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 ...

Early life

Dannelly was born in Würzburg, Germany then moved with his family to Baltimore, Maryland at age 11. He was raised Catholic; he attended a Catholic elementary school, Arlington Baptist High School in Baltimore, and a

Jewish summer camp A Jewish summer camp is a summer camp dedicated to Jewish communities. In the United States these camps grew in popularity in the years after World War II and the Holocaust as an effort by American Jewish leaders to preserve and produce authentic ...

. 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, saying "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 at the age of 17 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 university, public research university in Catonsville, Maryland named after Baltimore County, Maryland, Baltimore County. It had a fall 2022 enrollment of 13,991 students, 61 un ...

with a degree in visual arts in 1997.

Career

Dannelly wrote and directed the short film "He Bop" in 2000, and in 2004, he made the feature film ''

'', which he directed and co-wrote with Michael Urban. He had begun to write the ''Saved!'' script after the

Columbine High School massacre A school shooting and attempted bombing occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The perpetrators, twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 13 students and one teach ...

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 The AFI Conservatory is a private non-profit graduate film school in the Hollywood Hills district of Los Angeles. Students (called "Fellows") learn from the masters in a collaborative, hands-on production environment with an emphasis on storyte ...

. Much of the story was drawn from his own experiences with "conservative Christian subculture", including

Christian rock Christian rock is a form of rock music that features lyrics focusing on matters of Christian faith, often with an emphasis on Jesus in Christianity, Jesus. This music is typically performed by Christians, Christian individuals. The extent to whi ...

concerts, being "this gay kid in a Christian school" and having visions of Jesus. He said "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 became a regular series director on the television show ''

Weeds A weed is an unwanted plant of any species. Weed or weeds may also refer to: Places * Weed, Arkansas, an unincorporated community in the United States * Weed, California, a city in the United States * Weed, Kentucky, an unincorporated communit ...

''. He 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 lif ...

''' 2007 episode "Corpsicle". His most recent film, ''Runner Up'', about a beauty pageant queen who organizes a pageant in a women's prison, is currently in production. He was set to direct a film based on '' The Guided Man'' by

L. Sprague de Camp Lyon Sprague de Camp (; November 27, 1907 – November 6, 2000) was an American author of science fiction, Fantasy literature, fantasy and non-fiction literature. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, both novels and works of ...

, but the project was shelved. He has written the

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 ...

titled ''Army Geek''. In 2017, Dannelly worked as a director on two episodes of the second season of the Netflix series ''

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

'', 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 creation and portrayal of the Internet character Miranda Sings, posting videos of the character on YouT ...

(

Miranda Sings Miranda Sings is a fictional character, created and portrayed by American comedian, actress, singer and YouTube personality Colleen Ballinger, that first appeared on the Internet in 2008.Haden, Tyler"Miranda Sings to Santa Barbara" ''Santa Barbar ...

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 O ...

and

Erik Stocklin Erik Flynn Stocklin (born September 24, 1982) is an American actor. He is known for his recurring roles on television series such as ''Mistresses'', ''Stalker'' and '' Good Trouble'', and for his leading role in the Netflix original series ''Ha ...

References

External links

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