Daniel Hirsh

Last updated
Daniel Hirsh
Daniel Hirsh.jpg
Hirsh in September 1999
Born
Daniel Harris Hirsh

(1982-05-18) May 18, 1982 (age 42)
Education Whitefish Bay High School
Alma mater Washington University in St. Louis
Occupations
  • Editor
  • Actor
  • Cinematographer
  • Producer
  • Director
Years active1998–present
Known forDeep bass radio voice
Spouse
Aline Gray
(m. 2006;div. 2009)
Relatives Haskell Wexler (cousin), Michael Bloomfield (cousin), T. Robin Hirsh (cousin), Daryl Hannah (cousin)
Website www.danhirsh.com

Daniel Hirsh (born May 18, 1982, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American actor, voice over artist, video editor, director, cinematographer, graphic designer, writer, and producer. Hirsh has acted in and directed several World Premiere theatrical productions, and his editing work on short- and feature-length films have won awards at several festivals. Hirsh has trained as a videographer, actor, singer, and improvisational comedian, currently continuing work in Milwaukee, New York City, Atlanta and St. Louis. Working mainly with Atlanta filmmaker and entertainer Parthiban Shanmugam, other collaborators include Wade Ballance, Philip Barrett, Kevin L. Powers, and Thomas Smugala. Influenced by French videographer and university lecturer Pier Marton and screenwriter Richard Chapman, he has focused his career on narrative filmmaking, while also piecing together documentaries on energy healing, life after death and astral projection. He currently resides in New York City due to his interest in The New York Presbyterian Hospital which utilizes energy healing, and proximity to The Monroe Institute and University of Virginia, both of which partake in astral projection and consciousness research.

Contents

Editorial, Production, Direction and Cinematography Work

You're Rejected propelled Hirsh, Shanmugam and lead actor George Lee Clark to national and international recognition, winning "Official Selection" from the Filmböro Film Festival,"Honorable Mention" at the Philadelphia International Film Festival & Market, "Official Selection" at the AIAFF Film Festival, and "Official Selection" at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival. [1]

Film and Television Acting

Theatrical Acting

Hirsh's acting style has been described as amusing, comic, and quirky. His complexion and physical appearance have been compared to John Belushi, Jon Lovitz, and Steve Zissis, with a comic voice comparable to Nathan Lane's. He prefers the Practical Aesthetics school of thought, pioneered by David Mamet, William H. Macy and Robert Bella; having taken a summer intensive course there in 2004, alongside Anna Chlumsky and Lucy DeVito. He has actively participated in various other acting styles and techniques.

Hirsh starred as himself in an improvised Thesis project directed by Washington University senior Lora Ivanova in 2003. I See (You See) was a one-act play starring five actors, one of which would be audience-voted to strap a video camera to their head while playing out suggestions for improvisational scenes. The piece, mostly comic, was met with positive reception.

Hirsh's most notable performance was his portrayal of Sir Vashya Shontine in Tennessee Williams' one-act play, Me, Vashya, written in 1937 during the playwright's short tenure at Washington University. [2] The complete script was later published in the compilation The Magic Tower and Other One-Act Plays by publisher New Directions. [3] Me, Vashya was performed as a World Premiere production with The Glass Menagerie as part of the Washington University in St. Louis Tennessee Williams Symposium in February 2004. [4]

Hirsh's third World Premiere production, Six Seconds in Charlack, by Washington University alumni Brian Golden premiered on April 28 of 2005. [5] Charlack was later performed on New York City's Off-Off-Broadway circuit at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center in August 2009. [6]

Theatrical Performances

Theatrical Directorial Experience

Tick, Tick... Boom! was Hirsh's first major directorial debut after Washington University secured the rights from the estate of Jonathan Larson to be the third venue in the world to produce the little-known rock musical.

A Shave was the first of a World Premiere site-specific trilogy of plays written by student Lauren Dusek and inspired by the on-campus success of Downsize by Chicago playwright Christopher Welzenbach. [7] Downsize was staged at Washington University's Mallinkrodt Center Men's Bathroom, with a maximum of only 11 or 12 audience members viewing the show at a time. The trilogy, consisting of A Shave,A Haircut and A Song, was staged in the Washington University Small Group Housing parking lot, an on-campus apartment, and a racquetball court in the Athletic Complex, respectively. [8]

Biographical Film

Hirsh on the set of "3 Cats and a Man" in 2011. Hirsh on the set of "3 Cats and a Man" in 2011.jpg
Hirsh on the set of "3 Cats and a Man" in 2011.

