Danny Strong
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Danny Strong (born Template:Birth based on age as of date<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>) is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. As an actor, Strong is best known for his roles as Jonathan Levinson in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doyle McMaster in Gilmore Girls and Danny Siegel in Mad Men. He also wrote the screenplays for Recount, the HBO adaptation Game Change, The Butler, and co-wrote the two-part finale of The Hunger Games film trilogy, Mockingjay – Part 1 and Mockingjay – Part 2. Strong also is a co-creator, executive producer, director, and writer for the Fox series Empire and created, wrote and directed the award-winning Hulu miniseries Dopesick.
Strong has won two Emmy Awards, two Writers Guild of America Awards, a Producers Guild of America Award, two Peabody Awards and an NAACP Image Award.
Early life
Strong was born in Manhattan Beach, California.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He grew up in a Jewish family of Lithuanian, Russian, and Polish origin.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He began acting at a young age. As a child, Strong rented videos from Video Archives and became friends with Quentin Tarantino, who worked there as a clerk: "I would just literally sit and chat with him for 45 minutes, an hour at a time about movies, and he got me turned on to all these different movies that 10-year-olds don't see."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> By the time he was 10, Strong became more infatuated with the world of film and was sending his photo to agents.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Strong attended Mira Costa High School,<ref name="MCHSalumni">Template:Cite web</ref> and then studied film and theatre at the University of Southern California.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Career
Acting
Strong is known for playing Jonathan Levinson on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Paris Geller's boyfriend Doyle McMaster on Gilmore Girls; he has also appeared in films such as Pleasantville, Dangerous Minds, Seabiscuit, the spoof Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth, and was in the film Sydney White as the Grumpy dork, Gurkin. Strong has also had guest parts in sitcoms such as Seinfeld, Clueless, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Over the Top, Grey's Anatomy, Boy Meets World and How I Met Your Mother and has also guest-lectured in acting classes on finding a job as an actor. In the popular AMC series Mad Men he played Danny Siegel, a young man with no talent, trying to break into the advertising industry, later making a career in Hollywood. Strong also appeared on the HBO series Girls in the third and fourth seasons; and appeared on the fifth and sixth seasons of Justified as Albert Fekus, a rapist prison guard. He also starred in Billions as Todd Krakow, Secretary of the Treasury. Strong was set to appear in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as Dean Martin,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but his scenes were cut from the film.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Writing
At 25, in the hopes of being the lead actor in his own film, Strong wrote a dark comedy about two men who kill an elderly man for his rent-controlled apartment.<ref name=duca/> The film never materialized, but it sparked his desire to become a full-time writer.<ref name=duca/> His first successful script was Recount, a film about the 2000 US Elections, produced by HBO and directed by Jay Roach.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The film starred Kevin Spacey, Laura Dern, Denis Leary, John Hurt and Tom Wilkinson and premiered on May 25, 2008.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The script had been voted number one on the 2007 Hollywood Black List,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a list of the "most liked" but unproduced scripts as voted on by the Hollywood community and insiders.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Strong was nominated for a 2008 Emmy Award for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special for Recount. The film was nominated for Best Television Miniseries or Film at the 66th Golden Globe Awards and won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie as well as the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay for a Television movie.<ref>Academy of Television Arts & Sciences</ref>
Strong followed up Recount with the 2012 film adaptation of Game Change, based on the book written by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The film starred Julianne Moore and aired on HBO on March 10, 2012.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2012, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special for Game Change.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The film was also awarded a Peabody Award, which recognizes distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In February 2012, he was hired to write the screenplay for the film adaptation of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, whose production has been stalled since 2013.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Strong wrote the screenplay for the film The Butler.<ref>DODES, RACHEL August 9, 2013, "All the Butler's Presidents". Wall Street Journal. 262 (34):D5</ref> Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker starred in the film and it was directed by Lee Daniels.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The script was voted onto the 2010 Hollywood Black List.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was released in August 2013 and grossed over $100 million in the US box office.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He also had a cameo in the film. Template:Quote box In December 2013, Strong signed on to pen the new screenplay for the film adaptation of the musical Guys and Dolls, which originally premiered on Broadway in 1950.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Strong also co-created the TV series Empire with Daniels in 2014, for which he has written and directed multiple episodes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Strong co-wrote the two-part Mockingjay, the finale of The Hunger Games series.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Part 1 was released on November 21, 2014, and Part 2 was released on November 20, 2015.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In October 2021, Strong released Dopesick, a Hulu exclusive miniseries exploring the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma's role in the opioid epidemic in the United States.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The series was influenced by Beth Macy's book by the same name and starred Michael Keaton, who earned a SAG award for his performance.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The critically acclaimed show was nominated for 14 Emmy Awards and won the Peabody Award along with many other awards and honors.
Strong wrote the book for the rock musical Galileo, which premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and had a limited run in summer of 2024.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Strong also wrote the book for the late 2025 Broadway revival of Chess in early 2025, after having written an earlier book and collaborating with director Michael Mayer on a 2018 Kennedy Center production of Chess, the same director for the late 2025 Broadway revival. Previews of the Broadway revival of Chess begin on October 15, with opening night slated for November 16.
Directing
Strong made his directorial debut with the biographical film on the life of author J. D. Salinger, Rebel in the Rye.<ref name="Apr2014THR">Template:Cite news</ref> The film premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was distributed by IFC Films. He followed this up by directing the last two episodes of the award-winning limited series Dopesick for he which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Directors Guild Award for Best Director of a Limited Series. He has also directed several episodes of Empire.
Personal life
Strong became engaged to actress Caitlin Mehner on December 29, 2016, in Hawaii after meeting her three years earlier.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Awards and nominations
References
External links
- 1970s births
- 20th-century American male actors
- 21st-century American male actors
- 21st-century American screenwriters
- Male actors from Manhattan Beach, California
- American male film actors
- American male screenwriters
- American male television actors
- American male voice actors
- American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent
- American people of Polish-Jewish descent
- American people of Russian-Jewish descent
- Empire (2015 TV series)
- Jewish American male actors
- Jewish American screenwriters
- Jewish American television writers
- Television writers from California
- Living people
- American male television writers
- Primetime Emmy Award winners
- American showrunners
- USC School of Dramatic Arts alumni
- Writers Guild of America Award winners
- Mira Costa High School alumni
- Year of birth missing (living people)