Biography
Born and raised on a ranch in a small town just north of Santa Barbara, California, dreams of becoming a filmmaker were far reached at best. Daniel Lahr dreamed of being in Hollywood since the age of five. He began with acting in local theaters as a child and went on to do different acting classes. He was in three plays at the Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts (PCPA) based in Santa Maria, California.
When he reached high school, he realized his dream was leading him more behind the camera. When he was only fifteen years old, he made his first movie "Running Wind." It was a 30 minute World War 2 movie for a class. He went on to make several other shorts in high school as well. But it was his first year at Santa Barbara City College he received his first award for "Dogwood Creek." The award was "Best Technical Achievement." An award created specially for the film, and has not been given since at the college's School of Media Arts Showcase. Daniel Lahr went on to create many more films there. Another one a few years later, "The California Hundred" won the "Best Cinematography" award at the same venue. Again, a couple years later, "End of a Rope" won the "Best Production" award. That film also went to play at other film festivals and was even nominated for "Best Costumes" at the Action on Film International Film Festival.
Daniel Lahr was also admitted into a highly sought after position in a class with the University of Southern California (USC) for a summer program. The Producing/Directing intensive class took place at USC and also at Universal Studios, Hollywood. The class worked with 16mm film and shot on Universal's Backlot. Daniel Lahr's film, "The Kid" won the "Best in Class" award and was screened at USC's Summer Showcase.
Daniel Lahr took a long time at the community college because of the time he took off to go and work for the Disney Company at both theme parks in Anaheim and Orlando. But when he returned, he got an internship with CafeFX, the company responsible for bringing the visual effects alive in the acclaimed movie, "Pan's Labyrinth." He was hired on after the internship and worked on movies like "Spiderman 3", "HBO's John Adams", "The Kite Runner", "Nim's Island", "The Happening" and "Stephen King's The Mist."
After deciding to return to finish his degree at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, Daniel Lahr was admitted to a film competition at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. There he competed in a ten day competition to shoot and finish a film. His film, "Metal Detector Man" won first place, launching his status as a very talented film student. He continued on, making a feature film, "Out of the Blue", and shorts "Not Alone", and "Wounded Heart" while earning his BFA.
Shortly after graduation, he began working on a short film, "Fortune's Favored" that went on to premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film festival and received two nominations, one for "Best Costumes" at Action on Film International Film Festival and another for "Best Actor" for Richard Hoag at Hill Country Film Festival. All the while he also was able to work on the "Emmy's" and "The Voice" as a production assistant.
It was then Daniel married the love of his life and began to work in tourism and attractions. He worked on revamping new films and videos for locations at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA and also made marketing material. He finally moved back to California's Central Coast where he had two babies and began working at the Solvang Conference and Visitors Bureau and began acting as the liaison for all productions arriving in the area.
He continues on working on his own independent projects, including "A Light Among Us" that went on to be nominated for "Best Short Screenplay" at Hill Country Film Festival in 2018.
