Biography

From HBO to STARZ, primetime network television series and MARVEL, award winning Writer, Producer, and Showrunner Daniel Knauf's name has become synonymous with excellence in the unusual, iconic and unexpected. True to form, Daniel takes his first foray into family programming, serving as Creator, Executive Producer, Writer and Showrunner on Nickelodeon's brand new original live action/adventure series "The Astronauts."

Produced in partnership with Imagine Kids+Family's Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, and Stephanie Sperber, "The Astronauts" is one of the most ambitious and cinematic projects Nickelodeon has ever brought to the small screen, following the adventures of five middle-school kids who embark on the journey of a lifetime when they are mistakenly launched into space.

A native to L.A., Knauf grew up with an innate love for storytelling, writing fiction and poetry throughout high school and college. While pursuing his Bachelor's Degree at California State University Los Angeles, he put his dream of becoming a writer on hold and launched a lucrative career as an employee benefits consultant. However, though he was achieved "The American Dream" by his late 20s-supporting his young family and acquiring the material trappings of corporate success, he soon found himself struggling with increasingly debilitating bouts of clinical depression. Eventually- "inevitably" as Knauf says-he admitted himself into a psychiatric hospital and, while recovering, resumed writing and made a firm commitment to resurrect his dream of a career in the arts.

Nearly two decades later, Knauf broke into television in a big way as the Creator-Executive Producer of his Depression-era series "Carnivàle," which set audience records for HBO upon its premiere and ran for two seasons. The show told the epic tale of a traveling carnival in a bleak American landscape and featured one of Knauf's signature themes: the eternal battle between light and darkness. His debut effort won five Primetime Emmys, garnered ten additional prestigious industry awards and dozens of nominations from various festivals, guilds, and entertainment associations.

Following "Carnivàle," Knauf produced and wrote on the hit STARZ series "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" and served as writer-Showrunner on "Dracula" for NBC.

One of Knauf's most notable projects to date is his work as Executive Producer and Writer on 66 episodes of the award winning, critically acclaimed NBC hit-series "The Blacklist" (2014-2017) starring James Spader. Knauf joined the show in its second season, writing storylines, scripts and producing episodes that earned nominations from The People's Choice Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Primetime Emmy Awards, The Golden Globes, and the ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards.

While writing for television has been Knauf's primary focus, he has also created and written gaming, digital narrative content and, collaborating with his son Charles, comic books, including issues 7-18 and 21-28 of Iron Man for Marvel Comics, as well as reboots of The Eternals and Captain America.

Knauf notes that, while he got his big break later on in life, his writing has been derived from observing moments first-hand, bending the form-sometimes on an epic scale-and presenting them to take the audience along for a breathtaking ride, sometimes dark, sometimes challenging, but always redemptive. He is on a constant experiential journey, listening, observing and searching for moments he hasn't seen portrayed onscreen, striving to present those hard-won nuggets of reality to move his audience.

A veracious reader, art collector and world traveler, Knauf and his wife, Ilaria, an Italian national, spend lots of time abroad.
- IMDb mini biography by: Persona PR

His pseudonym, Wilfred Schmidt, might be a reference to occultist Wilfred Talbot Smith (1885-1957), whom he incorporated into his series Carnivàle (2003) in the second season.

Knauf is a former member of the "Friends of Abe," which was a support and networking group for politically conservative entertainment industry personnel. The organization was founded by Gary Sinise.