Danny Mooney

Danny Mooney is a jack of all trades in the film world. Born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Mooney attended Pioneer High School, Michigan's largest at nearly 3,000 students. He became interested in performance when Pioneer announced the start of a school improv troupe. Mooney made the seven-person troupe and began balancing his time between acting and playing both hockey and lacrosse. He quickly fanned out from the improv comedy shows to hosting high school events and performing in sketch comedy and stand-up. He was then recruited to play roller hockey as a goalie for the University of Michigan and attended on an academic scholarship for Mechanical Engineering. While in college, Mooney opened for such talent as actor/comedian Dave Coulier ("Full House") and Comedy Central's Dane Cook World Tour-opener J. Chris Newberg. He then took a film class and shortly found his passion for filmmaking. So after a year of Engineering, Mooney transferred to Michigan's Department of Screen Arts and Cultures to pursue a Bachelors Degree in Film, concentrating in directing and cinematography. Danny Mooney has since been on the production side of over 35 short and feature films in the last four years. He has a full range of credits including Director, Producer, Director of Photography, Writer, and Editor. Mooney has worked professionally under numerous companies including 20th Century Fox, ABC/Disney, MTV Productions, and New Line Cinema. Though heavily into production work, Mooney has never stopped performing. While at University of Michigan, he received a minor in "Drama and Text to Performance" from the RC Theatre Program. To this date, Mooney has been cast in lead and minor parts in over 60 short and feature films, has done numerous voiceovers, and has appeared in several commercials and TV pilots. He has also performed in university theatre as well as professionally in Moscow, Russia, in the International Chekhov Theatre Festival. His awards at the University of Michigan-sponsored two-day Lightworks Film Festival as well as various other film festivals include "Best Screenplay," "Best Cinematography," "Best Editor," "Best Director," and "Best Actor" three times. Mooney was also one of three students at the University of Michigan in 2006 to win "The Trueblood Fellowship Award for Film Performance" (in both acting and directing), and one of three to win the award again in 2007.