Biography

Les Branson began his career in entertainment when he co-founded Thin Dime Theater Company in Dallas, Texas in 1992 and as artistic director wrote, produced and directed his original plays and adaptations. Among them are the play Warboots, which he premiered in 1993 at the Hickory Street Annex near Deep Ellum in Dallas. He followed in 1994 with Dead or in Huntsville, a biker drama, at the theater company's new home, the Swiss Avenue Theater Center. In 1996, Branson produced 3 Violent Plays, a vignette of three short plays, among them his original adaptation, Joey, which he adapted from the biography of the same name of New York mobster, Joey (Crazy Joe) Gallo, written in 1973 by Donald Goddard. Next was Hillbilly Karma which Branson wrote, produced and directed in 1997.

In 1998 he started Dilligaf Productions, an ultra-low budget movie production company based in Dallas.

Les wrote his first feature-length screenplay, Blood is Thicker, which he directed and co-produced with Samuel H. Roden and David C. Dixon. Blood is Thicker was filmed in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area during eighteen consecutive days of summer in 1998 with a 16mm camera. The film editing was never completed and the project was abandoned until 2024 when new production funds, new transfers of the footage and a new edit enabled Dilligaf to complete the feature film.

While learning the craft of screenwriting, Branson wrote a screen version of Dead or in Huntsville, and followed that with Joey & Jeffie, a feature-length adaptation based on Donald Goddard's biography of Joey Gallo. He has both a 4-hour version of Joey & Jeffie and a 2-hour version registered with the Writers Guild of America West. Other screenplays he has copyrighted are Junkyard Dog and King Lear and the Indians, based on a story by Dan Burkarth.

In 2005, Branson wrote the feature-length drama Having My Baby which he independently produced with executive producer, Samuel H. Roden, and co-producer and director of photography David C. Dixon. The film cost approximately $80,000 to complete. Having My Baby premiered July 2009 in Dallas. It was a selection at the 3rd Annual Columbia Gorge International Film Festival in Vancouver, Washington in 2010, where it won an award for Most Ambitious Film.
- IMDb mini biography by: Les Branson