For over thirty years, Darren has written, directed, and taught for stage and film. For twenty-one years, Darren directed The Miracle Worker at Helen Keller’s Birthplace, internationally recognized production and the Official Outdoor Drama for the State of Alabama. Darren wrote and directed the short film, A Fix, starring the late Skye McCole Bartusiak and Emmy nominated actress Julianna Mauriello. In 2006, Darren was fortunate enough to have an hour long drama entitled, Succession, optioned by NBC/Universal, which gained his admittance into the Writers Guild of America. Recently, he served as a story producer for a major streaming network. Darren continues to conduct speaking engagements on education and writing.

In 2022, Darren was a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill production award for his writing on the new musical, Out of the Blue. The play had an industry reading in New York City last summer for potential producers. His stage musicals - Runaway Home and We The People have been produced around the country, and two of the monologues from Runaway Home were published in Young Women’s Monologues from Contemporary Plays #2 edited by Gerald Ratliff. Recently, his short screenplays of Teddy and The Last Mile were finalists in the Big Shoulder Film Festival in Chicago. His writing for television and film won at the Virgin Cinefest, Rome Independent Prisma Awards, and the Festigious Los Angeles Festival.

Runaway Home had an industry reading in the fall of 2023 at Theatre Row in New York City. www.runawayhomethemusical.com The producing team will continue to develop the stage musical for a world premiere production in the United States, but they are looking at the UK for its first commercial run. Darren continues to develop the limited television series based on the source material.

As an author, Butler has written four books in the Abbie, Girl Spy series - The Case of the Missing Locket, The Ducks and Diamonds Mystery, The Secret of Crybaby Hollow, and The Masterpiece. Additionally, he published a children’s fantasy novel entitled Merlin’s Curse and Helen Keller - Leader Without Sight or Sound for Seacoast Publishing. His professional book Countdown to Assessment trained teachers how to prepare students for the Alabama Direct Assessment on Writing for 5th, 7th, and 10th grade students. His literacy research led to the release of RIP & Write - Integrating Reading Comprehension. The new year will bring the long-awaited fifth book in the Abbie Girl Spy series - The Alchemist’s Secret.

For twenty years, Darren served as the director and acting teacher for The Backstage Theatre Company. The professional side of the organization spent seven years touring educational theatre into schools across the South. In the studio, Darren taught hundreds of students, many who went on to work in professional theatre and film or pursue a teaching career in high schools or the university level.

Working as an educational consultant, Darren helped Alabama schools raise their scores on the Alabama Direct Assessment on Writing and the ARMT. Schools under his guidance went from  8 - 42% to 90 - 100%. Butler founded Virtual Village Classroom and created Weekly Writer,  an online curriculum resource for teachers based on his field research in training teachers how to teach writing. For four years, he served as the CEO of Creative Development.

Darren taught theatre in Florence City Schools for three years. Later, Darren served as the Fine Arts Director and theatre teacher for Orange Beach High School and Middle School for three years.

He holds an MFA from Point Park University in Writing for the Screen and Stage.

Darren lives on the Gulf Coast with his wife, Freda and their four children, Evie Rosa, Jack, Hans, and Coco.