About
Dan Staley is an Emmy-nominated writer-producer with over 30 years of experience in the television business, known for his work on Cheers (NBC) and Good Luck Charlie (Disney Channel).
Dan was born in Manhattan Beach, California in 1963. A pale child who burned easily in the hot California sun, Dan spent most of his formative years in the Manhattan Beach Public Library. Dan graduated from Wilson High School (Long Beach) in 1981 and from Yale University in 1985.
Dan’s first career was in advertising. Starting at J. Walter Thompson, New York, Dan spent five years writing ads for clients ranging from Burger King to Louis Vuitton, in the process winning the highest creative awards in the business. On the other hand, one ad that Dan wrote became infamous as the subject of long-running litigation, and today Vanna White vs. Samsung stands as a landmark decision in intellectual property law (Vanna won.)
In 1990, Dan teamed up with college friend and writing partner Rob Long to break into television. The duo of Staley & Long enjoyed a meteoric rise, landing jobs on the writing staff of NBC’s long-running Cheers. Dan co-wrote 14 episodes of Cheers and rose to co-executive producer for the show’s final season.
Over the next several years the team developed, wrote and produced pilots for Paramount’s Network Television Division, several of which went to series, most notably Pig Sty (the first series for the UPN network) and George & Leo (CBS), starring Bob Newhart and Judd Hirsch as unlikely in-laws.
But none of the series made it past the first season, and in 2008 Staley & Long went their separate ways. Dan’s first solo writing job was penning an episode of the hit U.K. sitcom My Family in 2009. His second gig was overseeing a new pilot for Disney Channel created by Phil Baker and Drew Vaupen, about a family with an unexpected baby, called Oops! Renamed Good Luck Charlie, the show went on to become a worldwide hit. Dan was executive producer and show runner for all four seasons of GLC and wrote 11 episodes, most notably episode 419 “Down a Tree,” which was nominated for a GLAAD Award as the first kid’s program to show same-sex parents. After 100 episodes and a Christmas movie, GLC went off the air in 2014.
In 2017, Dan moved to New York to join the writing staff of Kevin Can Wait (CBS), which was expected to be a huge hit and run at least five years. In 2018, Dan moved back to California.
Today Dan continues to pitch and write ideas for TV, dividing his time between Los Angeles and Palm Springs, where he continues to burn easily.
Awards
Dan Staley has been nominated for the Emmy Award 5 times: in 1992, 1993, 2012, 2013 and 2014. In addition to the GLAAD Award, Dan was also nominated for a PGA Award in 2013.