Danny Lee

• 
• 
• 
• 

Born and raised in Los Angeles, writer/director Danny Lee was recently featured in Paper Magazine’s 10th Annual Beautiful People issue, highlighting him as one of the filmmakers to watch. Lee made his feature film debut with the critically acclaimed ROCK FRESH, a candid documentary of graffiti artists making the leap to commercial art. The film world premiered at the AFI Fest where Variety singled it out as one of the films to watch. In 2005, the film was acquired by Showtime where it averaged 2-5 airdates per week over a 2-year window. The film also enjoyed a broad domestic and international DVD release.

In 2006, Lee wrote and directed his narrative debut KING OF HOLLYWOOD, a dark comedy about a street hustler trying to make it in Tinseltown. The film stars Ice-T, Peter Greene, Federico Castelluccio, Ike Turner, Glenn Plummer, and more. In addition, Lee has directed and edited music videos for Taz Arnold, Substance Abuse, and Kool Keith; MAKING THE VIDEO: T.I. for MTV; an award-winning commercial for FIVE FOUR; edited a variety of featurettes including Fox’s hit show LIE TO ME; and produced a variety of short docs for Current TV including the WALE, ALOE BLACC, and HAN CHOLO pods.

In addition to Paper Magazine, Lee has been featured in Variety, Hollywood Reporter, GQ, LA Weekly, 944, URB, BPM, Rime, Vapors, Koream, and Remix; appeared on TV on the WB and KJLA; and heard of radio on KCRW, KXLU, and KUCI. Also an active member in the film community, Lee served as a Blue Ribbon Judge for the NAMIC awards between 2005-2007 and is currently serving on the advisory board for the Bel Air Film Festival. In 2008, he was a fellow for Film Independent’s Project: Involve program, as well as KOFIC’s (Korean Film Council) Filmmaker Development Lab, where Lee was named winner and his script WINTER WAR was given the Best Project Award, along with a cash grant.

After graduating from the University of California Santa Barbara Film Theory program, Lee began his entertainment career at Shooting Gallery, but cut his teeth at Lionsgate where he was instrumental in the production of films such as MONSTER’S BALL, CONFIDENCE, SHATTERED GLASS, and RULES OF ATTRACTION. Inevitably he formed his own production company Calico Works, which has produced numerous projects since its inception in 2002. Currently, Calico is in pre-production with three features – BACKPACKERS with Evan Ross; WINTER WAR; and DON’T CALL ME GERRY COONEY - all of which Lee wrote and is attached to direct. Lee is also in post-production on THE CLINIC, a half hour comedy series starring Joe Hursley. Lee is repped by Paradigm. More info at dannyleeworks.com.