Known as “Direk or Chie” to his family and friends, Ramon is a British-Filipino-playwright who started writing church and school plays at the age of 13! Perhaps, he is the only active and prolific “pinoy” playwright in Europe, having at one stage written 3 full length plays in one year! A creative and innovative playwright, Direk Chie has written 29 unique and original plays and 2 adaptations (31 in total) ranging from drama, musical, comedy and horror-fantasy. He is the founder of Philippine Theatre UK- which is the only active British-Filipino community theatre in the Europe that produces new original plays every year in London. In February 2019, Ramon initiated an overseas project dubbed “Long Distance Learning in Theatre Arts” and created a theatre group called Theatro Pilipinas in Manila where he trained 20 volunteers from various ages and backgrounds remotely using Skype and Messenger.
Direk Chie has a master’s degree in Psychology from University of the Philippines. In London, he studied Art Therapy, Counselling and Sociology and Religion at Birbeck College, University of London. He was the first Filipino to be awarded a high-profile management training position sponsored by the Independent Theatre Council, UK. His years of hard work and dedication to help and train others to explore their creativity through theatre arts was finally acknowledged when he received the prestigious award of Outstanding Ogtonganon (leader) 2018 for championing theatre arts. In May 2019, Direk Chie received an award as “Outstanding Alumnus for his contribution in Theatre Arts” from his high school Alma mater.
Aside from writing/directing theatre plays and films, He is also an expert speaker/lecturer and coach in Theatre Arts. He provides workshops Personnel Development, Self-Confidence, Creative thinking, Team building, Leadership and theatre management using theatre arts to various groups in the UK and Abroad.
From Theatre to Film, Direk Ramon’s movie CHAINED won last November 2021 as Best Feature Film at the Falcon International Film Festival UK! He also wrote and directed his first short film KATAGMAN.