Daniel Barnz (WRITER/DIRECTOR)
was born and raised outside of Philadelphia. After receiving his BA from Yale University and spending many seasons at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Barnz moved to Los Angeles to direct for Tim Robbins’s theater company, The Actors’ Gang. Shortly thereafter, Barnz entered the MFA program at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television where he made several short films, including FAT BOY and GASP, both of which played the festival circuit. After graduating USC, Barnz began to write within the studio system. His first job was an adaptation of the French film DIVA for Diana Ross.
Since then, Barnz has worked on several screenplays (some solo, some with Ned Zeman), including SUGARLAND for Jodie Foster, UNDER AND ALONE and SAM AND GEORGE for Mel Gibson, ROGUE for Leonardo DiCaprio and currently MAVERICKS for Walden Media. Barnz also wrote and directed the award-winning short film, THE CUTTING ROOM, which regularly screens on IFC. In 2007, Barnz was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND, starring Elle Fanning, Felicity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson, Campbell Scott and Bill Pullman, is Barnz’s feature directorial debut. It is also the first screenplay he ever wrote and (ten years later) is his first feature film to be produced. He lives with his partner, Ben Barnz (a producer on this film), in Los Feliz, California with their two adopted children, Zelda (6) and Dashiell (4).
