Ken Catran

Ken Catran (born 16 May 1944) is a children's novelist and television screenwriter from New Zealand.

Catran is the author of many teen novels, including Taken at the Flood, Voyage with Jason, Doomfire on Venus, Space Wolf, Jacko Moran: Sniper, Talking to Blue and its sequels Blue Murder and Blue Blood. He is perhaps best known for his Deepwater trilogy series and his contribution to the television drama Shortland Street. However, Catran became frustrated with a lack of recognition within the industry (in particular, he penned the famous line, "You're not in Guatemala now, Dr. Ropata," but has never received payment for the numerous times it has been used in publicity), and quit television altogether. Although he did not start writing until his thirties, he has become a prolific and varied writer within the New Zealand literary community.

Ken's television credits include soap operas (Radio Waves, Close to Home) as well as stand-out episodes in the TV drama Mortimer's Patch including two episodes that were the most watched TV programme in New Zealand in their respective weeks: a feat that is unlikely to be repeated.

He also penned Under the Mountain, an 8-episode treatment of the Maurice Gee novel, and in 1981/1982 researched and wrote the critically well-received Hanlon - a biographical law drama. The opening episode treating sympathetically the Minnie Dean case received outstanding reviews.

He resides in Waimate, a township in South Canterbury, New Zealand.

In 1986, Catran won the Drama Script category in the Listener Television Awards (also called the GOFTA Awards) for the first episode of Hanlon, In Defence of Minnie Dean.

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