Darren O’Shaughnessy is an Irish author - born 2nd July 1972 in London, England - who usually writes under the pen name Darren Shan. Darren Shan is the main character in his The Saga of Darren Shan young-adult fiction series. In January 2000, Shan released Cirque du Freak, the first book of The Saga of Darren Shan series in the UK and Ireland. It became a huge global success and by 2012 his books were on sale in 39 countries, in 31 languages, and had sold in excess of twenty million copies worldwide.
He also wrote The Demonata series as well as The Saga of Larten Crepsley an offshoot of The Saga of Darren Shan. He is currenly publishing a new twelve novel series Zom-B. The first book went on sale in September 2012, and the books are being released every three months.
Universal Studios bought the film rights to the first three books of The Saga of Darren Shan and combined them to make a single film, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, released in the US on 23 October 2009. Lauren Shuler Donner produced the film and Paul Weitz directed. The original screenplay was written by Brian Helgeland but rewritten entirely by Paul Weitz.
