Dacre Stoker

Biography

Stoker was born in Montreal, Quebec. He is the great-grand nephew of Irish author Bram Stoker, the author of the 1897 Gothic novel Dracula. He lived in his childhood in Montreal, Quebec and attended the Bishop's College School. He taught for several years at Appleby College.

Stoker is a former member of the Canadian men's pentathlon team. He coached the team at the Seoul at the 1988 Summer Olympics.

Because of the Stokers' frustrating history with Dracula's copyright, Dacre, with encouragement from screenwriter Ian Holt, decided to write "a sequel that bore the Stoker name" to "reestablish creative control over" the original novel. In 2009, Dracula: The Un-Dead was released, written by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt. Both writers claim to have "based [their work] on Bram Stoker's own handwritten notes for characters and plot threads excised from the original edition" along with their own research for the sequel, though the plot and characters often directly contradict the original novel. This also marked Dacre Stoker's writing debut. Winnipeg Free Press reviewer Kenneth MacKendrick called it "tempting enough to read and bad enough to be controversial, striking a balance between sensationalism and mediocrity."

Stoker contributed to Dracula in Visual Media: Film, Television, Comic Book and Electronic Game Appearances, 1921-2010, along with Caroline Joan Picart, David J. Skal, J. Gordon Melton and John Edgar Browning.

Stoker directed, produced and wrote the 2011 documentary film Dracula meets Stoker.

Stoker with his colleague Hans C. De Roos is currently working on a Bram Stoker Dracula travel guide which will identify real-life locations mentioned in Stoker's novel as well as highlight the places Bram grew up in.

His wife, Jenne Stoker, and their two children live in Aiken, South Carolina, where he is the Executive Director of the Aiken Land Conservancy.