Desmond O'Connor (cabaret performer)

Des O'Connor was a member of the Cambridge Footlights at the same time as Mitchell and Webb, Richard Ayoade and Matthew Holness. After a year away from Cambridge, he became musical director of the Footlights at the invitation of David Mitchell. At one point, O'Connor was a Latin teacher. In 2010 he was a presenter for MTV UK at Bestival and The Big Chill. In 2009 he was composer, lyricist and musical director of Scott Mills The Musical for BBC Radio 1, working alongside co-writer Emlyn Dodd and director Patrick Wilde. Patrick Wilde directed the musical Failed States, written by Desmond O'Connor and Andrew Taylor, which won Best Book and Best Lyrics in the MTM UK musical theatre awards in Edinburgh in 2006. Failed States was revived this year for a run at St James' Theatre, London and at Latitude Festival, 2015, to mark the 10-year anniversary of the London bombings. He and Taylor also wrote the musical Toxic Bankers, which enjoyed an extended run at the Leicester Square Theatre in 2011.

O'Connor produced and starred in And the Devil May Drag You Under and Desmorphia which showed at the Brighton Festival Fringe in 2009 and 2010 respectively. And the Devil May Drag You Under has also played in Berlin and at Latitude Festival. O'Connor has made regular club and festival performances in London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Berlin and New York, and at the New York Burlesque Festival 2008. He has a growing and loyal fan base.

In 2008 he was co-producer of the Ministry of Burlesque's High Tease during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and at Glasgow's Old Fruitmarket in December. In September of that year he produced Fallen Angels with Julie-Ann Laidlaw, a show that has been subsequently produced in Berlin. With Laidlaw, O'Connor created and produced Vive le Cabaret at the Pleasance during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2010, which won Best Cabaret in the "Edinburgh Spotlight" awards.