Dagen Merrill

Dagen Mer­rill a writer and direc­tor got his first pro­fes­sional film job at age 13 work­ing pyrotech­nics in the jun­gles of West­ern Samoa. He received his MFA from the Uni­ver­sity of South­ern California’s Peter Stark Pro­duc­ing Pro­gram and is an Hon­orary Fel­low of the Amer­i­can Film Insti­tute (AFI).

Dagen was named a Coca-Cola Refresh­ing Film­maker and his short film Accom­plice placed him as a top four final­ist in the Project Green­light com­pe­ti­tion at Sun­dance Film Fes­ti­val. At the 2006 Cannes Lions Fes­ti­val he was included in the Saatchi & Saatchi New Director’s Show­case as one of twenty-five emerg­ing direct­ing tal­ents worldwide.

In 2006 he com­pleted shoot­ing Beneath, a suspense-genre fea­ture film for Para­mount Clas­sics and MTV Films that he directed and co-wrote with his writ­ing part­ner Kevin Burke. They are both cur­rently under con­tract with Kick­start Pro­duc­tions (Painkiller Jane, Wanted) adapt­ing the comic book Necrotic.

Dagen wrote and directed Bro­ken Hill, an inde­pen­dent fea­ture film shot in the Aus­tralian outback.

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