Damian Le Bas is a prizewinning, bestselling and critically acclaimed writer, filmmaker and artist based in the UK.
His second book The Drowned Places: Diving in Search of Atlantis is published by Chatto & Windus in April 2025, available in all good bookshops and as a Penguin audiobook and eBook.
Praise for The Drowned Places: “The most compelling and evocative of underwater odysseys” - KATE HUMBLE “An enthralling exploration of the liminal - breathtakingly good” - TRISTAN GOOLEY “The most captivating book on diving that I have ever read” - MENSUN BOUND “A compelling dual journey … brings the ancient myths and stark realities of the ocean vividly to life” - SOPHIE ELMHIRST “A wonderful interweaving of diving and exploration with coming to terms with grief, beautifully written and endlessly fascinating” - DAVID GIBBINS “A powerful and superbly profound book … Le Bas is a fantastic writer and this book an intense and unforgettable journey underwater” - ROB COWEN
Damian’s bestselling, critically acclaimed first book The Stopping Places: A Journey Through Gypsy Britain won the Somerset Maugham Award, a Society of Authors Travelling Scholarship and a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award. It was BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week and a Scotsman Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for the St
For his film work, Damian has received a Royal Television Society diversity award and been longlisted for a Grierson Award. His short films have been screened at the BFI and various international film festivals.
Damian is widely published as a journalist and poet, with bylines in Granta, The Literary Review, The Guardian, Tate Etc, Magma, Test Centre, Raw Vision, GQ and others.
His visual art has been exhibited at the Prague Biennale, Wiener Festwochen, the Ake Dikhea Festival of Romani Film, and Glastonbury Festival, where he has also performed. He has taught creative writing for the Arvon foundation and been guest lecturer at various universities in the UK and US.
Damian is represented by Eve White Literary Agency (books and periodicals) and 42 Management (film and television work).
CV / BIO
2025 - second book The Drowned Places - Diving in Search of Atlantis published by Chatto & Windus
2024 - Feature film project (fiction) selected for EFM/Berlinale Toolbox Programme at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival
2024 - writer/director of seven short films for Realities Checked project on Roma and Travellers as victims of crime and harassment, based on research conducted by the London School of Economics, University of East Anglia and University of Plymouth
2023 - commissioned spoken word performance at Glastonbury Festival
2022 - awarded an Honorary Master of Education by the University of Chichester
2022 - writer, short animated film Change the Week performed by Stephen Fry
2020-23 - cultural and Romani language consultant on UK TV drama series Peaky Blinders and Ackley Bridge
2021 - writer, short animated film Memory Boxes (dir. Hamze Bytyci), DE
2020 - director, short film Riley Smith: Portrait of an English Gypsy Tapdancer selected for ERIAC digital archive of the Roma, DE
2019 - writer, short animation Roads From The Past, UK
2019 - writer/presenter, BBC4 documentary A Very British History: Romany Gypsies (60', dir. Adam Keelan), UK. Longlisted for the Grierson Award for best documentary presenter
2019 - jury member, Ake Dikhea festival of Romani film, Berlin, DE
2018 - first book The Stopping Places: a Journey through Gypsy Britain published by Chatto & Windus. Winner: Somerset Maugham Award, Jerwood Award, Royal Society of Literature Travelling Scholarship. BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. Shortlisted for Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year. Longlisted for Wainwright Prize and Jhalak Prize. UK
2016 - writer, short film The Oldest Show on the Road, winner, Royal Television Society Midlands Diversity Award. UK
2015 - mentor, BUVERO Roma women's film workshops, Nagykörös, HU
2014 - short film screening at BFI Southbank, London, UK
2014 - short live action/animated film Chuvihoni (dir. D & D Le Bas), Animate Projects commission with support of Arts Council England. UK
2013 - short film prize jury, Film Festival Cottbus, DE
2012 - founder member of International Romani Film Commission, DE
2012 - short film Rokkerenna (dir. w/ Phillip Osborne) screened at Motovun film festival, HR
2011 - short film Witchfinder (dir. w/ Phillip Osborne), Latitude Contemporary Art Prize selection. UK
2011-2015 - editor, Travellers' Times, UK. Regular contributor to national and international broadcasters specialising in issues affecting Roma and Traveller communities
2009-2011 - writer/actor, Atchin Tan drama series, BBC Radio (national and local), created by Dan Allum. First ever drama series created and performed by Romani Travellers in the UK
2007 - visual artwork and journals exhibited at Prague Biennale, Prague, Czech Republic
2006 -present - regularly published as journalist, poet and dramatist with bylines in Granta, The Literary Review, The Guardian, Tate Etc, Raw Vision, GQ Style, and others
2003-06 - Richard Southern scholarship to study at Oxford University. BA (Hons) First Class, Theology; St John’s College Scholar; Denyer & Johnson Prize for highest First in year. Papers in Greek, Hebrew, Archaeology in relation to the Bible
1996 - bursary to study at Christ's Hospital school, UK
b. 1985, Sussex, England, UK