Dean Houlihan was born in Dublin Ireland on April 19th 1994. He has been passionate about filmmaking since 2008 at the age of 14 when he began making short films with his friends on a cheap camcorder.
After finishing school in 2012 Dean attended and graduated various college courses related to filmmaking and has earned a total of 16 certificates relating to film production one of which is a Higher National Diploma from Colaiste Dhulaigh college, where he was taught from 2013-2015.
In 2018 Dean was awarded the chance to Direct a segment for the upcoming biography crime drama titled (Ted Bundy Had A Son) a concept created by controversial cult filmmaker Shane Ryan. This marked Dean's first studio feature length film to be involved with. Dean has since acted and worked different departments on a handful of feature films since then.
As of 2022 Dean has had a total of 11 short films screen at film festivals in Ireland, Wales, England,Spain, Italy,Turkey, France, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, USA, Canada and India totalling 58 Official Selections as a Director. Dean will also be an Associate Producer on Jason Rutherford's passion project documentary titled (Masters Of The Grind). Which is documentary detailing the Grindhouse era of cinema from the 1960's, 70's and 80's with interviews from iconic Directors and Cast and Crew of that historic film movement period.
Dean's short film "Today Is The Day" screened at the CIM Sueca Film Festival in Spain September 28th 2019. From over 25 countries and over 100 films on the schedule it was the only film from Ireland.
At the International Cultural Artifact Film Festival in Pune India his film "From Black Into Beauty" was the only official selection from Ireland amongst 109 films from 35 countries.
Dean recently won a Runner Up Award for "Best Micro Film" at the Visionaries Film Festival in Hoboken New Jersey USA in August 2019 with his short film "From Black Into Beauty".
The film also won a Special Mention Award for "Best Short" at the Lake City International Film Festival in India on December 24th 2019, which competed against 93 films in the semi finals.
Dean has won an "Outstanding Achievement Award" at the L'Age d'Or International Arthouse Film Festival in India, for his film "Odyssey of the Disturbed" in November 2019.
Then in January "Odyssey of the Disturbed" won 2 awards at Virgin Spring Cinefest for Best Director & Short Film in the Gold Category. These are his biggest achievements to date.
Two of Dean's films "Today is the Day" and "Odyssey of the Disturbed" were Semi Finalists at the 2020 Horror Movie Awards in 2020.
His short film "Odyssey of the Disturbed" became part of Shane Ryan's 80's themed feature film anthology "Awesomely Righteous & Radical" which has a special appearance PSA message from Oscar Winner Clint Eastwood.
His film "Odyssey of the Disturbed" was one of the 114 finalists at the 2020 Out of the Can International Film Festival in Derby England. Was nominated in the category for "Best B Movie" beating approximately 5,000 other films while being one of the 6 films nominated in it's category.
Dean currently works a day job as a videographer and editor for the HSE in Ireland and is always planning ahead for time to create his own films.