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Danny Mooney is a jack of all trades in the film world. As a multi-hyphenate storyteller, Mooney continuously pushes the boundaries of indie cinema as a director, producer, writer, actor and beyond. Originally entering the world of entertainment as a performer, Danny has gone on to act under several well-known directors including Nick Stoller, C. Thomas Howell, Arnaud Desplechin, Jon Amiel, Zack Snyder and George Clooney. Mooney has also played across from such acting talent as Drew Barrymore, Jason Segal, Elliot Page, Henry Cavill, Benecio Del Toro, Greta Gerwig, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ryan Gosling.
Born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Mooney grew up playing sports and partaking in the arts of all sorts. Mooney's first acting role was in a play rendition of Peter Pan while at Haisley Elementary School, where Mooney played the crocodile. He loved painting, drawing and playing the trombone in school while playing soccer, roller-blading and skateboarding after school. Forsythe Middle School chose Mooney as one of three students to paint a large-scale school mural of his choice at graduation, where he painted a flame-painted 1979 Camaro hot rod. Mooney then attended Pioneer High School, Michigan's largest high school at the time with just over 3,000 students, where he became more seriously interested in performance when Pioneer announced the start of a school improv troupe. Mooney made the seven-person troupe and began balancing his time between acting and playing both hockey and lacrosse - oftentimes having practice for all three in the same day. Mooney's first improv shows were on the same night as a home lacrosse game, so Mooney performed the first show, ran up to the lacrosse field to sit with the team in the locker room for half-time, then ran back to do the second improv show - which, after the game, the rest of the lacrosse team watched after sneaking into the back of the already-over-capacity theatre.
Mooney quickly fanned out from the improv comedy shows to hosting high school events and performing in sketch comedy and stand-up. While a high-school junior Mooney briefly went pro in roller hockey playing for Pepsi, winning the league's Most Valuable Goalie despite the team coming in as runner-up in the championship. Shortly after that, Mooney was recruited to play roller hockey as a goalie for the University of Michigan, where he then attended on an academic scholarship for Mechanical Engineering to focus on car design. While in college, Mooney still made a quick run at continuing stand-up comedy and opened for such talent as actor/comedian Dave Coulier (Uncle Joey, Full House) and Comedy Central's Dane Cook World Tour-opener J. Chris Newberg.
Mooney then snuck into a film class during freshman year and immediately found his passion for filmmaking. Mooney attended the class until the professor finally agreed to override Mooney into the class, despite Mooney still being an engineering student - and Mooney was hooked. So after finishing a year of Engineering, Mooney transferred to Michigan's Department of Screen Arts and Cultures to pursue a Bachelor's Degree in Film, concentrating in directing and cinematography. That same professor from that first film class, Robert Rayher, then guided Mooney throughout his college career all the way through overseeing and executive producing Mooney's senior thesis film. During his sophomore year, Mooney was spotted performing at an improv show by one of the head instructors at the University of Michigan Residential College Theatre Department, and despite not being in the Residential College, Mooney was invited to study theatre and continue his love for the stage. He went on to perform in regional theatre as well as professionally in Moscow, Russia, as part of the only U.S. theatre company in the International Chekhov Theatre Festival.
While in film school Mooney accumulated a full range of experience in all departments eventually becoming a director, producer, cinematographer, writer, and editor. While in college, Mooney's awards included "Best Silent Film," "Best Cinematography," "Best Editor," "Best Director," "Best in Festival" twice, "Best Screenplay" twice and "Best Actor" four times. In 2006, he was the cinematography consultant along with the lead role in the film Dylan, which won "Best in Festival" at the University of Michigan Entertainment Coalition Film Festival in LA. That same year, Mooney also acted in the short film Moon Cake, which was nominated for a Student Oscar in the 2006 Academy Awards. Also in 2006, Mooney was one of three students at the University of Michigan to win the prestigious "Trueblood Fellowship Award for Film Performance" (in both acting and directing), and one of three to win the award again in 2007. In the 2007 Academy Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chose Mooney's short Irish dance piece Do Fainne Sorcas as a Finalist in the Student Alternative Category, exhibiting the film with all Student Category Oscar Nominees at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago. Mooney ended that year by receiving praise from Academy Award-winning Hollywood writer/critic Kurt Luedtke (Out of Africa) for his directing accomplishments in the short comedy Step, My Boy.
