Daniel Knauf

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Knauf attended several colleges in Southern California studying fine art, and later graduated from the California State University, Los Angeles with a bachelor's degree in English in 1982.{{Cite web |title=Daniel Knauf: Creator/Executive Producer |url=http://www.hbo.com/carnivale/cast/crew/daniel_knauf.shtml |publisher=HBO |accessdate=May 2, 2008}} He began work as an employee benefits consultant and later a health insurance broker, writing once he was able to support himself and his family financially.{{Cite web |last=Tuohy, Wendy |date=December 16, 2004 |title=Freaking hell |url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/TV--Radio/Freaking-hell/2004/12/14/1102787083353.html |publisher=The Age |accessdate=May 2, 2008}}

Hoping to become a screenwriter, Knauf's first draft of Carnivàle, written in 1992,{{Cite web |title="The Making of a Magnificent Delusion": Daniel Knauf |url=http://www.hbo.com/carnivale/behind/daniel_knauf.shtml |publisher=HBO |accessdate=May 2, 2008 |archive-date=June 6, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080606083056/http://www.hbo.com/carnivale/behind/daniel_knauf.shtml |url-status=dead }} was 180 pages long and twice the length of the average feature film.{{Cite web |last=Baird |first=Jonathan David |title=The Enquiring Hitchhiker Interviews Daniel Knauf Creator of the TV Series Carnivale |url=http://nukemars.com/?p=1096 |publisher=The Freehold |accessdate=September 5, 2013}} Convinced the screenplay could not work as either a standard television series or a film, he put it aside, planning to one day adapt it into a novel. Carnivàle evolved as a result of Knauf's childhood fascination with carnivals and his interest in "freaks", due in part to the childhood polio that confined his father to a wheelchair, which Knauf felt his father was defined by. After meeting with a number of television writers at a Writers Guild of America retreat in the mid-90s, he started to think that his screenplay might work as a television piece. He took the first act and reworked it as a television pilot, but shelved the script again when he could not get the project produced.

Knauf went on to write the 1994 HBO-produced television movie Blind Justice,{{Cite web |last=Frankel, Daniel |date=June 16, 2004 |title=Carnivale: Where mysticism's often meted out in meticulously slow fashion |url=https://www.variety.com/article/VR1117906608.html?categoryid=1734&cs=1 |publisher=Variety |accessdate=May 2, 2008}} and, during a low-point in his screenwriting career, created his own website, posting his resume and Carnivàle's first act online. He created the 2001 television pilot Honey Vicarro and was a writer and consulting producer for the television series Wolf Lake. He was also writer and director on the 2002 film Dark Descent (his sole directing credit) before a television production scout brought Carnivàle to television producers Scott Winant and Howard Klein, who brought it to HBO where the series ended up being produced, twelve years after Knauf had first drafted the script.

Since Carnivàle was cancelled in 2005, Knauf has moved on to write for Supernatural and Standoff, also serving as a co-executive producer on Standoff. He worked as a writer for the Christian Slater drama My Own Worst Enemy in 2008.

From 2006 to 2008, he and his son Charles Knauf wrote issues #7–18 & #21–28 of Iron Man Vol.4 (later retitled Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.) for Marvel Comics,.{{Cite web |last=Weiland, Jonah |date=September 27, 2005 |title="Carnivale" Creator Daniel Knauf to Write "Iron Man" |work=Comic Book Resources |url=http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=5722 |publisher=Comic Book Resources |accessdate=May 2, 2008}} In 2008 they wrote a 9 issue The Eternals series.{{Cite web |last=Minnick, Remy |date=July 27, 2007 |title=CCI: Charles & Daniel Knauf: Waking Up from An Eternal Slumber |work=Comic Book Resources |url=http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=10960 |publisher=Comic Book Resources |accessdate=May 2, 2008}}{{Cite web |date=June 11, 2008 |title=Eternal Glory of the King: Knaufs talk "Eternals" |url=http://www.omicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16764 |website=Comic Book Resources }}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

In July 2008, he and Charles had completed & submitted a four-hour TV-movie script for Syfy.Rogers, Vaneta. [http://www.newsarama.com/tv/080729-PhantomSciFi.html "SDCC '08 - The Knaufs Bring the Phantom to Sci Fi"], Newsarama, July 29, 2008 It was ordered as a 4-hour miniseries (in 2 parts), meant as a backdoor pilot for the network. Produced by Muse Entertainment and RHI Entertainment, with Paolo Barzman directing.{{cite news|title= Phantom' Mini-Series Gets Greenlight |publisher= Cinema Spy|url= http://www.cinemaspy.com/Television-News/Phantom-Mini-Series-Gets-Greenlight/2559|access-date=2011-01-13}} Ultimately the network did not option it as a series.

He was a consulting producer for the latter part of the first season of historical action drama Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Knauf wrote two episodes for the first season. Knauf co-wrote with Andrea Berloff and Caleb Pinkett the script for a mystery thriller, The Legend of Cain,{{Cite web |date=October 18, 2012 |title=Image Gallery and Preview of Supernatural Episode 8.04 - Bitten |url=https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/38593/image-gallery-and-preview-of-supernatural-episode-8-04-bitten/}} but it has not been produced.

Knauf was the writer and showrunner of the short-lived NBC series Dracula, before joining the staff of The Blacklist with the beginning of season two.

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{{Commons category|Daniel Knauf}}

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Category:Television producers from California

Category:Television writers from California

Category:Film producers from California

Category:American male screenwriters

Category:American comics writers

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people

Category:American male television writers

Category:Film directors from Los Angeles