Dan Davies

Dan Davies addressing the crowd at his Music Box Theatre premiere in Chicago, IL 2010
Born	Daniel Joseph Davies (1965-12-25) December 25, 1965 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Occupation	Actor; writer; producer
Years active	1994–Present

Daniel Joseph "Dan" Davies (born December 25, 1965) is an American actor, screenplay writer and producer. He has appeared in the romantic comedy Wienerfest (2009) and in 2010 he wrote, co-produced and starred as the main character Ed Gein in the film Ed Gein, The Musical (2010). He plays the role of Henry Seed in the upcoming West of Thunder (2015)

Early life

Davies was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.^[1]

Davies attended Waupaca High School in Waupaca, Wisconsin.^[2] While there he was a class president and a member of National Honor Society, Badger Boys State, Gifted and Talented Program, and Who's Who of American High School Students. He was awarded the VFW Citizenship Award and was a finalist for a Navy ROTC scholarship. He graduated in the top 5% of his class and his composite ACT score was high enough to qualify for Mensa.^[3][4] He received a B.A. degree in Political Science and English from the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse in 1988. ^[5] He is of predominant Irish-American ethnicity but he is also, in descending order, Welsh, Scottish and American Indian (Seneca of the Iroquois).

Career

1994 to present

Dan Davies as Ed Gein on the set of "Ed Gein, The Musical" Omro, WI 2009

Davies' first professional experience, from 1994–1996, was co-hosting, along with James Hoffman and ex-NFL player Blaise Winter, UPN-TV-32's "Who What When & Where." On that show he hosted a segment called "Our Home Town". It was an entertaining look at the history and people of small Midwestern towns.^[6] In 1994 he won the American Dream Festival World Comedy Contest sponsored by HBO and English Leather Cologne in Nassau, Bahamas.^[7] His winning stand-up routine was performed in front of almost 2000 people at the Crystal Ballroom in the Crystal Palace Casino. After his performance he met The Right Honourable Hubert Ingraham, the Prime Minister of the Bahamas.^[8]

In 1997, he wrote and hosted the video, The Games We Used to Play. This instructional video teaches kids how to be healthy by inspiring them to play the physically active games that used to be played before the advent of video games. Critiqued in a very positive fashion in over 250 newspapers nationwide by syndicated columnist and author Bob Greene.^[9]

From 1997-1998, he co-hosted and co-produced, along with Ron Bullock of Video Trend Associates, a cooking show called,"Sports' Cooking." It aired throughout the Midwest (NBC 26, Fox 11, UPN 32, WB 14, NBC 13, and Pax 55) and it was also co-hosted by Sara White and the late NFL great Reggie White. This unique cooking show featured nationally renown sports stars & sports fans cooking their favorite dishes in the kitchen. Some of their guests included 2-Time US Open winner and ESPN analyst Andy North, 5-time Olympic Gold Medalist Bonnie Blair, and former Wisconsin Governor and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson.^[10][11]

Davies was also a competitive natural bodybuilder, having competed in the mid to late 90s.^[12] Because of this he was inspired to write the "90% Solution", a health and fitness treatise in 2005. This book is the first in a series of ten that tackles a different aspect of the truly holistic person.^[13] Also throughout the 90s he was featured in national commercials for True Value Hardware and ITT Technical Colleges. He has done print modeling for Shopko, Kohl's, Fleet Farm, Tombstone Pizza, Kraft Foods, etc.^[14]

Davies hosted his own syndicated comedic radio show "The Swami" where he played Achmed Benaben (The Swami) from 1998-2001. This show was syndicated throughout the Midwest.^[7] From 2002 to 2004 he hosted two TV shows "Just for the Health of it" and "Now We're Cooking" for WPXE TV-55, WTPX TV-46 and MyNew32 WACY TV-32.^[15]

In 2005, Davies and Ron Bullock of Video Trend Associates won the Platinum Remi at the 38th Annual Houston International Film Festival (aka WorldFest).^[16][17]

