Dan Angel

Education and career

Dan Angel, a multiple Emmy, Peabody and WGA award-winning writer and producer has been creating and supervising quality film and television production for over twenty years. His broad range of experience includes an extensive background in many genres from Horror and Science Fiction to branded family entertainment in all formats. He has been responsible for some of the biggest successes in both family series and long form movies over the past two decades.

Currently Angel is a Partner and Chief Creative Officer at EveryWhere Studios. He is also a partner in the newly formed Canadian Production Company, 50 Degrees North, a partnership with Vancouver Film Studios. He is producing a new film for Universal 1440 Productions, Cop and a Half, starring Lou Diamond Phillips and Lulu Wilson. In addition he is prepping a new one-hour family dramedy series, Date My Dad, starring Barry Watson and Raquel Welch for UPTV. Both of these projects will premiere in 2017.

This past year he produced a number of high-profile TV and Cable movies including R.L. Stine’s Monsterville: The Cabinet of Souls for Universal’s 1440 Productions. Monsterville premiered on Netflix and earned seven Emmy nominations and two wins. Mr. Angel also produced three new films for The Hallmark Channel based on America’s best selling faith-based author, Karen Kingsbury. The Bridge, The Bridge 2 and A Time to Dance were ratings winners for the channel and the Bridge films became the highest rated in The Hallmark Channel’s history. A new deal has been made to produce four more Kingsbury titles for 2017and 2018.

In 2015 Angel Produced three films for Lifetime from the V.C. Andrews best-selling book collection. If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday and My Sweet Audrina were all well received and a fourth title, Heaven, has been put into development for 2017.

Angel is also developing a number of family and inspirational projects at EveryWhere Studios including scripted family shows based on the popular best-selling books, The Great Brain and The Sammy Keyes Mysteries. Other projects in development include an adaptation of the New York Times best-selling book, Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper, a partnership with Big Beach Films and a series of films for Hallmark based on the best-selling Godwinks books by Squire Rushnell. The Richard Luttrell Story and The Robert Gurrerro Story, two true story dramatic feature films are in development as well.

From 2010- 2014, Angel Executive Produced three hit shows for the family network, The Hub, The Haunting Hour, Dan Vs. and Spooksville were all ratings winners and received numerous honors. The Haunting Hour was adapted from the master of kid’s thrillers, R.L. Stine. Angel produced and wrote 76 episodes of this new anthology series with his partner Billy Brown. The Haunting Hour launched in January 2011 and was a ratings leader for The Hub for its entire run. The Haunting Hour was nominated for 28 Emmy’s and won 7, including the coveted Outstanding Children’s Series award 3 years in a row. The Haunting Hour also won the Parent’s Choice Award 3 years in a row, the Cynopsis Kids Award for Best Kids 2-11 Series: the Kidscreen Winner for Best Kids Series in the Tweens/Teen category, honors from the Television Critics Association and CableFAX for Best Family Series. It received over 50 awards and honors during its four-season run.

Angel enjoyed similar success with the animated comedy series, Dan Vs. A hit series for The Hub's primetime lineup, Dan Vs. starring Curtis Armstrong and Dave Foley launched in January 2011 and ran for 53 episodes. Dan Vs. was also a ratings leader on The Hub and garnered a number of honors and awards including 5 nominations for Daytime Emmys, including Outstanding Special Class Animated Program for 2013 and 2014. Dan Vs. also won Best Animated Series in the Tween/Teen Category at Kidscreen.

Angel’s third series for The Hub was Spooksville, another family thriller show based on the best-selling Chris Pike books. Mr. Angel completed 22 episodes with partners Jane Startz and Billy Brown and won a number of honors including Emmy nominations for Best Writing in Children’s series and Outstanding Children’s Series.

Previously Angel was the Chief Creative Officer of The Hatchery, a family entertainment production company and partnership with Margaret Loesch and Peter Guber. During his ten-years at the Hatchery, he produced and developed a number of television programs in both live action and animation. Mr. Angel was responsible for managing all project development, sales and production.

In 2009 Angel Executive Produced Christmas in Canaan starring Billy Ray Cyrus. Christmas in Canaan was Hallmark Channel’s event Christmas movie for 2009 and it premiered with record breaking ratings, leading The Hallmark Channel to their highest rated week in network history. It also received a number of awards and honors. The sequel, Christmas Comes Home to Canaan, aired on December 17, 2011 on the Hallmark Channel.

