John Rackham was born Alan Morris in Cheadle, Cheshire in the north of England in 1958, the son of engineer John Morris and his wife Jean. After majoring in Drama, he trained as a teacher and worked as a van driver, archaeological assistant and drama advisor to Northeast Surrey Youth and Community Service before starting the Mad Mole Theatre Company at the age of 27. This company performed a small-scale theatre version of Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' which was described by a member of the Joseph Conrad Society as 'The yardstick by which we judge all other adaptations of Conrad's work.'The collapse of his marriage brought this first theatre company to an end and it was not until 1996 that he formed his second company, Rogues' Yarn Productions. Rogues' Yarn has performed successfully at the San Francisco Fringe Festival annually since 2001. In 2002, he began working on British independent films on a regular basis and this lead to his meeting with Ross Boyask, the director of Left for Dead (2004).He began directing zero budget shorts in 2002 and in 2005 produced and directed his first digital feature Bloodmyth (2006).