In 2006, he and Ron, followed that up with a Silver Remi at WorldFest. That same year they also won Best Comedy at the 20th Annual Videomaker Magazine Video Contest ^[18] and Best Comedy at the Casablanca Futurevision Video Festival.^[19] In November 2006, Davies was featured on the CBS Evening News. Katie Couric and Steve Bassett, creator of the Geico ads, did an almost three-minute segment on funny political ads. Only six commercials were featured, and two of those six were created by Davies, Robert Lorge, and Video Trend Associates.^[20]

In late 2007, he started his own production company with Steve Russell. DaviesRussell, LLC is a full-service TV and film production house.^[21] One of their first productions was the Rex Piano directed Wienerfest (2009).^[22] Davies portrays the drunk yet musclebound and egotistical Hunter Rolph while Russell was the D.P.^[23][24] They also co-produced the critically acclaimed Mitakuye Oyasin (2009).^[25] It premiered at the 34th Annual American Indian Film Festival at the Landmark Embarcadero Cinema in San Francisco, California November 2009.^[26] This short was co-directed by Karen Walsh and Jody Marriott Bar-Lev. Bar-Lev was also the Executive Producer.^[27]

In 2008-2010 DaviesRussell co-produced, along with Blame Society Films, the internet sensation "Thor's Kitchen" This episodic short comedy starred the "Chad Vader" guys Matt Sloan, Aaron Yonda and Brad Knight.^[28][29] Davies portrayed a Sword and Sandal, slightly homoerotic, 1950s/60s, badly voice-dubbed Hercules. This comedy short has had over 1,000,000 views in the aggregate.^[30]

In 2010 "Ed Gein, The Musical" a micro-budget horror/musical/comedy in which he wrote, co-produced and played the titular character became a critical success^[31][32][33] and played in over 40 theaters with over 500 showings in ten states.^[34] It was written about in over 1000 articles^[35] and opened the door for Davies to write a new film, West of Thunder (2015). It is co-written and produced by Jody Marriott Bar-Lev and Sunka Wakan Dragonfly Film Studios.^[36][37] In it Davies plays the starring role of Henry Seed.^[38][39]

Davies is a frequent contributor to the "Scene"^[40] and "Nature's Pathways" ^[41] magazines and he also been featured and interviewed on NPR's "To the Best of Our Knowledge",^[42] Rex Sikes Movie Beat,^[7] PBS's "Director's Cut",^[43] Fox News National on "America's News HQ" with Shannon Bream, CBS Evening News and RTV's "Off Beat Cinema".^[20][44][45] He has also been mentioned and quoted on NPR's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me", Michael Feldman's "Whad'ya Know" the nationally syndicated radio program "Handel on the Law", PRI, WGN, KFI AM 640 in Los Angeles and WBBM 780 AM in Chicago and in print in The Financial Times, New York Daily News, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Houston Chronicle, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Hartford Courant, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Wisconsin State Journal, Arizona Daily Star, Connecticut Post, The Onion and Encore Magazine-New York.^[46]

Davies also co-stars with Sadie Kaye in "Miss Adventure meets Motorhead", that as of May 29, 2013 became the highest rated video of all-time on Will Ferrell/HBO's Funny or Die.^[47] It will also be seen, along with new episodes, on HBO's Funny or Die and Comedy Central (Europe). The next episode will be shot in Los Angeles Sept 2012 at the pre-premiere benefit screening of "West of Thunder". It will be directed by award-winning film and television director Craig Goodwill.^[48]

He also co-stars along with Raffaello Degrutolla, Michael Worth, Kacey Barnfield, Jane March, Ian Virgo, & Simone Lahbib in the much anticipated British comedy "Flim, the Movie." This movie premiered in London, England Oct 2014.^[49][50] It was nominated for Best Film (Raindance Award) at the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) December 2014.

References