Darren O'Donnell is an urban cultural planner, novelist, essayist, playwright, director, designer, performer and the artistic director of the Mammalian Diving Reflex theatre company.

Based in Germany and Canada, Mammalian Diving Reflex is a research-art atelier conducting culturally explorative work since 1993. The artists of Mammalian are committed to social acupuncture—playful, provocative, site-specific, and social-specific participatory performances, events, moments, situations, stage-based work, gallery-based participatory installations, videos, art objects, and theoretical texts.

Darren’s work has been presented and exhibited around in cities around the world. He holds a M.Sc. in urban planning from the University of Toronto and a BFA in theatre from the University of Alberta. O'Donnell currently resides in Toronto, Ontario.