Following a divorce from Aline Gray in 2009, filmmaker Parthiban Shanmugam proposed the creation of a biographical film starring Hirsh and Atlanta singer/songwriter Debbie Aviva Kessler. The film's style would mimic My Dinner With Andre , in which the bulk of the picture was a completely improvised conversation between the two main characters, as well as footage from Hirsh and Gray's actual wedding, with a subsection devoted to Primal Therapy as the film's penultimate sequence. 3 Cats and a Man screened only once on May 17, 2012, in France. [9] Unhappy with the outcome, Shanmugam had the film re-edited and retitled Pikuach Nefesh: Saving Daniel [10] in 2016.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Cronenberg</span> Canadian filmmaker and film director (born 1943)

David Paul Cronenberg is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and the intertwining of the psychological, physical, and technological. Cronenberg is best known for exploring these themes through sci-fi horror films such as Shivers (1975), Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983) and The Fly (1986), though he has also directed dramas, psychological thrillers and gangster films.

<i>Tick, Tick... Boom!</i> Musical by Jonathan Larson

Tick, Tick... Boom! is a musical by Jonathan Larson. It tells the story of an aspiring composer named Jon, who lives in New York City in 1990. Jon is worried he has made the wrong career choice to be part of the performing arts. The story is semi-autobiographical, as stated by Larson's father in the liner notes of the cast recording – Larson had been trying to establish himself in theater since the early 1980s.

<i>Collateral</i> (film) 2004 neo-noir action thriller film by Michael Mann

Collateral is a 2004 American neo-noir action thriller film directed and produced by Michael Mann, written by Stuart Beattie, and starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. The supporting cast includes Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg, Javier Bardem, and Bruce McGill. The film follows Max Durocher (Foxx), a Los Angeles cab driver, and his customer, Vincent (Cruise). When offered a high fare for driving to several locations, Max agrees but soon finds himself taken hostage by Vincent who turns out to be a hitman on a contract killing spree.

<i>Lemony Snickets A Series of Unfortunate Events</i> 2004 film by Brad Silberling

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is a 2004 American black comedy adventure film directed by Brad Silberling from a screenplay by Robert Gordon, based on the first three novels of the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning (1999), The Reptile Room (1999), and The Wide Window (2000), by Lemony Snicket. It stars Jim Carrey, Liam Aiken, Emily Browning, Timothy Spall, Catherine O'Hara, Billy Connolly, Cedric the Entertainer, Luis Guzmán, Jennifer Coolidge, and Meryl Streep, and Jude Law as the voice of Lemony Snicket.

Roger Bart is an American actor and singer. He won a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for his performance as Snoopy in the 1999 revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

Frederick James Koenekamp, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer. He was the son of cinematographer Hans F. Koenekamp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vikraman</span> Indian film director

Vikraman is an Indian film director primarily working in Tamil cinema.

Walter C. Pfister is an American director and former cinematographer, who is best known for his work with filmmaker Christopher Nolan. Some of his collaborations with Nolan include Memento (2000), The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005–2012), and Inception (2010). For his work on Inception, Pfister won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and received a BAFTA Award nomination.

<i>Azhagi</i> (2002 film) 2002 Indian film

Azhagi is a 2002 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by Thangar Bachan in his directoral debut, based on his short story "Kalvettugal". The film stars Parthiban, Nandita Das and Devayani. It was released on 14 January 2002 and won the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Tamil. The film was remade in Telugu as Letha Manasulu in 2004.

Parthiban Shanmugam is a writer and director of theater, video and film projects. He trained as a defense and strategic analyst, lawyer, human rights advocate, stand-up comic and story teller. He has focused his career on the emerging South Asian culture in the United States.

Edward "Teddy" Symes is a producer, director, art curator, and founder of Here and Now Films and Frontrunner Magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Wingard</span> American filmmaker (born 1982)

Adam Wingard is an American filmmaker. He has served as a film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, cinematographer, actor, and composer on numerous American films.

Pete Schuermann is a Colorado-based director, producer, editor and cinematographer.

