Career

Dormehl graduated with a BA (Hons) in theatre from Dartington College of Arts

Dartington College of Arts

Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts institution near Totnes, Devon, South West England, it specialized in post-dramatic theatre, music, choreography, Performance Writing and visual performance, focusing on a performative and multi-disciplinary approach to the arts. In addition to this,...

 in Devon. His writing has appeared in publications including The Chap

The Chap

The Chap is a British magazine published six times a year and related books edited by Gustav Temple, proposing a return to a dandified way of life, involving tweed, pipe smoking, brogues and finely pressed trousers. The magazine has featured such noted Chaps and Chapettes as Stephen Fry, Leslie...

, SFX, Fighting Spirit

Fighting Spirit

Fighting Spirit, known in Japan as , is a boxing manga and anime series created by Jōji "George" Morikawa which is serialized by Kodansha in Weekly Shōnen Magazine...

, Blues & Rhythm, Crikey!, Art South Africa, Inventor's Digest, HYPE, and The End Is Nigh

The End Is Nigh

The End Is Nigh was an annual British fanzine edited by Michael Molcher. It was launched at the Bristol Comic Expo in 2005 and, since becoming a semi-annual publication, each subsequent issue is also launched there....

. He has conducted numerous interviews with people for both print and television, including the likes of Simon Callow

Simon Callow

Simon Phillip Hugh Callow, CBE is an English actor, writer and theatre director. He is also currently a judge on Popstar to Operastar.-Early years:...

, Sir Ian McKellen

Ian McKellen

Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...

, Alain de Botton

Alain de Botton

Alain de Botton is a Swiss writer, television presenter, and entrepreneur, resident in the UK.His books and television programs discuss various contemporary subjects and themes in a philosophical style, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. In August 2008, he was a founding member...

, Lord Bath

Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath

Alexander George Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath , styled Viscount Weymouth between 1946 and 1992, is an English politician, artist and author...

, John Carpenter

John Carpenter

John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...

 and Hardeep Singh Kohli

Hardeep Singh Kohli

Hardeep Singh Kohli is a British writer and radio and television presenter.-Background:Kohli was born in London and moved to Glasgow in Scotland when he was four. His parents came to the UK from India in the 1960s. The family's roots lie in the Punjab. His mother was a social worker, and his...

.

Dormehl has directed several documentary films, most recently The Pantomime (2009): a look at behind-the-scenes turmoil in a small village panto. The film, narrated by actor Simon Callow

Simon Callow

Simon Phillip Hugh Callow, CBE is an English actor, writer and theatre director. He is also currently a judge on Popstar to Operastar.-Early years:...

, was described by director Terence Davies as 'touching and compassionate', while Film4 awarded it 4.5/5.

Dormehl also directed The Wrestling (2008), a film about British professional wrestling

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...

 featuring Kendo Nagasaki

Kendo Nagasaki

Kendo Nagasaki is a professional wrestling stage name, used as a gimmick of that of a Japanese Samurai warrior with a mysterious past and even supernatural powers of hypnosis...

, Robbie Brookside

Robbie Brookside

Robert Edward Brooks , better known by his ring name Robbie Brookside, is a British professional wrestler. He has toured all over the world during his career including such countries as the United States, Japan, Germany, and Mexico...

, Mal Sanders and Sir Jimmy Savile

Jimmy Savile

Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile, OBE, KCSG was an English disc jockey, television presenter and media personality, best known for his BBC television show Jim'll Fix It, and for being the first and last presenter of the long-running BBC music chart show Top of the Pops...

. The documentary has been praised by Beyond The Mat director Barry Blaustein, Ken Loach

Ken Loach

Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...

 and Louis Theroux

Louis Theroux

Louis Sebastian Theroux is an English broadcaster best known for his Gonzo style journalism on the television series Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends and When Louis Met.... His career started off in journalism and bears influences of notable writers in his family such as his father, Paul Theroux and...

. In the same year Dormehl directed Roy (2008), a short film about comic football hero Roy of the Rovers

Roy of the Rovers

Roy of the Rovers is a British comic strip about the life and times of a fictional footballer named Roy Race, who played for Melchester Rovers...

 which won 'best documentary' at the End of the Pier International Film Festival and screened at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival

Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

. It also played in conjunction with The Damned United

The Damned United

The Damned United is a 2009 British sports drama film directed by Tom Hooper and adapted by Peter Morgan from David Peace's bestselling novel The Damned Utd, a largely fictional book based on the author's interpretation of Brian Clough's tenure as manager of Leeds United...

in selected cinemas. Roy was nominated for 'best documentary' at the Soho Rushes film festival.

In 2009 Dormehl directed a series of documentaries for Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

, filmed across four different countries. His book A Journey through Documentary Film is due to be published in 2012 by Kamera Books. He is currently writing a book about the personal computer revolution for Virgin Books

Virgin Books

Virgin Books is a United Kingdom book publisher 90% owned by the publishing group Random House, and 10% owned by Virgin Enterprises, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company.-History:...

.

Dormehl's work was profiled in the December 2008 issue of Bizarre

Bizarre

Bizarre may refer to:*Bizarre , solo rapper as well as member of the group D12*Bizarre , Spanish rock band*Bizarre , a Canadian sketch comedy television series...

 Magazine. His name appeared in the credits of the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 documentary, Orson Welles Over Europe (2009), on which he was employed as an advisor on Orson Welles

Orson Welles

George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...

. He was the subject of an anecdote in the book, The Art of Self-Publicity.

Luke Dormehl is the great grandson of Bishop Mandell Creighton

Mandell Creighton

Mandell Creighton , was a British historian and a bishop of the Church of England. A scholar of the Renaissance papacy, Creighton was the first occupant of the Dixie Chair of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Cambridge, a professorship that was established around the time that the study...

.

External links

• http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3482466/ Luke Dormehl at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)