[6] From 1977 to 1982, Dej Mahoney attended Epsom College, an English boarding-school in Surrey, where he became the first Head of School of African heritage.
[7][8] One of his classmates at Epsom was television presenter and journalist Jeremy Vine, who has spoken of re-connecting with Mahoney in recent years.
[9][10] Mahoney went on to study at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and qualified at the Bar as a Harmsworth Award winner.
[12] Mahoney was Vice President of Business Affairs and New Media Development at Sony Music for 13 years,[11] leaving in 2001 to work on his own projects.
[15] Mahoney was the lead producer of the original musical I Dream, based on the life of the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., written and composed by Douglas Tappin and directed by Jasmine Guy,[16] which premiered in 2010 at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia.