Daniel Contreras

Daniel Contreras is a first generation Dominican-American, WGA genre + comedy writer, Actor, Director, and Catholic School Survivor.

After watching Deportation try to arrest his mom, Daniel’s therapist suggested he talk about the experience-- express himself. This led to the 15 year old stealing his brother’s ID and lying his way into a barroom standup set. Comedy wasn’t exactly what his therapist had in mind, but they were never that funny in the first place.

While spending his days earning less than minimum wage at Midtown comics, Daniel attended the New York Film Academy’s Acting Conservatory. He was drawn to screenwriting when the other students learned he wrote stand-up comedy and paid him to write them monologues. On that hustle he quit his job at midtown and a real Writing career was born. (Now he hangs at Midtown Comics for free).

Now following his dream, unemployed and unable to afford writing classes, Daniel became a Teacher’s Assistant in the writing department of the school he graduated from in order to garner a free education and reputation as the world’s worst T.A..

Daniel built a body of work writing for an NYC Sketchfest selected comedy troupe called Cliff Notes On The Human Condition, and earned a residency at The People’s Improv Theatre, where his bent, absurdist comedy was noticed by a producer who hired him to pen a pilot called Where You From.

The pilot, as well as his 6 part mystery/comedy series, The Pulp Tales Of Gwendolyn Gween, P.I. (Avail on Spotify) earned him his WGA membership. Daniel is now makes up one part of the tiny fraction of Dominican-American writers in the guild.

Daniel thrives writing episodic, quick witted, thrilling, genre twists that allow him to blend comedy, fantasy, and the odd occult myths that his Mom brought with her from the D.R., to deliver wholly original, curiously creepy, and wickedly witty stories.