Daniel Smith Coleman

Having had the unique experience of growing up on "Theater Row", I tend to be a little dramatic. The Coleman & Smith Artistic Company, or COLSAC, was the longest-running African-American owned and operated repertory theater in Los Angeles. When I wasn't in school, I was at the theater acting in musicals, rehearsing, operating lights and sound, stage managing, building sets, writing scripts, and so on. I was directly involved in over a hundred productions over the span of 10 years, breathing new life into the works of August Wilson, Lorraine Hansberrry, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Tennessee Williams, Thorton Wilder, Ntozake Shange, Charles Dickens, and Shakespeare. We also toured and held special events at the Wiltern, Barnsdale, the Ivar, Stella Adler, Wilshire Ebell, The Actor's Gang, Garden Pavilion, and The Complex.

I discovered the power of storytelling at a young age and was given my first opportunity to direct at 16. Despite my father's pleas for me to pursue a career in law, I decided to disappoint him by becoming an artist instead. At 19, I transitioned to film and have been here ever since. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

I'm inspired by the works of Stanley Kubrick, Paul Thomas Anderson, John Carpenter, Chloé Zhao, Sean Baker, Wes Anderson, Alfred Hitchcock, Hayao Miyazaki, Denis Villeneuve, Robert Eggers, David Lowery, Francis Ford Coppola, The Daniels, Martin Scorsese, Ben Stiller, and Yorgos Lanthimos.