Bio
הנני
Daniel Joshua Rubin is a playwright, television writer, author, marketer and investor. One skill runs through all of it, the power of story, and he has put it to work on stage, on screen, in books, in business and in the markets.
In theater, Rubin got his MFA at Yale where he was named Playwright in Residence at the cabaret twice and won the Audrey Wood Playwriting Prize. Ethan Hawke directed his play Wild Dogs, starring Steve Zahn. He later served as Playwright in Residence at Steppenwolf in Chicago, and his play The Viewing Room was produced. His plays are best described as hyperreal drama with satire that one critic compared to machine gun fire.
He has written for television (NBC, The WB) and new media (The Motley Fool, National Lampoon). He read his short story “The Wedding Present” at Transparent creator Jill Soloway’s Sit ’N’ Spin, and has taught dramatic writing at Loyola University Chicago and the University of California, San Diego.
His book 27 Essential Principles of Story: Master the Secrets of Great Storytelling, from Shakespeare to South Park (2020, Workman Publishing) has been endorsed by actor Paul Giamatti and Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Letts. Library Journal called it “the new bible of lessons and practices for creators.” To learn more, visit StoryPrinciples.com.
In business, Rubin led marketing for CIH, a global leader in agricultural risk management, and earned the praise of its CEO. Applying narrative to the markets, he developed Narrative Investing, a method of reading companies through the stories they tell.
A dedicated story scholar, Rubin is deeply interested in the role narrative plays in fiction and also in business, investing, politics, relationships, personal development and the culture at large. He has an art site at djrproject.com, where the “project” is raw expression and digital anarchy: comic art, film and other media in Zen punk noir style.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, he lives in Evanston, Illinois, after more than a decade in Los Angeles. He graduated from the State University of New York at Purchase in Drama Studies and earned an MFA in Playwriting from the Yale School of Drama, where he graduated with honors.
Rubin has been married to Karen Frederick for 33 years. Their daughter, Sally Marian Rubin, is a filmmaker.
Daniel can be reached at djr at danieljoshuarubin.com.
Representation: Lisa DiMona, Writers House