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.^[1] 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.^[2][1]

Hoping to become a screenwriter, Knauf's first draft of Carnivàle, written in 1992,^[3] was 180 pages long and twice the length of the average feature film.^[4] 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.^[3] 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.^[3][2] 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.^[2]

Knauf went on to write the 1994 HBO-produced television movie Blind Justice,^[5] and, during a low-point in his screenwriting career, created his own website, posting his resume and Carnivàle's first act online.^[2] 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)^[1] 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,^[5] twelve years after Knauf had first drafted the script.^[2]

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,.^[6] In 2008 they wrote a 9 issue The Eternals series.^[7][8]

In July 2008, he and Charles had completed & submitted a four-hour TV-movie script for Syfy.^[9] 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.^[10] 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,^[11] 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.

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Daniel Knauf.

• Daniel Knauf at IMDb