'IF YOU START AT THE SOURCE, YOU BECOME THE SOURCE..'
starting in tv...
'Mr. Darcy' - Darcy Thomas, began his career in TV at the age of 17 as an actor, playing the main role of "jay" in the comedy pilot "baggy trousers", which later got commissioned to become e4's "the inbetweeners”. he featured regularly in the hit comedy series (series 1 & 3) and then went on to guest feature in Noel Clarke's film "4,3,2,1”.
Taking a step back from acting, Darcy noticed that there was a major disparity between the people we see on television and the people who watch it. he wanted to make a difference, so went on to establish his own organization, which catered to putting more underprivileged young people from deprived backgrounds on TV.
He wrote, produced and directed his own award winning short films, one featured on the BBC network website, another was screened at the Vue cinema, @ the indigo o2 and one also won him and his team the MTV "you show us" award in 2009. he was then commissioned by various organisations and local authorities. He ran events, drama/dance classes, media workshops, provided young people with media resources and helped them to write business plans to become self employed.
2012 saw the rise of Mr. Darcy as on screen talent, when he toured the London comedy circuit with his improv based stand up comedy set - "I’m Mr. Darcy". performing on the black comedy circuit with the likes of kojo, poet, a squeezy, jazzie, slim, London hughes and many more. he was then invited to attend the Edinburgh TV festival and was asked to perform at the udder belly by a few BBC talent scouts. during this time, he was a sponsored comedy journalist for livity, writing a quarterly column for “somewhere_to” & “live magazine”. Shortly after he was commissioned by the shine group to create two comedy pilots.
When he returned from Edinburgh, he signed to jongleurs management as part of a comedy group. after winning jongleurs comedy idol 2012, playing "Winston" in the innovative comedy boy band "rogue 5". the group later landed a pilot deal with loaded TV and went on to feature in channel 5's "big brothers: bit on the side", sky, Asian TV and featured in publications such as loaded magazine, chortle & comedy blogedy.
He did all of this whilst working at the shine group, developing comedy with Channelflip, brown eyed boy productions and princess productions where he utilised his writing, directing and producing skills to progress behind the camera. being mentored by two comedy legends Pollyanna Mcgirr (up the creek management) and Gary Reich (brown eyed boy productions) he created shows and pilots for the BBC, sky, google & channel 4. He was also commissioned by shine to create the Mr. Darcy sketch show. this was co-written by comedy writer nick thomas (nickelodeon and more).
In 2014 Darcy was selected to be a part of Danny Cohen’s, BBC development central, where he worked across departments to develop diverse and innovative content for television and online.
In his first two years at the BBC, he assisted with various pilot projects to engage with young people, reported for on the radio for BBC newsbeat and BBC world service, assisted with the online strategy for BBC three and was commissioned to launch the first ever BBC youth initiative (in September 2015).
The BBC youth initiative is an in-house r&d tool utilised to gain a diverse younger audience perspective on talent and the content created by the BBC (helping to fix the disparity which he noticed when he began in TV from the inside).
He also finished as a finalist for " the new act of the year awards 2014" & "the musical comedy awards 2014".
INTEGRATING into music...
Leaving standup behind, Darcy became a BBC multi-media journalist, and after that he worked as a reporter/producer for beboxmusic. In both roles he created content reflecting youth and pop culture and acted as a presenter. Darcy was also selected to be a freelance creative producer at maker studio’s (a Disney company), where he developed content and products for YouTube talent, brands and broadcasters. In 2017 he was appointed as deputy editor for loaded magazine where he developed content strategy, arranged branding deal and created content. Whilst simultaneously launching the the h.o.o.d society, grime4grenfell and grime4corbyn. he also began working in partnership with redlight management to manage/consult various music talent which include the likes of dot rotten, saskilla, darq e freaker and other urban acts. He worked on BBC's 'bass beats and bars' as a talent producer and researcher, which lead him onto launching the infamous 'yo! MTV raps' brand whilst working at lemonade money. working as part of the team who produced the pilot episode and then produced season one and two of the show. 2019, Darcy got the opportunity to work with some amazing artist (creating short films - which feature on here) and was approached by MTV to series produce his own spin off show 'yo! MTV rates', which allowed him to open doors for more music and television talent in the UK. Achieving his long term goal of providing a platform for more diverse talent, making a difference in the ever-changing landscape of music and television. Now, he is using his youthful way of thinking and innovative ideas to bridge gaps between generations, cultures and classes in; order of creating more diverse content which reflects our 'mix up, mix up' society. Whilst finding outlets and working with platforms which allow better mental stability for creative people.