Short Bio

Daniel “Danny” Boyd is an acclaimed filmmaker (Chillers, Strangest Dreams: Invasion of the Space Preachers, Paradise Park), a two-time television regional Emmy nominee, a multi-nominated graphic novelist (Chillers I & II, CARBON, SALT), and playwright (Paradise Park the Musical, Space Preachers Musical, and Broadway World WV Best Musical 2021, Miss Dirt Turtle’s Garden Club. His books include The Adventures of Wandala, Miss Dirt Turtle’s Garden Club, Tavey’s First Hunt and WrestleDreamia, all Gold Mom’s Choice Award Winners. Boyd’s first novella, God’s Pool in Particle Park, will be released in 2025.

A retired media studies professor at West Virginia State University, Boyd also taught around the world including in Tanzania as a three-time Fulbright Scholar.

Long Bio

Daniel “Danny” Boyd, a West Virginian, has degrees in Communications (West
Virginia University) and Filmmaking (University of Arkansas). Beginning his
filmmaking career making documentaries, Boyd’s early projects took him from the
hobo “jungles” of the U.S. (Homeless Brother) to the war-torn mountains of
Guatemala (Marcos de San Marcos). Several of Boyd’s short narrative films were
featured on regional and national television in the early and mid-eighties.

His first feature film, CHILLERS, was released in 1988. Still in international video
and television distribution, this horror feature was awarded the Silver Scroll for
excellence from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films in Los
Angeles. Boyd’s second feature, a science fiction/comedy, Strangest Dreams (aka,
Invasion of the Space Preachers), premiered on the USA Network in 1991. It remains
in domestic and international video and television distribution through
TROMA. Boyd’s third feature film, Paradise Park (aka, Heroes of the Heart), a
dramatic-fantasy, received Gold Awards at the Houston International Film Festival
and the Chicago International Film Festival, was selected for the Breckenridge
Festival of Film, and presented at the Kennedy Center as part of the American Film
Institute’s, American Independents series.

Boyd retired as a professor of media studies at West Virginia State University after
33 years of teaching in 2016. He actively involved his filmmaking students in his
professional projects. In 1994, Boyd established the Paradise Film Institute at

WVSU for the purpose of supporting filmmaking in the state through resource
services, production support, foreign exchanges, and continuing education. PFI
established travel/study/production exchange partnerships with film schools in
Tanzania, Russia, the Czech Republic, Venezuela, and Belize. As a three-time U.S.
Fulbright Scholar, Boyd taught the first filmmaking and screenwriting classes at the
University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, during the 98-99 academic year in East
Africa. Recipient of a 2002 Fulbright Alumni Award, Boyd partnered with the
University of Dar es Salaam on the pilot program TeleDrum (teaching filmmaking to
American and African students while producing films for international aid
organizations), resulting in the award-winning films, Duara and Sound the Drum.

Boyd also photographed and wrote travel-adventure related freelance articles for
numerous publications, including Wonderful West Virginia Magazine. His first-
person experiences have included dirt track racing, rodeo bull riding, climbing
Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) and bicycling hundreds of miles of West Virginia
outback. While researching an article in the fall of 2004, at 48, Boyd was able to
experience a life-long dream of working in professional wrestling. He worked over
100 matches, for nearly a dozen federations, including for Rings of Europe in
Austria and AAA in Mexico.

Boyd teamed with William Bitner to co-write the illustrated novel, Death Falcon
Zero Vs the Zombie Slug Lords (2008). Rekindling his childhood love of comic books,
Boyd embraced the modern graphic novel format, as he sees as “cinema on the
page.” His critically acclaimed graphic novels, CHILLERS 1 (2012, Transfuzion) &
CHILLERS 2 (2013, Caliber) were followed by his epic eco-horror tale, CARBON
(2014, Caliber).  The sequel, SALT (2016, Caliber), completed the CARBON
storyline. Citing Rod Serling as his biggest professional influence, Boyd believes that
the more serious and controversial a subject, the more “sensational” the storytelling
devices need to be in order to reach a larger audience. “We must entertain before we
can enlighten,” says Boyd. “Films of the fantastic and graphic novels can often make
sensitive issues more approachable.”

A National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities
fellow, Boyd has also won awards in documentary, horror, comedy and dramatic
filmmaking, as well as screenwriting. He was named, “Filmmaker of the Year” by
the West Virginia Filmmakers Festival in 2003. Three of Boyd’s archeology
documentaries, Red Salt & Reynolds (04), Ghosts of Green Bottom (05), and Secrets of
the Valley won Telly awards, and earned two regional Emmy nominations.

Expanding into musical theater, Boyd and Gold/Platinum albums recipient and
NPR’s Mountain Stage co-creator and host, Larry Groce, collaborated on the staged

musical adaptation of Paradise Park commissioned by Theater West Virginia and
premiered in June 2018. In 2019 Boyd collaborated with composer Mark Scarpelli
on Space Preachers the Musical. Boyd and Groce also wrote the children’s musical,
Miss Dirt Turtle’s Garden Club (Broadway World WV Best Musical 2021).

Boyd also wrote the multi—award winning children’s books, The Adventures of
Wandala, Miss Dirt Turtle’s Garden Club, Tavey’s First Hunt, and WrestleDreamia
(Headline Books). His first novella, God’s Pool in Particle Park is coming out in 2025
(Mountain State Press).

Boyd’s oldest daughter, Danielle, is an attorney in Hollywood, FL, and his youngest,
Georgia, is a financial analyst near Baltimore.