About
Adam McDaniel is an award-winning artist, filmmaker, and writer, with over fifteen years’ professional experience in the entertainment industry.
He attended New York's Vassar College, winning honors at various festivals for his student film work and receiving the college's prestigious academic film & cinematography prize. He also wrote and directed a pompous three-hour stage play, which had the extreme misfortune of opening the same night as an on-campus Billy Joel concert.
Growing up in New Jersey, he was largely a self-taught artist, drawing at an early age and winning several local and regional art competitions. While at Vassar, McDaniel studied film production, history, and theory, as well as cinematography and theatrical set design.
Following graduation, McDaniel went on to serve as a technical director and set designer for several theatrical stage shows, and as a production designer and cinematographer for independent films and documentaries. Since moving to California, he has worked with such companies as Walt Disney Worldwide Technical Services, Revolution Studios, Big Ticket Television, film school Columbia College Hollywood, and spent nearly a decade at leading post production companies Soundelux and Ascent Media. He currently works at Warner Bros. Technical Operations, and continues freelance work in illustration and writing on the side.
With lifelong interests in both art and film, McDaniel's definitive website about the life and career of American illustrator Richard Amsel generated considerable interest, and has helped to rekindle awareness of the late artist's work. (In 2009, McDaniel was also involved with the opening of a special Amsel retrospective in Philadelphia.)
McDaniel's own artwork has been displayed in Los Angeles-based art galleries Capsole and Gallery Nucleus, as well as Comic-Con San Diego, ComiConn Connecticut, and featured in online editions of The LA Weekly and The Hollywood Reporter.
He is also an accomplished writer, with screenplays garnering coverage in the popular cult entertainment website Aint It Cool News and Amazon Studios. His first novel, How To Succeed in Heaven Without Really Dying, was published in 2002, and a second book, Chasing Echoes Through the Dark, is currently in progress.
McDaniel shares his home with two cats, Kubrick and Posey -- shelter rescues who act like they adopted him -- and he somehow ends up hosting every single holiday and birthday party within his close-knit circle of friends.