Tommy Donbavand (28 November 1967 – 14 May 2019) was an English actor, teacher and writer from

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, best known for his books and comics for children, such as ''Scream Street''. He often wrote under pseudonyms.

Background

Donbavand had a varied career which saw him working as a

clown A clown is a person who performs physical comedy and arts in an Improvisational theatre#Comedy, open-ended fashion, typically while wearing distinct cosmetics, makeup or costume, costuming and reversing social norm, folkway-norms. The art of ...

, a holiday camp entertainer and a performer in '' Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story'' in

London's West End The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, England, in the London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster. It is west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, in which ma ...

. He also ran acting and writing classes, wrote, produced and directed a number of theatre productions, and wrote a series of non-fiction books in his ''Quick Fixes for Bored Kids'' series.

Career

In 2006, Donbavand began writing as B. Strange for the ''Too Ghoul For School'' book series, published by Egmont. This led to his own series – '' Scream Street'' – being picked up by Walker Books. The first in this series of thirteen novels – ''Scream Street: Fang of the Vampire'' – was published in October 2008. In 2015, it was adapted into an

animated television series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...

, produced by Coolabi Productions, which began airing on

CBBC CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...

. Donbavand wrote a number of episodes. A second series was confirmed in 2020. In April 2013, his ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' novel '' Shroud of Sorrow'' featuring the

Eleventh Doctor The Eleventh Doctor is an incarnation (otherwise known as regeneration) of the Doctor, the protagonist of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He is played by Matt Smith in three series as well as five specials. As wi ...

and Clara Oswald was published by

BBC Books BBC Books (also formerly known as BBC Consumer Publishing and BBC Publishing) is an imprint majority-owned and managed by Penguin Random House through its Ebury Publishing division. The minority shareholder is BBC Studios, the commercial subsidia ...

. He also co-wrote the ''Shadow Vanguard'' series of science fiction books under the pseudonym of Tom Dublin. Donbavand wrote for ''

The Beano ''The Beano'' (formerly ''The Beano Comic'') is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it published its 4000th issue in August 2019. Popular and ...

'' comic, initially starting with strips for Calamity James,

Gnasher and Gnipper Gnasher () is a fictional comic strip character that appears in the British comic magazine ''The Beano''. He is the pet dog of Dennis the Menace, who meets him in 1968's issue 1362, and is also the star of three spin-off comic strips. Gnasher ...

and

The Bash Street Kids ''The Bash Street Kids'' is a comic strip in the British comic magazine '' The Beano''. It also appeared briefly in The Wizard as series of prose stories in 1955. The strip, created by Leo Baxendale as ''When the Bell Rings!'', first appear ...

. Six months later, he was made the main writer for The Bash Street Kids. He also worked on the ''Badger Graphic Novels'' range, aimed at struggling readers. In 2015 and 2016, he also wrote for '' Doctor Who Adventures'' magazine including two Doctor Who comic strips and three Doctor Who spin-off short stories featuring the Paternoster Gang. He wrote another children's series, ''Fangs, Vampire Spy'', as well as the writing handbooks ''13 Steps to Beating Writer's Block'' in 2015, ''101 Stunning Story Starters'' in 2017, and ''101 Quick and Quirky Questions'' in 2018.

Cancer and death

In March 2016, Donbavand was diagnosed with inoperable, stage four throat cancer. He died from the illness in May 2019. In July 2020, his ''

'' short audio play, ''What Lurks Down Under'' was released posthumously by

Big Finish Productions Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and radio drama, audio plays (released straight to compact disc and for download in MP3 and m4b format) based, primarily, on science fiction properties. These include ''Doctor Who'' ...

as part of ''Time Apart'', starring

Peter Davison Peter Malcolm Gordon Moffett (born 13 April 1951), known professionally as Peter Davison, is an English actor. He made his television acting debut in 1975 and became famous in 1978 as Tristan Farnon in the BBC's television adaptation of Jame ...

as the

Fifth Doctor The Fifth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He is portrayed by Peter Davison. Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien Time Lord ...

Bibliography

* ''Too Ghoul For School'' (2007–2008) * '' Scream Street'' (2008–2011) *''Wolf'' (2011) *''Uniform'' (2012) *''

'' ** '' Shroud of Sorrow'' (2013) ** ''The Ministry of Time'' (2015) ** ''Shock Horror'' (2016) ** ''The Importance of Being Strax'' (2016) ** ''The Terror of the Thames'' (2016) ** ''The Curious Case of the Miniature Menaces'' (2016) ** ''Time Apart'' (2020) *''Tommy Donbavand's Funny Shorts'' *''Teen Reads'' **Home **Kidnap **Ward 13 **Dead Scared **Just Bite **Copy Cat **Raven *''Gems'' **The Terrible Tale of Melody Doom **Once Upon a Time... *''Fangs, Vampire Spy'' (2013–2014) **Operation: Golden Bum **Codename: The Tickler **Assignment: Royal Rescue **Target: Nobody **Project: Wolf World **Mission: Lullaby *''Space Hoppers'' *''Time Trek'' *''13 Steps to Beating Writer's Block: Free your creativity today!'' (2015) *''Snow-Man'' (2016) *''101 Stunning Story Starters'' (2017) *''101 Quick and Quirky Questions'' (2018) *''Shadow Vanguard'' (2018–2019) **Gravity Storm **Lunar Crisis **Immortality Curse **Ultimate Payback

References

External links

*
Scream Street official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Donbavand, Tommy 1967 births 2019 deaths 21st-century English male writers 21st-century British novelists British male novelists British science fiction writers English children's writers English comics writers English horror writers English male screenwriters Writers from Liverpool Writers of books about writing fiction Writers of Doctor Who novels Deaths from throat cancer in England