Abel Diaz has loved the screen since he would stay up and watch Batman Returns as a sprog, laughing a little too hard when Penguin bit off the campaign advisor’s nose. Of Spanish-descent and neurodiverse, Abel writes vivid worlds with a keen interest in history, family and imagination.
Starting off with the dark comedy short Wrapped Up, snagging Best Student Film at the Kiev International Film Festival 2019, Abel parlayed his skill and personal experience when he joined the writing staff of the BAFTA-nominated CBeebies/RTE Jr. series Pablo. The series, focusing on the misadventures of a small boy with autism who uses art to solve problems, has been praised for having its writers and actors all be individuals on the autistic spectrum. He wrote two episodes, both aired in 2020: Headache Volcano, drawing from a migraine malady that lasted into his teen years, and Oink, Cluck, Neigh!, based on the social anxiety and love of anthropomorphism he had as a child.
He shot up from tykes to terror when Barry Ryan and David Walton, the heads of Free@Last TV (Agatha Raisin, the upcoming Flight of the Falcon), hired him to adapt Paul Magrs’ (Doctor Who) cult horror novels The Brenda & Effie Mysteries as a 6×60 drama (books which coutn Russell T. Davies among its fans). As a life-long pulp-fantasy/mystery/horror fan, he relished it. Beginning with the first book (and series title) Never The Bride, the wild horror-fantasy series recounts the life-after-life of the legendary Bride of Frankenstein after the events of the Shelley Novel. Set in the town of Whitby (yep, from Dracula), Brenda balances life as a BnB owner with a quaint hobby of solving the town’s supernatural goings-on. She is aided in her battles by her forever-nitpicking white witch friend and she-who-forever-sucks-lemons, Effie White.
Along the way, Abel kept picking up accolades like it was going out of fashion (red’s out, this season is teal): a Finalist on the 2019 ITV Original Voices Scheme, where he received Storylining training for Coronation Street with the story team; In 2021, the Pablo Stage Musical, which he co-wrote with several members of the Pablo writing staff including Andrew Brenner (Amazing World of Gumball, Thomas the Tank Engine), is set to premiere at the Southbank Centre in London; even got select to join BBC Children’s’ New Voices, a festival-development opportunity for newer writers to learn and develop projects for CBBC and the childrens’ television market.Abel views his heritage and disability as a valuable asset to any writers room: born to Galician migrants in the glorious 90s, he overcame poor medical diagnosis, bullying and crushing anxiety to build a career in the arts. Among his dream projects, which he could die happy working on, are Doctor Who, an Adventures of Tintin sequel and the many stories of Spanish migrants through the ages.