Dris Wright was the second-in-command of the Summerhouse gang in Hackney, London. In Dushane Hill's absence between September 2012 and September 2019, Dris was the leader of the Summerhouse gang.
In 2018, due to chronic abuse of nos, Dris suffered a stroke that left him prone to seizures, Seen as a liability and increasingly patronized in the gang, Dris betrayed Dushane and Gerard "Sully" Sullivan to the rival London Fields gang. The two however survived the ambush, and days later, Sully executed Dris on the roof of his apartment complex.
Biography[]
Not much is known about Dris' life but he was likely born and raised in Hackney, London. At some point before the birth of his daughter in 2005, Dris began going out with Mandy. By 2005, Mandy was facing a robbery charge and gave birth to Erin while incarcerated. After a year or two in a prison nursery, Erin was placed into Dris' care and raised in the Summerhouse Estate. Mandy was released from prison in either 2010 or 2011, but shortly thereafter was given a manslaughter charge due to joint enterprise. Mandy was yet again sentenced to prison, eventually being released in October 2019.
Sometime prior to March of 2011, Dris joined the Summerhouse gang and quickly rose through the ranks to become the second-in-command, serving under Dushane Hill and Gerard "Sully" Sullivan.
Season 1[]
Dris is first shown, hanging out with Sully and Dushane. The trio then run to help the rest of the crew after a rival gang, robbed but they got away in time, Kamale and the crew rob them again. With the crew thinking that Gem was the leak of the stash house Dris comes to his school to confront him but runs away he continues to chase him, he bullies Ra'Nell to get information on Gem but gets stopped.
When Dushane and Sully find out where Kamale is staying Dris comes with them to kidnap Kamale. Dris stabs Dwight in the arm with a cleaver, as they take him to a quiet place they bury him and then Kamale tells them where the stolen drugs are, Dushane and Sully go on their way there and Dris beats up Kamale before he kills and buries him. The next morning knowing that Gem wasn't the one who leaked to Kamale, Dris tries to make up to Ra'Nell and succeeds to make up to Gem for what happened.
When Dushane accepts Ra'Nell's offer for the cannabis deal only once, Sully talks with Dris to rob Ra'Nell instead. Leon comes to try to rescue Ra'Nell when Dris and Sully rob the weed off him but Sully kills Leon and they flee. Sully is kicked out of the crew because of this and Dushane makes Dris his number 2.
Season 2[]
With Sully excommunicated from the crew by Dushane, Dris now serves as Dushane's 2nd in command. In the beginning of season 2 Dris starts taking his daughter to school, he gets stopped by the police for the murder of Kamale when the police find his body. Dushane also gets arrested but they both got let off as Kayla becomes a friend to the crew although she also gets arrested and gets interrogated. There are posters around Summerhouse about Kamale's murder, and when Dris sees the posters he advises to Dushane and tells him that they are never going to let that go.
When Kayla comes home after being arrested, Dris comes with one of the drug dealers of the crew to drop off Elijah to reunite with his mother for keeping her mouth shut about the Kamale murder. Dushane tells Dris that the London Fields member, Dwight, who was with Kamale the night of the murder was shot dead at a New Year's party. Dris takes Erin to come and see her mother in prison Mandy who is Dris' girlfriend, he lets her know about the Kamale murder and how he may be banged up in jail about Kayla being arrested. Mandy is very upset about it as she is worried about what will happen to Erin.
Dris comes with Dushane to confront Vincent for beating up Ra'Nell but Mustapha then comes through and stabs Vincent to his death and he also comes with Dushane and Sully also reunites with them to rob the Albanians who robbed them to retrieve back the drugs and money.
Season 3[]
6 years later, Dris had a stroke previously before season 3, he occasionally has seizures, while Dushane is in Jamaica, Dris is now the de facto leader in the Summerhouse estate, Jaq serves as his 2nd in command and occasionally has a couple who ask for tick for drugs which they are occasionally told to f*** off by Dris and Jaq, these 2 couples happen to be CID. When Dushane returns to Summerhouse to take back leadership, Dris returns as 2nd in command until Sully comes back after the death of his friend (and surrogate son) Jason, Dris lets Dushane stay as long as he wants in his flat, along with his daughter Erin who has a less relationship with her father.
Dris becomes a liability to the crew along with falling asleep from his seizure in his car while waiting on Dushane when he is robbing a house to find money, also not taking his meds and so Dushane drops him back and leaves Jaq to be 3rd in charge of the crew which Dris gets more disloyal.
In the 9th episode Dris is dropping off his daughter at school who gets approached by Jermaine (Sully's estranged cousin) and then Dris sells Dushane and Sully out to Jermaine and escaped prisoner Modie and also sells his friends out to Jamie who was the leader of the fields who were at war with Summerhouse.
Dushane and Sully evaded both attacks and they find out Dris was the one who sold them out, Sully comes to Dris and takes him to a rooftop, Sully kills Dris and his story comes to an end. The police update Dris's status to "missing" on their Summerhouse case file. His daughter Erin is taken by social services. After his disappearance, burglars pillage Dris's flat.
