His friendship with Clive Barker dates back to 1974 when, introduced by a mutual friend, he joined Barker's fledgling theatre troupe, an avant-garde collective which would eventually become known as The Dog Company and which also included Doug Bradley (future horror icon "Pinhead"). He worked on various stage productions over the next six years, and as Faust was flayed alive in Barker's short film, THE FORBIDDEN (1978). After leaving the Company in 1980, he trod the boards for another half a decade as a composer, musician and singer with his band The Chase before establishing himself as an author and screenwriter.

Peter Atkins has published two novels, MORNINGSTAR (1992) and BIG THUNDER (1997), and the short fiction collection WISHMASTER AND OTHER STORIES (1999) His work has appeared in FEAR, DEMONS AND DEVIANTS, SKULL: THE MAGAZINE OF DARK FICTION, WEIRD TALES, THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, CEMETERY DANCE and a number of award-winning anthologies, including THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW HORROR, DON'T TURN OUT THE LIGHT, THE MUSEUM OF HORRORS and 365 SCARY STORIES. He has also contributed essays to the non-fiction studies THE HELLRAISER CHRONICLES, CLIVE BARKER'S SHADOWS IN EDEN, CUT! HORROR WRITERS ON HORROR FILM, PANDEMONIUM, THE TIGER GARDEN, DANCING WITH THE DARK, MY FAVORITE HORROR STORY, HORROR: ANOTHER 100 BEST BOOKS and CINEMA MACABRE.

Along with fellow horror authors Glen Hirshberg and Dennis Etchison, he co-founded The Rolling Darkness Revue, an annual Halloween reading and music tour of bookstores on the West Coast. Two chapbooks containing his work and that of others, DARKNESS RISING (2005) and AT THE SIGN OF THE SNOWMAN'S SKULL (2006), have been produced to accompany the tours by Earthling Publications.

However, Peter Atkins is perhaps best known for his work in the cinema, and it is for his contributions to the visual arts that we are delighted to welcome him to World Horror Convention 2007 as our Special Media Guest of Honour.

In 1988 he scripted HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II, the first sequel to Clive Barker's ground-breaking horror film franchise, and he continued the exploits of Pinhead and his demonic Cenobites in HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH (1992) and HELLRAISER: BLOODLINE (1996). The following year he created his own franchise character when he wrote WISHMASTER. So far there have been three movie sequels based on his characters—and Atkins himself revisited the franchise in an unusual manner when he adapted the first movie into the stage musical THE DJINN (2001), complete with cockney Vaudevillians and Commedia dell'Arte clowns with electric guitars.

Other features he has co-scripted include FIST OF THE NORTH STAR (1995) and PRISONERS OF THE SUN (2007), and he has also written for such cable TV series as INSIDE OUT ('The Leda' and 'The Freak', both 1992) and PERVERSIONS OF SCIENCE ('Planely Possible', 1997). He has recently completed a screenplay for Oscar-winning director Errol Morris.

Building the sets for Prisoners of the Sun

As an actor, Atkins played Rick the Barman/Barbie Cenobite in HELLRAISER: HELL ON EARTH, appeared alongside Jason Alexander and Edward Asner in the Oscar-nominated short DOWN ON THE WATERFRONT, and made cameo appearances in the low budget horror spoofs THE DEVIL'S DUE AT MIDNIGHT (2004) and THE NAKED MONSTER (2005). He has also been featured in various episodes of the TV series 100 YEARS OF HORROR (1996), as well as the DVD documentaries HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II—LOST IN THE LABYRINTH (2000) and the recent KARLOFF, THE GENTLE MONSTER (2006) and LUGOSI, THE DARK PRINCE (2006), which appear on the 75th Anniversary editions of Universal's classic FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA, respectively.

Peter Atkins as Rick the Barman	Peter Atkins as Barbie Cenobite

Peter Atkins has twice been nominated for the British Fantasy Award and has served as a judge for the World Fantasy Awards.