Daniel Pyne

Shortly after finishing UCLA's Graduate School of Film with a Master of Fine Arts in the early 1980s, Daniel Pyne cut his teeth writing for two major crime dramas: Aaron Spelling's "Matt Houston" and Michael Mann's "Miami Vice." He went on to co-create the critically acclaimed pseudo-reality cop show, "The Street," before making a major push into films. His first script to make it to the big screen was 1990's "Pacific Heights," a John Schlesinger directed thriller about a couple being terrorized by their tenant. He followed that up by penning a string of hit movies, including the Michael J. Fox comedy "Doc Hollywood" in 1991; the Oliver Stone-directed football film "Any Given Sunday" in 1999; and the 2004 remake of the political thriller "The Manchurian Candidate," which earned Meryl Streep a Golden Globe nomination in 2005. Pyne has occasionally taught script writing at UCLA, and held the Hunter-Zakin chair in screenwriting there between 2003 and 2004.