Daniel Shafer

Daniel Shafer is a Los Angeles-based writer-producer with 20 years experience in the entertainment industry. He grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts, soaking in double features at the local revival house; notable films that not only amused, but widened his window to the world. His most formative experience, however, was a family trip deep up the Amazon at age 15, where he was stunned to see kids living on floating villages. Curious about these obscure, unsung worlds, and wanting to make a difference, Daniel served as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Paraguay after attending Emory University. He was stationed on the edge of a huge swamp, without electricity, running water or telephones, where he spent two years battling snakes, insects and tarantulas as he mobilized his community to protect and improve their water sources. Finding entertainment scarce, and wanting to share his culture and passion for motion pictures with the Paraguayans, Daniel embarked on a four-day, four-village traveling film festival with a fellow volunteer. They loaded an old projector and gas generator onto a wheelbarrow and literally carried it over the rivers and through the woods to the isolated communities, projecting Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Bros. onto schoolhouse walls each night, and reveling as the locals enjoyed their first cinematic experience. Daniel returned to the States convinced of the universal benefit of film. He launched his professional career in Denver as a Media and Entertainment Industry Equity Analyst, investing in dozens of public content and distribution companies. Wanting to work for the studios and creators he was building ties with, however, he eventually moved to New York and spent a year developing screenplays with an independent film company before attending Columbia Business School. He graduated with an MBA with a concentration in Media Management, but years of script reading and several elective classes at Columbia Film School had ignited a passion in him, and he moved to Los Angeles to be on the creative side. After a stint in the United Talent Agency mailroom, he spent a year assisting a Motion Picture Literary agent at Creative Artists Agency before joining Tobey Maguire's production company, where he worked his way up to Creative Executive then Head of Development. Over five years, he developed more than 30 film and television projects with many of the industry's luminaries including Christopher McQuarrie, Lawrence Kasdan, Jill Soloway, Peter Hedges, Ed Solomon, Michael Dougherty and Steven Knight. Nineteen were set up at the major studios. Four were produced and released theatrically. Daniel began writing and producing independently, fulfilling a lifelong dream to create his own content. He developed and produced the Netflix Original Film XOXO and wrote the screenplay for and produced THE TUNNEL, a short horror film featuring the Emmy-winning Sound Designer of GAME OF THRONES that has been selected to or won awards at 10 short film festivals and counting. He is currently writing multiple motion picture and comic book properties across many genres. In his free time, Daniel enjoys stand up comedy, lobster diving, spearfishing and mountaineering. He has hiked the Inca and Laugavegur Trails, summited Kilimanjaro, Rainier, Whitney and Fuji, and ventured deep into the jungles of Peru, Malaysia, Cambodia, Brazil, Guatemala, Belize and Tanzania. To date, he has traveled to 41 countries, venturing far off the beaten trail to experience foreign cultures, gain unique insight and find inspiration; his subsequently daring, distinctive storytelling, like an Overlander, becoming a vehicle to explore remote, wild worlds as well...