Douglas Scott Hessler

Douglas Scott Hessler, a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, Maryland Institute College of Art and The American Film Institute, is an award-winning Screenwriter and Director with extended residences in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Berlin.

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Starting his career in New York as an artist/filmmaker, his installations of "frozen scenes" using film and sound led to making small independent films. His films were influenced by avant-garde art and Fassbinder more than Hollywood. He studied experimental theater with Tadeusz Kantor in Kraków, Poland; developed art/film projects with German artist Joseph Beuys; and worked with Jim Jarmusch to produce Permanent Vacation. His early New York films led to an invitation to the American Film Institute in Los Angeles.

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After AFI as a Screenwriting/Directing Fellow, he was a studio executive for Cannon Films, Warner Bros. and Disney's Touchstone Pictures. Over those years, he supervised over 30 feature films from development to theatrical release. In the late-1990's, he left Hollywood and moved to Japan for several years. There, he rediscovered his creative roots and started writing again.

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Returning to Los Angeles, he sold two screenplays, produced independent films like "Intruder"; and early development of Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs." One of his films produced in Germany, Judgment Day, won numerous awards and established his reputation in Europe. Moving to Berlin, he worked with European filmmakers. Over fourteen of his screenplays became television and feature films. His films won awards at the New York Film Festival, The Houston International Filmfest and The Munich Film Festival. 

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Today he lives in a small town in Maryland "if you blink, you'll miss it" with his young daughter Terra Quinn, a cat named Talia, and their beloved black German Shepherd dog Stormy and continues to write and develop film projects.

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Most recently, he is scheduled to direct the feature film, "Edge of the Rainbow", Screenplay by Barbara West, in 2025.