derren studied acting at the central school of speech and drama where he met catherine tate. he left central in 1993 and worked as a jobbing actor for 10 years appearing in shows such as "green wing", "pie in the sky", "spaced", "french & saunders", "doc martin", "eastenders", "casualty" and "perfect world" but it was not until 2003 when catherine asked derren to write sketches for her tv show. litten agreed despite having no experience in script writing, or indeed any formal qualifications at all having left hessle high school (east yorkshire) without a single o level or gcse. in 2004 derren was nominated for a bafta craft award in the category of best new writer.