Sandpaper

Danny Mooney has been a jack of all trades in the film world as a director, producer, actor and all-around multi-hyphenate storyteller. As an actor, he has worked in television and film under directors ranging from Drew Barrymore and Nick Stoller to Zack Snyder and George Clooney. In the theatre, Mooney has performed on small regional stages in the U.S all the way to the International Chekhov Festival in Moscow, Russia. Acting on the screen, Mooney has played across from such acting talent as Jason Segal, Elliot Page, Henry Cavill, Benecio Del Toro, Greta Gerwig, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ryan Gosling. In the 2007 Academy Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chose a short dance piece Mooney directed, called Do Fainne Sorcas, as a Finalist in the Oscars in the Student Alternative Category. Since then Mooney has been no stranger to top tier festivals with films premiering in Toronto, Berlin, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, the Hamptons, Nashville, three films premiering in Cannes (with one being nominated for the Palme d’Or), and world-premiering a feature film in the Sundance Film Festival where Mooney – in true indie filmmaking spirit – was both an actor and a cinematographer.
Mooney has produced nearly a dozen features since graduating from college in 2008, with highlights including the film Mooz-lum, starring Evan Ross, Nia Long and Danny Glover, which grossed more per screen than any other film in America for its opening weekend. Foster Boy, starring Matthew Modine, Shane Paul McGhie and Louis Gossett Jr., was one of the few films to receive a theatrical release in late 2020. Based on true events that took place in the American foster care system, Mooney executive produced the film along with Shaquille O’Neal with the hopes of raising awareness to the atrocities plaguing the current foster care infrastructure. In a similar socially-minded and conversation-starting mindset, Mooney produced the film Disfluency - a story based on true events that center around the nuanced aftermath and PTSD of a sexual assault, all wrapped up in the warm blanket of a summer coming-of-age dramedy. Disfluency took the Jury award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2021 Austin Film Festival and continues its journey on the festival circuit into 2022, so far winning numerous awards including the Jury’s Best Narrative Feature award at five festivals and counting.
The Vietnam-era true story, Love and Honor, marked Mooney’s feature directorial debut with a cast led by The Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth along with Teresa Palmer (Hacksaw Ridge, Warm Bodies), Austin Stowell (Colossal, Bridge of Spies) and Aimee Teegarden (Friday Night Lights). Distributed domestically by IFC Films, Love and Honor took an 8-week release in 30 cities in the U.S. and released on a much larger scale in theaters overseas. Upon ancillary release, the film climbed high on all the iTunes charts and hit #1 on the iTunes romance movie chart and remained on the Netflix “Trending Now” chart for nearly a year.
Mooney hails from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and received his Bachelors Degree from the University of Michigan with a major in Film Production from the Department of Screen Arts and Cultures, concentrating in directing, producing and cinematography. He also received a minor in Acting, Drama and Text-to-Performance from the University of Michigan RC Theatre Department.