Derek Boyes was born in 1972 near the white cliffs of Dover. By the age of ten he had ambitions of becoming a magician within the magic circle, but being so heavily influenced by the original Star Wars trilogy his interests in film and magic brought him to special effects and by sixteen he was making spoof videos in a disused quarry as an excuse to experiment with homemade pyrotechnics, prosthetics and lots of fake blood.

The more videos he made however, the more Derek´s interest shifted again towards the filmmaking process and he was soon thinking about film school. By 1994 he had completed a National Diploma in Media Production in Harrogate and focusing solely on becoming a director, moved swiftly on to study a three year film degree at the University of Northumbria, where he wrote produced and directed a number of short films. He then gained four years experience working in the feature film industry, taking on various assisting roles, where he had the valuable opportunity to learn from a diverse range of directors, including George Lucas, Tim Burton and Robert Altman.

In 2004 Derek completed a Master of Arts in fiction direction at the National Film and Television School, graduating with his hugely successful short film, The Happiness Thief. Since then he has directed a short for the BBC and is now developing a slate of new digital feature length projects through his production company Delfilm Digital. He sees his recent move into the business side of digital film production as a natural and necessary progression in his career and one in which his entrepreneurial ambitions can flourish.