In 2009 Angel was also responsible for the inspirational film Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story. He served as the Executive Producer on this event movie for TNT. It stars Cuba Gooding Jr. and Kimberly Elise and was directed by Thomas Carter. Gifted Hands had its worldwide premiere on TNT on February 7, 2009 and won the night, beating out all network and cable programming. Gifted Hands was nominated for a number of honors including a Humanitas Prize, A Critics Choice for Best Picture, four Emmy nominations and it won a number of awards including Best Picture Made for Television at the Image Awards and Best Picture at The Movie Guide Awards. It continues to be a best-selling DVD for Sony/Affirm.

In 2007 Angel and partner Billy Brown wrote and produced the Direct to DVD movie R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour: Don’t Think About It. It was a co-production with Universal 1440 Productions and premiered on The Cartoon Network to record ratings, earning him a WGA writing award nomination for Best Writing in Children’s Long Form. The Halloween DVD continues to sell well around the world.

Angel also worked closely with American Greetings to help develop a number of their brands into television series. Those properties included Twisted Whiskers, Sushi Pack, Mariyoku Yummy, and The Care Bears Movie. Twisted Whiskers and Maiyoku Yummy launched on The Hub and were a major part of their family block.

In 2004 Angel did double duty producing 130 episodes of the game show Balderdash and 13 episodes of the swashbuckling adventure Young Blades, both for the PAX network under a deal with NBC. He also served as the writer and creator of both shows.

Among his other noteworthy accomplishments, Angel secured the movie rights to the inspiring story of Bill Porter after seeing an interview on ABC’s “20/20”. The culmination of a four-year effort by Angel, during which he gathered a top-notch creative team of talent including actor William H. Macy, Kyra Sedgewick and Helen Mirren, was the production of a two-hour movie event based on Porter’s life entitled Door to Door.

Angel served as Executive Producer of the movie, which he had sold to TNT and Johnson and Johnson. In 2003 Door to Door was not only one of the most watched, but also one of the most honored movies of all time including AFI, Peabody, Emmy and Critics Choice honors. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences nominated Door to Door with more Prime Time Emmy nominations than any other program that year, twelve, and it won six Emmy Awards, the most of any program for that year, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie, Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie; Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries Movie or Dramatic Special; and Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special. The six Emmy wins for Door to Door made it the most-ever garnered for a single program for TNT.

Previously, from 1995 through 1998, Angel won recognition when he Co-produced, co-wrote and co-story edited the number one hit show, Goosebumps for FOX Kids Network, winning the WGA Award for Best Children’s Writing, and a Gemini nomination for Best Children’s Series. TV Guide picked Goosebumps two years in a row as one of the best kid’s shows on television. Goosebumps enjoys continuing success as one of the highest rated series on Netflix.

From 1997 to 1998, Angel and his partner, Billy Brown, served as Story Editor/Writers on the FOX TV hit, The X-Files. 1998 was the only year the writing staff of this popular series took home a Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Writing.

Angel also served as Supervising Producer, in 1998, on Animorphs, a television series adaptation of the hit book series for Scholastic Productions and Nickelodeon.

From 1999 through 2001, Angel had an overall writing/producing deal with The Jim Henson Company where, with his writing partner Billy Brown, he developed and supervised a variety of projects including Brats of the Lost Nebula, which aired on the WB Network and was selected as one of the ten best new children’s programs by TV Guide for 1999. In 2001, Angel created two primetime series, The Fearing Mind for the Jim Henson Company and the FOX Family cable channel and Night Visions for Warner Brothers and FOX TV Network. Night Visions was reprised in 2003 on the Sci-Fi Channel for a number of years and in 2008 Chiller TV reprised it again.

In 2002, Angel served as Executive Producer and co-writer with Billy Brown for a two-hour original script for the revival of the Battlestar Galactica series as part of a development deal with Studio USA. Also in 2002, Angel created, wrote and Executive Produced a drama pilot for the WB television network called Shadow Walkers.

Among Angel’s other credits are: Creator, Writer, Executive Producer of the Ace-Award Nominated John Carpenter Presents: Body Bags for Showtime, and Supervising Writer of Foxboro Entertainment’s National Lampoon’s Ahead of Its Time.

Angel is a graduate of the UCLA Film School. He currently lives with his wife in Santa Clarita, California.

Personal life

Angel is married to Cindy Angel. The couple lives in the Burbank area. They have three children: daughters Jessica and Nikki, and son Matt Angel (born October 23, 1990), who is an actor.