David E Tolchinsky

David E. Tolchinsky (born David Jan Edelson) is a screenwriter, playwright, sound designer, and academic. He is Chair of Northwestern University's Department of Radio-TV-Film and Founder/Director of Northwestern University School of Communication's MFA in Writing for the Screen+Stage.

As a screenwriter, his feature film Girl is distributed by iTunes and has been seen internationally. He has been commissioned by such studios as Touchstone/Disney, MGM, Ivan Reitman's Montecito Pictures, USA Networks, Edward R. Pressman Film Corp, and Addis-Wechsler & Assoc./Industry Entertainment to write feature screenplays. He is the author of original screenplays such as The Last Crash and Reflections on a Teenage Anti-Christ featured in a New York Times article about home offices. Some of his work centers on teen subcultures such as heavy-metal fans, Florida surfer teens, teen groupies, and female football players, particularly in relation to social decay. He is also interested in horror, both psychological and physical.

As a sound designer, he has designed the sound for interactive computer environments and video installations which have been exhibited internationally. In 2003, he was nominated for a Motion Picture Sound Editors Guild Golden Reel Award for his sound design for Dolly.

In 2008, he was appointed as a Northwestern University Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence. In 2009, he co-curated The Horror Show at Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs in New York City which explored horror in film, video, installation, photography, sculpture and painting and which was featured as a The Village Voice "Voice Choice for Art" and on their blog, and which was accompanied by a 32-page catalog. In 2011, he co-produced Debra Kahn Tolchinsky's Fast Talk, which investigates the accelerated speed of argumentation in college debate and which is available on iTunes and Amazon instant.

Recently, he published "Where's the Rest of Me?" a reflective essay about Spalding Gray in Paraphilia Magazine and co-curated with Debra Kahn Tolchinsky The Presence of Absence sponsored by the Contemporary Arts Council at Hairpin Arts Center in Chicago, chosen by Chicago Magazine as one of the "16 best art gallery shows to see now in Chicago" and described in The Huffington Post as "The space is gorgeous, the art solid, challenging, yet accessible. This is a wonderfully odd, powerful, thoughtful show". He was also ranked #14 on New City's Film 50 2013: Chicago’s Screen Gems, was the recipient of a 2014 Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship in Literature, and was voted Best Director for his play, Where's the Rest of Me? (which was nominated for Best Play and which was an adaptation of his essay), at the 2015 Riant Theatre One-Act Play Festival in New York City. Most recently, his play Clear was published in Issue 3 2015 of Proscenium Journal, he was ranked number 8 with Debra Kahn Tolchinsky on New City's Film 50 2015: Chicago’s Screen Gems, and he co-curated Sick by Seven (seven plays/films about mental health in the modern world) at A Red Orchid Theatre in Chicago as part of its Incubator Series.

He is a graduate of Yale (1985, BA, magna cum laude) and USC School of Cinematic Arts/School of Cinema-Television (1988, MFA). He continues to collaborate often with his spouse, the media artist Debra Kahn Tolchinsky.