<i>Pola Negri: Life Is a Dream in Cinema</i> 2006 American film

Pola Negri: Life is a Dream in Cinema is a feature-length biographical documentary film by Polish-American director Mariusz Kotowski released in 2006. The film chronicles the life of Polish silent film actress Pola Negri, as told by those who knew her and those who have studied her life and films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamás Almási</span> Hungarian film director

Tamás Almási is one of the most well known and most successful Hungarian documentary film directors. He directs but sometimes also photographs his own films. So far he has made more than forty full-length documentaries and some movie fiction films, which have been screened at a number of highly prestigious festivals in Europe and overseas earning him numerous awards. His films have been broadcast around forty countries. He has been awarded the highest Hungarian artistic distinction the Kossuth price.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Kenzie</span> British cinematographer

Martin Kenzie was a British second unit director and cinematographer whose works include feature films such as The Shining (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983), Aliens (1986), The King's Speech (2010) and TV series including Rome (2005) and Game of Thrones (2012). He was a member of the British Society of Cinematographers as a Camera Operator and was later elected a "Full Member of the Society" with BSC accreditation in 2012. Kenzie was diagnosed with cancer and was being operated on with the help of Macmillan Cancer Support. He died on 16 July 2012 at the age of 56. The Game of Thrones season three premiere episode, "Valar Dohaeris", aired on 31 March 2013, was dedicated to the memory of Kenzie in the credits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megan Griffiths</span> American film director

Megan Griffiths is a film and television director who resides in Seattle, Washington, U.S., and is a board member of Northwest Film Forum.

<i>Vanjagar Ulagam</i> 2018 film

Vanjagar Ulagam is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language crime thriller film directed by Manoj Beedha in his directorial debut with dialogues written by Beedha and Vinayak. The film stars Guru Somasundaram, Ciby Bhuvana Chandran, Vishagan Vanangamudi, and Anisha Ambrose, with Chandini Tamilarasan, Hareesh Peradi, John Vijay, and Azhagam Perumal in supporting roles. The music is composed by Sam C. S. while the cinematography is handled by Rodrigo Del Rio Herrara and Saravanan Ramasamy. The film was released in India on 7 September 2018.

<i>Tick, Tick... Boom!</i> (film) 2021 film by Lin-Manuel Miranda

Tick, Tick... Boom! is a 2021 American biographical musical film directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda in his feature directorial debut. Written by Steven Levenson, who also serves as an executive producer, it is based on the stage musical of the same name by Jonathan Larson, a semi-autobiographical story about Larson writing a musical to enter into the theater industry. The film stars Andrew Garfield as Larson, alongside Robin de Jesús, Alexandra Shipp, Joshua Henry, Judith Light, and Vanessa Hudgens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Brooks</span> American director of photography

Alice Brooks ASC, is an American director of photography best known for her cinematography work on feature films.

References

  1. "Amazon, You're Rejected, April 1, 2010". Amazon. April 2010. Archived from the original on February 28, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  2. "The Source, PAD to debut Williams play Me, Vashya, February 6, 2004". 6 February 2004. Archived from the original on July 5, 2018. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  3. Williams, Tennessee (25 April 2011). Google Books, The Magic Tower and Other One-Act Plays, April 25, 2011. New Directions. ISBN   9780811225717. Archived from the original on February 28, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  4. "The Source, 20 years after his death, a Tennessee Williams work is staged for the first time, December 19, 2003". 19 December 2003. Archived from the original on November 17, 2016. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  5. "The Source, Six Seconds in Charlack: Hotchner-winning play to debut April 28-May 1, April 20, 2005". 20 April 2005. Archived from the original on June 23, 2018. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  6. "Theatermania, 6 Seconds in Charlack, August 28, 2009". Archived from the original on June 23, 2018. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  7. "Chicago Tribune, Who says art hasn't gone down the toilet?, June 13, 2003". Archived from the original on 2018-06-23. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  8. "Student Life, A look at Student Theatre, April 12, 2006". 12 April 2006. Archived from the original on June 23, 2018. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  9. IMDb, 3 Cats and a Man (2012), archived from the original on 2023-02-28, retrieved 2018-07-04
  10. IMDb, Pikuach Nefesh: Saving Daniel (2016), archived from the original on 2023-02-28, retrieved 2018-07-04