Dan Milano

Career

Milano attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and SUNY Buffalo's summer arts program. While at NYU, Milano wrote for the student-run comedy magazine, The Plague. His first industry job was co-creating a series of shorts for the Independent Film Channel based on "Greg the Bunny," a puppet character Milano also performs.

Based on the main character from their public access series called "Junktape," Milano and friends took "Greg The Bunny" to 20th Century FOX as a 13-Episode prime-time series, produced by Neil Moritz and run by Steve Levitan. Milano exec-produced, wrote and performed on the series as characters "Greg the Bunny" and "Warren the Ape," alongside co-stars Sarah Silverman, Seth Green and Eugene Levy.

The relationship with Seth Green led to Milano's involvement as a writer and voice actor on Robot Chicken, Titan Maximum and Star Wars: Detours. Meanwhile, Milano and then-writing partner sold a spec feature to Laura Ziskin and Sony Pictures, called "Me & My Monster." Developed with effects wizard Stan Winston, the movie was in development with such directors as Neil Jordan, McG, and Jon Favreau (the latter having also appeared on an IFC Greg the Bunny Reunion Special.)

After the Fox series was canceled, "Greg" returned to IFC and eventually the spin-off series, "Warren the Ape" was created for MTV Networks. This 12-episode "reality show" about Warren's fallout in the post-Fox years co-starred Josh Sussman and Dr. Drew Pinsky.

Milano's film career had him working with his partner on development assignments for The Henson Company, Flower Films, The Donner's Company and more. Milano's solo credit on "Short Circuit" was written for producer of the original film David Foster and Dimension's Bob Weinstein.

Milano has sold pilots including "The Spaces", "Dad Monster Hunter (aka Shadowchasers)", and worked on shows such as, "Crash & Bernstein" (Director), and "Star Wars: Detours" (Writer/Actor).

Milano was never trained in puppetry but was obsessed with the art form as a child and built a talent for it. He has focused primarily on writing, developing for features and television but does occasionally work as a voice actor.

Trivia

Milano's wife Christa Starr was the name that inspired the lead character in Geoff Johns' adaptation of Marvel Comics' "Blade" for television. In the pilot her character shakes down a drug dealer named "Danny Milano."

Milano was the primary and in some cases only puppeteer in the early "Greg the Bunny" franchise, playing the roles of Greg, Warren the Ape, Count Blah, Pal Friendlies and The Wumpus. But for the FOX series, Milano himself assigned the role of Count Blah to puppeteer Drew Massey, who played him on that show. Milano re-assumed the character for his appearances on IFC, but enlisted Massey once again for a cameo role on MTV's "Warren the Ape."

Dan Milano and his collaborator Matthew Huffman are named in writer Hugh Sterbakov's "Freshmen" comic series for Top Cow - when the first series story climaxes at a location called the "Milano/Huffman" Dam. This was in thanks for early consultations the two made on the project.

Milano is an avid Ghostbusters fan and photos of his daughter in a hand-made "Mr. Stay Puft" costume fighting off a diorama of action figures went viral in 2012. His infant daughter was also the model for "The Walking Dead" when she donned a onesie and posed with an animatronic zombie in 2012, as credited in an article releasing the product line.