Daniel Barnz
American screenwriter and director
title: "Daniel Barnz" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1970-births", "american-male-screenwriters", "living-people", "american-lgbtq-film-directors", "gay-jews", "lgbtq-people-from-pennsylvania", "american-lgbtq-screenwriters", "people-from-lower-merion-township,-pennsylvania", "date-of-birth-missing-(living-people)", "film-directors-from-pennsylvania", "jewish-american-screenwriters", "yale-university-alumni", "usc-school-of-cinematic-arts-alumni", "screenwriters-from-pennsylvania", "21st-century-american-jews", "21st-century-american-lgbtq-people"] description: "American screenwriter and director" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Barnz" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American screenwriter and director ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Daniel Barnz |
| image | Daniel Barnz at the New York Premiere of Won't Back Down, September 2012.jpg |
| caption | Barnz at the New York premiere of Won't Back Down, September 2012 |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Gladwyne, Pennsylvania |
| occupation | Screenwriter, film director |
| years_active | 2008–present |
| children | 2 |
| :: |
| name = Daniel Barnz | image = Daniel Barnz at the New York Premiere of Won't Back Down, September 2012.jpg | caption = Barnz at the New York premiere of Won't Back Down, September 2012 | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = Gladwyne, Pennsylvania | occupation = Screenwriter, film director | notable works = | years_active = 2008–present | children = 2 | parents = | relatives =
Daniel Barnz (born 1970) is an American screenwriter and director.
Life and career
Barnz was born Daniel Bernstein in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. His parents, Richard J. Bernstein and Carol L. Bernstein, are both professors. He is openly gay and later changed his surname to an amalgamation of Bernstein and Schwartz, the surname of his partner of almost two decades, Ben Schwartz. The couple has two children. Barnz describes himself as "a Jewish liberal Democrat".
Barnz graduated from Yale University and the University of Southern California Film School. He made his directorial debut in the 2001 movie, The Cutting Room. He directed the 2009 movie, Phoebe in Wonderland, which received mixed reviews from critics. He wrote and directed a movie adaption of the novel Beastly, a modern-day take on Beauty and the Beast. The movie was released on 4 March 2011.
His film Won't Back Down (2012) received mixed reviews and garnered controversy; it was attacked by Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the predominant national teachers' union, as having "the most blatant stereotypes and caricatures I have ever seen-even worse than in Waiting for Superman", another film attacked as "anti-teacher union".
In 2014 he directed the film Cake starring Jennifer Aniston, which received mixed reviews. In 2015, the film was honored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration with a Voice Award for its respectful portrayal of mental health.
Filmography
Feature film ::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Phoebe in Wonderland | ||
| 2011 | Beastly | ||
| 2012 | Won't Back Down | ||
| 2014 | Cake | ||
| :: |
Television ::data[format=table] | Year | Title | Director | Writer | Executive Producer | Creator | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | 2021 | Generation | | | | | ::
Accolades
::data[format=table]
| Year | Award | Category | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Sundance Film Festival | Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Direction | Phoebe in Wonderland | |
| :: |
References
References
- Champagne, Christine, [https://www.variety.com/article/VR1117979142 "10 Directors to Watch: Daniel Barnz"], ''[[Variety (magazine). Variety]]'', 16 January 2008
- (22 April 2015). "Vanessa Hudgens: 'I Don't See People as Gay or Straight'".
- [http://www.moviefone.com/celebrity/daniel-barnz/2380177/biography "Bio: Daniel Barnz"] {{Webarchive. link. (11 August 2012 , ''[[Moviefone]]'')
- [https://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/17860 Title Treatment and New Hi-Res Look at 'Beastly']
- [[Lloyd Grove]]. ''Newsweek'', 1 & 8 October 2012, p. 6.
- "Winners of the 2015 Voice Awards".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::