Dan Mirvish

Early life and education

Mirvish was born to a Jewish family in Omaha, the son of Linda and Sidney Mirvish. His father was a prominent cancer researcher at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. In 1985, Mirvish graduated from Omaha Central High School. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Washington University in St. Louis. After school, he worked as a freelance journalist and as a speechwriter for Tom Harkin, U.S. Senator from Iowa before taking a sabbatical to travel around the world. He then returned to California to complete his education in film at the University of Southern California film school.

Career

In 1994, while still in school, he released his first feature film entitled Omaha as his master’s thesis for and then founded the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah after the film was not accepted at the Sundance Film Festival.

In 2009, he co-authored the satirical novel I Am Martin Eisenstadt: One Man's (Wildly Inappropriate) Adventures with the Last Republicans published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN 978-0-86547-914-2.

In 2016, Mirvish wrote the nonfiction book The Cheerful Subversive's Guide to Independent Filmmaking, published by Focal Press and Routledge ISBN 978-1138185128 The phrase "cheerful subversive" comes from a New York Times article describing the original Slamdance filmmakers.

Mirvish directed the film Between Us, based on the play of the same name by Joe Hortua. The four-person drama stars Taye Diggs, Melissa George, David Harbour and Julia Stiles. The original play premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club, and Hortua and Mirvish co-wrote the screenplay adaptation. The film version won the grand jury prize at the 2012 Bahamas International Film Festival, and was the Closing Night Film at the 50th Annual Gijón International Film Festival in Spain. The film had its world premiere at the Oldenburg International Film Festival, and also screened at such festivals as Athens International Film Festival, the Hamptons, Woodstock Film Festival, Slamdance Film Festival, Napa Valley Film Festival, and Whistler Film Festival.

Mirvish will be directing a film called Bernard and Huey, written by Oscar/Pulitzer/Obie-winner Jules Feiffer. Feiffer originally wrote the script in 1986 for the American cable channel Showtime, but it was never made. It is based on characters from Feiffer's eponymous Village Voice cartoon strip. The film will star Jim Rash and the cast includes Sasha Alexander, Bellamy Young, Richard Kind, Keelin Woodell, Lauren Miller Rogen, Shelby Fero, Jake O’Connor, Jay Renshaw, Mae Whitman, David Koechner, Eka Darville, and Nancy Travis.

In 2004, Mirvish spearheaded the effort to get the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to reactivate their Best Original Musical Oscar category. In a controversial move, the Academy canceled the category after Mirvish and others submitted the requisite number of films, including two by Mirvish.

Mirvish is widely credited as the discoverer of the Hathaway effect, which indicates that when actress Anne Hathaway is in the news, the share price for Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway increases.

He was also a speechwriter for Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa.

Filmography