In early 2008, Mooney won the "Leo Burnett Award for Film Marketing and Business" for his marketing during pre- production on the Academy Recognized narrative short Fingers, which was declared "subtle and mesmerizing... already a winner" by The New York Film Review. As his senior thesis at Michigan, Mooney wrote, produced, directed, edited and acted in the short. At the 2008 Hamptons International Film Festival, the film's premiere was one of five films in the Academy Recognized category up against Natalie Portman's directorial debut, Academy Award Nominee Don Hertzfeldt's most recent film, the 2008 Cannes winner and the 2008 South By Southwest winner by multiple Academy Award Nominee Benh Zeitlin. Among these five films, Fingers got the top vote by the festival's audience and Hertzfeldt took the Jury. The thesis film lived a long life on the international festival circuit, including playing at the 2010 Cannes Independent Film Festival and at the first annual Edgemar Film Festival in Los Angeles, where Steven Spielberg sits on the board. At Edgemar, the celebrity judging panel nominated Fingers for "Best Short Film," "Best Director," "Best Cinematography," "Best Actor," "Best Ensemble Cast," "Best Screenplay" and "Best Editing."
During his entire run at the University of Michigan, Mooney juggled being a film student, being a board-member of the student-run film production organization M-agination Films, being a theatre student along with still being the goalie for Michigan's varsity roller hockey team, where he helped lead the team to nationals every year. The University of Michigan eventually created "The Danny Mooney Award," which is awarded to whomever acts in the most student films each semester.
Mooney has had consistent festival play across the globe including opening the L.A. International Shorts Festival with a piece titled Little Joy, where he was a Director and Cinematographer, and world-premiering the feature film Bilal's Stand in the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, where Mooney - in true independent filmmaking fashion - was an actor, a 1st Assistant Director and an additional Director of Photography.
Mooney joined forces with producer Eddie Rubin and formed Deep Blue Pictures while still in college. Deep Blue has numerous features under the company's belt since Mooney graduated from college in the spring of 2008, with both Mooney and Rubin also producing a myriad of additional feature films independently. The film Mooz-lum, co-produced by Mooney and Rubin, won "Best Narrative Feature" at the 2010 Urbanworld Film Festival and was the third film to sell out at the 2010 Chicago International Film Festival. Mooz-lum, starring Evan Ross, Nia Long and Danny Glover, took its limited release in theaters across the U.S. and Canada in mid-February 2011. Although on a limited number of screens, the film grossed more per screen than any other film in America for its opening weekend. RogerAndEbert.com declared "I suspect the Muslim narratives of 9/11 will soon grow into its own genre, and this film is a very good start."
In between features over the years, Mooney directed a short series for Disney as well as numerous music videos, including one for Kanye West's Def Jam artist Big Sean, featuring GLC. The video, titled Million Dollars, became the second most viral music video in the world upon its release, right behind Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. Mooney also acted in and directed several national spot commercials for companies such as Best Buy, Southwest Airlines and Coke Zero. Most notably, he helped develop and played the comedic lead in a performance-driven viral spec commercial for Mountain Dew, winning the Grand Prize from the annual MOFILM international commercial competition in London. Mooney and Director Marty Stano were presented the award by the U.K.'s Jonathan Ross at the 2011 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
2013 marked Mooney's feature directorial debut with the film Love and Honor (originally known as AWOL, the film's shooting title). The cast is led by The Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth along with Teresa Palmer (Warm Bodies, Hacksaw Ridge), Austin Stowell (Spielberg's Bridge of Spies, Colossal) and Aimee Teegarden (Friday Night Lights). Based on a true story from the Vietnam War, Love and Honor was penned by Jim Burnstein (who was also Mooney's screenwriting professor at UofM) and Garrett K. Schiff, and was executive produced by Deep Blue's Eddie Rubin and produced by Patrick Olson and Chip Diggins (a former senior executive at both Disney and Paramount, and Barry Levinson's former producing partner at Baltimore Pictures). Distributed domestically by IFC Films, Love and Honor was released in 30 cities on March 22nd, 2013, where it ran for the next 8 weeks. The film came out on a much larger scale in theaters overseas to rave reviews in late 2012 and early 2013, with one Russian critic writing "Young director Danny Mooney has created an astounding film" and Helium in Australia proclaiming, "Love and Honor is one of the most underrated films of 2012." The film was then released on DVD and digital, climbing high on all the iTunes charts and hitting #1 on the iTunes romance movie chart during its second week out, and remaining on the Netflix "Trending Now" chart for nearly a year.
