#producer #screenwriter #director #tvandfilm #tvseries .#motionpictures #derekdiorio #ottawafilmproducer #ottawascreenwriter #lesbleusderamville

Derek Diorio arrived in Ottawa from Montreal in the Mid-seventies to attend Carleton University. Within four years he had dropped out of Carleton but had picked up a valuable education at CKCU, Carleton’s campus radio station where he acquired a taste for broadcast media and entertainment as well as an appreciation of the vast talent available in Ottawa. It was at CKCU that he developed a desire to create and be part of an Ottawa entertainment scene. Between 1979 and 1999 he co-founded Sound Venture Productions, The Ottawa Improv League, The Skit Row comedy Troupe, The Skit Row Comedy Club, The Creative Block, Diorio Productions and Distinct Features. He started his career as a radio advertising copywriter and moved on to co-write with Dan Lalande and Rick Jones for a number of Ottawa based television series and specials (You Can’t do that on Television, The Raccoons, Skit Row). In the eighties he produced, performed and promoted several live stage shows in both the Theatre and Studio of the National Arts Centre while simultaneously developing a corporate video business. In the 90’s he started directing television shows for the then nascent Canadian specialty channels. His ultimate goal was to produce and direct features films from Ottawa with Ottawa talent. To that end he worked to develop local writers, art-directors cinematographers and crew, culminating with the production of Ottawa’s first Feature film “Two’s a Mob” in 1997. In 1999 he directed and co-produced House of Luk starring Pat Morita and Michael Moriarty. In 2000 he created a micro studio that produced 3 films - A Taste of Jupiter, Punch & Judy and The Kiss of Debt, which employed the service of hundreds of Ottawa Actors and starred Patrick McKenna, Eli Wallach, Teri Garr, Graham Greene and Ernest Borgnine. Since 2002 he has been directing French television dramas and comedies for Radio-Canada and TFO as well as developing comedy projects with CTV and CBC.

In 2009 he wrote and produced “The Quantum Tamers: Revealing our Weird and Wired Future” an innovative documentary on Quantum Physics featuring among others Stephen Hawking. The Quantum Tamers won the Prix Audace, 2009 Pariscience International Science Film Festival in Paris, France. In 2011 he finished up the 58 part comedy series Méteo+ for Cartes Blanche Films and TFO then followed that up with 2 seasons of Les Bleus de Ramville. His original series, Hard Rock Medical, co-created with Smith Corindia will air in TVO and APTN in 2013. In 2012 he was an executive Producer on the New Zealand Cannibal comedy feature film “Fresh Meat”.

His work as a producer, director, writer and performer has earned him many international awards, including a Cable Ace Award in the U.S., a Banff Television Festival Award and two Gemini nominations in Canada. In November 2007 he was inducted in the Algonquin Media Hall of Fame. In January 2008 he was presented with ACTRA’s Lorraine Ansell award of Excellence for his outstanding contribution to the Ottawa film and television community.

His children’s book The Flight of the Bumblebee, illustrated by Crystal Beshara was published by Algrove Publishing in 2007 and has sold 2,000 copies.