After writing and directing several award-winning short films, including
The Orgasm Raygun and ''Arthur's Amazing Things'', both of which featured the British actor
Leslie Phillips as the
narrator, Gooch also directed
Hollyoaks for
Channel 4 and
Doctors for
BBC1, One of his episodes won the Best Onscreen Chemistry award (2007) ITV Soap Awards.
Hollyoaks won Best Soap at the ITV Soap Awards during his tenure, after which he then went on to direct the BAFTA-winning and EMMY-nominated
Spooks Interactive. His debut feature film
Death (2012), which won Best Director, features
Linal Haft,
Emily Booth,
Leslie Phillips,
Nick Moran,
David Wayman,
Sarah Jayne Dunn,
Ben Shockley and
Brooke Burfitt and features music from
Roger Taylor of Queen and
Paul Humphreys of OMD. His second feature film
The Search for Simon premièred at the BFI Sci-Fi London Film Festival 2013, and went on to win several awards including Best Film at the Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival. It stars
Carol Cleveland,
Sophie Aldred,
Chase Masterson and
Simon Jones, as well as
Noeleen Comiskey and
Millie Reeves, with Gooch in the lead role.
The Gatehouse, his third feature, was picked up for distribution by Lionsgate and won Best Film at the London Independent Film Festival in 2016. In 2017, 25 years after his first visit to Modoc County, California in 1992, working for the US Forest Service, at the age of 19. Gooch returned to Modoc, to shoot his fourth feature film,
Atomic Apocalypse (aka
Black Flowers). It was filmed on location in Montana and North California. It had its world premiere at Sitges International Film Festival in 2018 and won Best Sci-Fi Director at World Fest-Houston; it went on to win numerous other awards and nominations. In 2018, Gooch was a winner with the Trinity Challenge backed by ARRI Media and Directors UK and wrote and directed the one-shot short film, ''A Midwinter Night's Dream'', starring
Michael McKell, filmed all in one shot using the ARRI Trinity Stabilisation system won Best Fantasy Film at the London Independent Film Festival. Other notable names he has directed include
William Mark McCullough,
Paul Freeman,
Kevin McNally,
Linsey Dawn McKenzie and
Emily Booth. He is a two time BBC New Director award winner, with short films screened all over the world including
Cannes, Edinburgh, London and also on the
BBC,
ITV,
Channel 4 and
Channel 5. Gooch's short films include ''Don't Even Think It!
(written by Jasper Fforde and starring Pippa Hinchley, Miranda Hart and Edward Rawle Hicks) and The Gravity of Belief'' (starring
Alexandria Beck and
Paul Ready), which was nominated for best film at the 5th London Short Film Festival, Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival. Gooch has a master's degree in screenwriting from The University of the Arts London, and is working on a TV series based on the legendary
Fighting Fantasy gamebook series with original creator
Ian Livingstone. Gooch currently lives in London, England. ==Works==