Season 4[]
Sully visits Summerhouse and feels guilty for killing Dris. He finds out Mandy is released from prison and Erin is in care. He helps Mandy get a job so she can reclaim Erin from Social Services, although she suspects Sully killed Dris.
Season 5[]
Erin is now living with her mum in Summerhouse and goes to school with Stefan. There, she talks to him about her father Dris and his disappearance. She notes that the Police have deemed him as missing, but she believes he was murdered by Sully. Dris’s murder was finally avenged when unknown assailant shoots Sully in the head.
Kill count[]
Murders committed by Dris[]
- Marnie: Hung by the neck to send a message to Gem on Sully's orders. (14/3/2011)
- Kamale Lewis: Shot in the head for robbing the gang regularly on Dushane & Sully's orders. (14/3/2011)
Murders connected to Dris[]
- Leon: After Leon defended Ra'Nell in a fight with Sully & Dris, Sully then shoots Leon in the stomach. (16/3/2011)
- Collins: Stabbed in the throat by Dardan when Dardan and the Albanians went looking for Dushane, after Sully went with Dushane, Dris and Shaheed to retrieve Joe's drugs back what Dardan stolen. (24/9/2012)
- Michael: Thrown off the flat balcony by Dardan when Dardan and the Albanians went looking for Dushane, after Sully went with Dushane, Dris and Shaheed to retrieve Joe's drugs back what Dardan stolen. Michael sacrificed himself to save Dushane. (24/9/2012)
- Ricky: Dris took Jermaine's offer decided to betray the gang by telling Jermaine where Dushane and Sully's safe house was, which then Jermaine shot Ricky in the chest. (10/10/2019)
- Gerry: Dris took Jermaine's offer decided to betray the gang by telling Jermaine where Dushane and Sully's safe house was, which then Modie shot Gerry in the shootout. (10/10/2019)
Behind the scenes[]
Dris serves as the tritagonist in the first second, and third series, the posthumous overarching protagonist of the fourth series, and a mentioned character in the fifth series of Top Boy. He is portrayed by Shone Romulus.
In an interview following the finale of the fifth series, Romulus noted that in the version of the show that viewers have watched, Dris is not officially deceased and instead "missing". According to Romulus, Dris was written out of the show due to failed salary negotiations between his management team and Netflix. Romulus learned Dris was going to be killed at the end of the third season when reading the script for the first time.
According to Romulus, this was a divisive decision among the production team and an agreement was reached that wanted to rewrite Dris's final on-camera appearance in a way that left it "open for interpretation". In the final standoff between Dris and Sully, Dris tells Sully to shoot him, and the camera pans forward where both Dris and Sully are out of the frame as Sully fires once, despite Ralph claiming Dris was shot 20 times. Notably, although you can hear other sounds from the landscape of the scene, the viewer does not hear any type of struggle or sounds one would assume to hear after someone is shot, which suggests Sully may have helped spared Dris and helped him escape Dushane and Summerhouse. However, Dris' death is confirmed in writer Ronan Bennett's novel Jaq: A Top Boy Story.
After Dris disappears, the police working on the Summerhouse case updated Dris's status as "Missing". Romulus notes when they originally shot the scene, they changed Dris's status to "Deceased" by putting a red X through his photograph, but re-shot the scene to honor the agreement they made with Romulus. Although Romulus campaigned to keep Dris's death open for interpretation, Romulus has denied having any interest in participating in potential spin-offs or playing the role of Dris going forward.
Appearances[]
- Bruk Up
- Building Bridges
- Big Flame
- Bonfire Night
- Smoke Gets In Your Hands
- Press Gang
- The Squeeze
- Bad Eye
- Everyone's Got Family
- You Don't Know Me (deceased)
Trivia[]
- Dris is the English version of Julio Ramano and Andre Coleman in TV series Power.
- Top Boy of Shone Romulus playing Dris was his first acting role.
- Dris was the first character to commit a proper murder being Kamale, Sully killed first but was accidental.
- Dris had a stroke in 2018.
- Between 2013 and 2019 Dris was the only original Summerhouse members that remained with Summerhouse as it was unknown what happened to the other last members Shaheed, Nevaeh, Nafisa & R-Marni.
- During the absence of Dushane and Sully, Dris was running Summerhouse.
- Dris' last name is Wright in season 2 but in season 3 finale the police have his last name down as Dris Walsh.
- His girlfriend Mandy is in prison in season 2 and later in season 3 she is believed to go back inside.
- On Channel 4 top boy profile, it’s stated that Dris was 19 during the events of the first season and 21 during the events of season 2. This means he was 27/28 during the third season.
- At the end of season 3 there is burglars at Dris's flat where they take everything out of his flat.
- His old next door neighbour Ralph always thought Dris was a quiet person and always said hello to him.
- Dris' flat got terminated by his landlord.
- Mandy suspects Sully killing Dris.
- His suspected murder was avenged at the end of season 5 where unknown assailant kills Sully,
- Dris was mentioned in the episode "Has It Come To This" when Erin and Stefan have a chat about Sully.
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