Dan Fogelman

Dan Fogelman was an A-list screenwriter, known for penning scripts to some of the biggest mainstream hits of the 2000s and 2010s, who made the leap into directing with 2015's "Danny Collins." Growing up in a Jewish family in New Jersey, Fogelman always envisioned a life devoted to writing. So after high school he moved to Hollywood where he hoped to land some kind of job as a writer. After arriving in the late '90s, Fogelman landed his first job writing show blurbs for TV Guide. He found the job to be exciting, but ultimately, it wasn't the type of writing he wanted to do. Still though, Fogelman wrote his blurbs by day, while at night, he worked studiously on a long-running idea he had for a screenplay. That script, a coming-of-age tale set during a young man's bar mitzvah, was never produced, but it did land Fogelman an agent and manager. Before long, Fogelman's manager set him up with an informal meet-and-greet with Pixar's powerhouse director, John Lasseter. Lasseter was so impressed by Fogelman that he hired him on the spot to write the next Pixar movie, "Cars" (2006). The film was a huge hit, earning two Oscar nominations, as well as tons of critical praise. Fogelman's writing career was off and running, and over the next few years he wrote the screenplays to "Fred Clause" (2007), as well as the animated comedies "Bolt" (2008) and "Tangled" (2010). Then in 2009, Fogelman hunkered away in a small cabin to write what would become his dream project. That screenplay, which was about love and relationships in the 21st Century, turned out to be "Crazy, Stupid, Love" (2011). The film was a huge commercial hit when it was released in 2011, grossing nearly $150 million at the box office, while ultimately giving Fogelman carte blanche to do whatever he wanted. For his next project, Fogelman decided to tell the story of Danny Collins, a washed up song and dance man who decides to change his life after uncovering a letter John Lennon wrote to him decades prior. In addition to writing the script, Fogelman also made his directorial debut on "Danny Collins," which starred Al Pacino in the title role and was released in theaters everywhere in March of 2015. 2015 was also the year Fogelman served as the creator and executive producer on the medieval comedy series "Galavant" (ABC, 2015-16). That show debuted on ABC on January 4, 2015 to strong reviews.