D.J. MacHale
D.J. MacHale is a writer, director, executive producer and creator of several popular television series and movies.
He was raised in Greenwich, CT and graduated from Greenwich High School. While in school, he had several jobs including collecting eggs at a poultry farm, engraving sports trophies and washing dishes in a steakhouse...in between playing football and running track. D.J. then attended New York University where he received a BFA in film production.
His filmmaking career began in New York where he worked as a freelance writer/director, making corporate videos and television commercials. He also taught photography and film production.
D.J. broke into the entertainment business by writing several ABC Afterschool Specials. After moving to Los Angeles, he made the fulltime switch from informational films, to entertainment. As co-creator of the popular Nickelodeon series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?, he produced all 91 episodes over 8 years. He wrote and directed many of the episodes including the CableAce nominated The Tale of Cutter's Treasure starring Charles S. Dutton. He was nominated for a Gemini award for directing The Tale of the Dangerous Soup starring Neve Campbell.
D.J. also wrote and directed the movie Tower of Terror for ABC's Wonderful World of Disney which starred Kirsten Dunst and Steve Guttenberg. The Showtime series Chris Cross was co-created, written and produced by D.J. It received the CableAce award for Best Youth Series.
D.J. co-created and produced the Discovery Kids series Flight 29 Down for which he writes all the episodes and directs several. His work on Flight 29 Down has earned him both Writers Guild of America and Directors Guild of America award nominations.
Other notable writing credits include the classic ABC Afterschool Special titled Seasonal Differences; the pilot for the long-running PBS/CBS series Ghostwriter; and the HBO series Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective for which he received a CableAce nomination for writing.
In print, D.J. has co-written the book The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors, based on his own teleplay and penned the poetic adaptation of the classic Norwegian folk tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon.
The book series: Pendragon - Journal of an Adventure through Time and Space marks D.J.'s first turn as a novelist. He plans for this series of Young Adult adventures to span a total of 10 books.
D.J. lives in Southern California with his wife Evangeline and daughter Keaton. They are avid backpackers, scuba divers and skiers. Rounding out the household are a Golden Retriever, Maggie; and a Kitten, Kaboodle.
“We took the elevator back down from the first observation level of the Eiffel Tower and started walking in he direction of the Taj Mahal”
“It wasn't that I didn't trust Mark's flying, it was just that, okay, I didn't trust Mark's flying.”
“Before I can face the future, I must first deal with the past.”
“Spader and I were nearly killed. Three times. We were also robbed and witnessed a gruesome murder. Happy birthday to me!”
“Courtney came over to me and touched my cheek. I winced. It hurt.You look like hell," Courtney said.I shrugged.She looked at Saint Dane, then back at me. "He looks worse." She smiled. "Awesome.”
“I really suggest the Pendragon series to all readers unless you are afraid of gore!”
“In my few short years I learned that seeing what's positive about a situation is a lot more fun and gets you a lot further than looking for what might be wrong with it.”
“Defeat is most devastating at the moment of victory" Saint Dane”
“Whenever you look back and say, "If," you know you're in trouble. There's no such thing as "if." The only thing that counts is what really happened.”
“At least I thought it was a wall. It sure felt like one. It was hard. It was flat. It stretched out on either side of me. You know... wall.”
“I'm the terrorist, do what I say or I'll terrorize you.”
“I was disappointed in Coop. He hated being bored and so did I. He was always looking for different things to do and coming up with new adventures that kept us moving. That was his job. Trolling for girls at the beach was okay by me, but I didn't want it to be our sole focus. Besides, the girls I liked had more interesting things to do than spend every waking moment sitting around at the beach comparing tans.”
“There are two types of people in this world. People who hate clowns...and clowns. -Bobby Pendragon”
“I'm sorry I hurt your hand...with my face. -Bobby Pendragon”
“What exactly is a French before it's fried? -Vo Spader”
“Whenever you look back and say "if" you know you're in trouble. There is no such thing as "if". The only thing that matters is what really happened.”
“Max Rose: Vo? What kind of name is that? Spader: What kind of name is Rose? Isn't that some kind of flower?”
“What exactly is a french before it's fried?”
“Now it was just the three of us: the leader, the warrior, and the kid about to wet his pants. Guess who I was.”
“I hate clowns. I've mentioned that, right?”
“Because this is the way things are meant to be.(Press Tilton)”
“Hobey-Ho, let's go.”