Brian Dannelly is a German born American film director and screenwriter best known for his work on the 2004 film ''

Saved! ''Saved!'' is a 2004 American independent satirical black comedy film directed by Brian Dannelly, and starring Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin, Patrick Fugit, Eva Amurri, Martin Donovan, and Mary-Louise Parker. Its plot follows a tee ...

Early life

Dannelly was born in

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg ...

, Germany before moving with his family to

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

aged eleven. He was raised Catholic; he attended a Catholic elementary school, Arlington Baptist High School in Baltimore, and a Jewish summer camp. He was expelled from first grade for hitting a nun, and later expelled from high school—which he describes as "one of the strictest schools in the nation"—for excessive demerits. He started questioning his sexuality in high school, claiming, "I remember I'd pray every night that I wasn't gay, and please God, please God, anything I could do—just don't make this happen." He

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

at the age of seventeen and was thrown out of his house by his parents, who eventually came to accept his sexuality. Dannelly graduated from the

University of Maryland, Baltimore County The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a public research university in Baltimore County, Maryland. It has a fall 2022 enrollment of 13,991 students, 61 undergraduate majors, over 92 graduate programs (38 master, 25 doctoral, ...

with a degree in visual arts in 1997.

Career

Dannelly wrote and directed

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

"He Bop" in 2000 before his debut with 2004's religious satire film ''

'', which he directed and co-wrote with Michael Urban. He had begun to write the ''Saved!'' script after the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, which he claims took him "back to isroots" in a Christian high school. He and Urban began writing the script while attending the American Film Institute Conservatory. Much of the story was drawn from his own experiences with "conservative Christian subculture", including Christian rock concerts, being "this gay kid in a Christian school" and having visions of Jesus. He says, "In the Baptist school there was the one Jewish girl that everyone was trying to save, there was a girl who got pregnant, there was a gay kid"—all principal characters in ''Saved!'' He claims that nothing in the film came from his imagination: "Everything in the movie comes from either something I experienced, or something I witnessed, or something I researched." After ''Saved!'' was released, Dannelly went on to become a regular series director on the television show '' Weeds''. He has also directed the 2006 pilot episode of '' Help Me Help You'' and ''

Pushing Daisies ''Pushing Daisies'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Bryan Fuller that aired on ABC from October 3, 2007, to June 13, 2009. The series stars Lee Pace as Ned, a pie-maker with the ability to bring dead things back to li ...

''' 2007 episode "Corpsicle". His most recent film, ''Runner Up'', about a

beauty pageant A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...

queen who organizes a pageant in a women's prison, is currently in production. He is signed on to direct upcoming

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film ''

The Guided Man "The Guided Man" is a classic science fiction short story by L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published in the magazine ''Startling Stories'' for October, 1952. It first appeared in book form in the collection '' A Gun for Dinosaur and Other Imagin ...

'', which he co-wrote with Michael Urban and Steve Adams based on a 1952 story by L. Sprague de Camp. He has written a

spec script A spec script, also known as a speculative screenplay, is a non-commissioned and unsolicited screenplay. It is usually written by a screenwriter who hopes to have the script optioned and eventually purchased by a producer, production company, or ...

, ''Army Geek'', about a Texan

Napoleon Dynamite ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is a 2004 American comedy film produced by Jeremy Coon, Chris Wyatt and Sean Covel, written by Jared and Jerusha Hess and directed by Jared Hess. The film stars Jon Heder in the role of the titular character, a nerdy ...

-like character who joins the military. In 2017, Dannelly worked as a director on two episodes of the second season of the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

original series ''

Haters Back Off ''Haters Back Off'' is a Netflix original television comedy series based on the YouTube character Miranda Sings created by Colleen Ballinger. Its two seasons were released in October 2016 and 2017, respectively. The "surreal and absurd" series cen ...

'', starring

Colleen Ballinger Colleen Mae Ballinger (born November 21, 1986) is an American comedian, YouTuber, actress, singer and writer. She is best known for her Internet character Miranda Sings, posting videos of the character on YouTube, performing her one-woman come ...

(

Miranda Sings Miranda may refer to: Law * ''Miranda v. Arizona'', an American legal case * ''Miranda'' warning, an American police warning given to suspects about their rights, before they are interrogated Places Australia * Miranda, New South Wales * Mirand ...

Angela Kinsey Angela Faye Kinsey (born June 25, 1971) is an American actress. She played Angela Martin in the sitcom ''The Office'' (2005–2013) and appeared in the sitcoms '' Your Family or Mine'' (2015) and ''Haters Back Off'' (2016–2017). Since ''The ...

and Erik Stocklin.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dannelly, Brian Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American film directors American male screenwriters American television producers American television directors American gay writers LGBT film directors German gay writers LGBT people from Maryland Film directors from Würzburg University of Maryland, Baltimore County alumni 21st-century LGBT people German male screenwriters American LGBT screenwriters