanic and eclectic wall of influences like Leigh Bowery, Lady Gaga, Maya Angelou, Hayao Miyazaki, Isabella Blow, Russell T Davies, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
Aaron first tried out writing for himself in his early teens. He wrote his first (terrible) novel manuscript at 15, and a second (a bit better) at 17. Being more attracted to visual storytelling, he taught himself how to format and write scripts, and hasn’t stopped since. He reaslised this was what he wanted to do.
As soon as he was old enough Aaron enrolled in local college studying film, tv and media. But by then he knew he was wasting time working for qualifications he wouldn’t need. Despite being top of the class and a double-distinction student, Aaron dropped out of college and took a part-time job in a supermarket to focus on writing properly.
He wrote his first feature film at 19; DESTINATION: DEWSBURY was a dark comedy commission that premiered at the 2018 Beverly Hills Film Festival and was released theatrically by Showcase Cinemas in 2019. Also in 2019, Aaron’s comedy script GAY BOY PROBLEMS made it to the top 2% in the BBC Writersroom comedy window, was shortlisted for Channel 4’s 4stories scheme and was nominated for All3Media’s New Script Award. It has since been optioned by Zeppotron.
Aaron loves fashion and turning out looks, and makes most of the clothes he wears himself. To him there’s no reason why even just popping into Tesco shouldn’t be treated like the Met Gala.
Aaron’s unique experiences growing up have given him a clear idea of what he wants to do and achieve with his career. He wants to write exciting, diverse, alternative stories, he wants to create must-see moments across various styles and genres, while always representing and showcasing the queer community in everything he does.