Mooney then jumped straight back into acting when French auteur Arnaud Desplechin chose him to play Benecio Del Toro's insane asylum roommate in the post-World War II drama, Jimmy P: Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian. The film premiered in Competition at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival to international critical acclaim and a Palme d'Or nomination. Jimmy P. was nominated in the 2014 César Awards (France's Oscars) for "Best Picture," "Best Director" and "Best Adapted Screenplay."
Mooney then dug back into his humor-based roots and shot the ridiculous-yet-heartfelt comedy Saugatuck Cures, where Mooney played the lead role with co-star Max Adler (of Glee) as two childhood best friends on a road trip of exuberant high jinks. The film started hitting the festival circuit in the fall of 2014 with an instant buzz about the performances as well as how the film deals with several hot-button topics in today's society, with The Huffington Post stating "Is Saugatuck Cures controversial? Definitely. Fun to watch? Yes." and Condé Nast writer, Philip Wayne, calling Mooney's role in the film a "jaw dropping performance... such an amazing work of artistry." The film got a domestic limited theatrical run starting June 26th, 2015.
2016 marked the first season of Outsiders for Sony Pictures Television, where Mooney plays a recurring role. Created by award-winning playwright Peter Mattei and Executive Produced by Paul Giamatti and Peter Tolan, Outsiders set the record as the most-watched piece of original programming ever for the WGN network. Outsiders went two seasons before being cancelled, much to the chagrin of the fans all over the world.
Then came one of the most unorthodox projects from Mooney yet. The short film Injustice for All was released in the form of an independent, dark and twisted new take on Batman comic book legends The Joker and Harley Quinn. In his usual multi-hat-wearing fashion, Mooney was the director, a producer, the cinematographer and one of the actors in the film. The film was immediately embraced by the comic book community, with Horror Geek Life proclaiming "Danny Mooney's direction is tight and focused... With complex characters, great performances, and a unique take on a story we all know, Injustice for All shines through its thick layer of darkness." Along with Fansided stating "Director Danny Mooney, who also plays a very convincing Jimmy Olsen, skillfully brings to life Detroit's backdrop as the decrepit, rotting Gotham City... This is a can't miss short for all DC fans out there." Injustice for All toured the Comic Con circuit for all of 2017, ultimately winning The Stan Lee Cup at Stan Lee's L.A. Comic Con, which is the award given for the best piece of independent comic book content on the Comic Con circuit for that year. Mooney and producer/writer, Donavan Darius, were awarded this grand prize at the closing ceremony of Stan Lee's L.A. Comic Con by hip-hop legend RUN DMC. Injustice for All was then invited back onto the Comic Con circuit and was showcased at many Comic Cons throughout all of 2018.
Foster Boy, starring Matthew Modine, Shane Paul McGhie and Louis Gossett Jr., was one of the few films to receive a theatrical release in 2020. Based on true events that took place in the American foster care system, Mooney executive produced the film along with Shaquille O'Neal with the hopes of raising awareness to the atrocities plaguing the current foster care infrastructure. In a similar socially-minded and conversation-starting mindset, Mooney produced the film Disfluency, which took the Jury award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2021 Austin Film Festival and continues its journey on the festival circuit into 2022.
With several films in post and always in development on numerous film and television projects, as well as always being active in the music video space, Mooney continues to be a Swiss Army knife in the world of storytelling.
Danny Mooney received his Bachelor's Degree from the University of Michigan with a major in Film Production from the Department of Screen Arts and Cultures, concentrating in directing, producing and cinematography. He also received a minor in Acting, Drama and Text-to-Performance from the Michigan RC Theatre Department.
