Dean Atta is a British poet of Greek Cypriot and Caribbean descent. He has been recognized as one of the 100 most influential LGBT people in the United Kingdom by The Independent newspaper. In 2012, his poem "I Am Nobody's Nigger", written in response to the use of a racial slur by the murderers of Stephen Lawrence, gained significant attention on social media and was featured in The Guardian.

Born to a Greek Cypriot mother and a Jamaican father, Dean earned a BA degree in Philosophy and English from the University of Sussex, where he served as president of the African Caribbean Society. His poetry often explores themes of identity and social justice and has been featured on BBC Radio 4. Dean has been commissioned to write for prestigious institutions such as the Keats House Museum, the National Portrait Gallery in London, Tate Britain, and Tate Modern.

In 2018, Atta served as a judge for the BBC Young Writers Award. A year later, his verse novel, The Black Flamingo, was published by Hachette UK. This work earned him one of two Stonewall Book Awards in 2020 in the Children's and Young Adults category. Moreover, his poem "I Come From" was adapted into a film by Afshan D'Souza-Lodhi. In 2024, he was the runner-up in the Caterpillar Poetry Prize.

Dean was shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize for his debut poetry collection, I Am Nobody’s Nigger. His poems have appeared in various anthologies and have been broadcast on BBC One, BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, and Channel 4. He is a member of the Keats House Poets Forum and Malika’s Poetry Kitchen. Dean holds a Writer/Teacher MA from Goldsmiths, University of London, and serves as a tutor for Arvon and the Poetry School, as well as a Writer in Residence for First Story.