Roderick Taylor

Roderick Taylor is an artist with notable accomplishments in literature, music, film and television. He holds an MA from Stanford University where he was a Stegner Fellow in poetry and later taught creative writing there. Taylor is also a Woodrow Wilson fellow and widely published award winning poet (American Academy of Poets Prize) whose first collection, Florida East Coast Champion, was published by Rolling Stone Press to wide critical acclaim. Renowned English poet and critic Thom Gunn of Berkeley wrote, "Rod Taylor is simply the best poet to turn up in the last fifteen years...." Publisher's Weekly proclaimed, "This is a man who writes like an angel." And National Book Award winning poet, novelist and critic James Dickey (Deliverance) enthusiastically endorsed Rod's work commenting that "Taylor is going to be the salvation of all of us in American Poetry. I will read anything he writes with that growing excitement one is privileged to feel only in the presence of genuine talent." Taylor has given readings of his work at many universities and colleges including Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, San Francisco State, Harvard, NYU, University of Florida, University of Mo., University of Texas and many others. While still at Stanford Taylor moonlighted as a singer in a rock band, becoming a prolific songwriter as well, and writing material for several well known Bay Area rock bands. As his music gained recognition Rod became the object of a bidding war between Columbia's Clive Davis and the legendary David Geffen, with whom he signed his first record contract, thus beginning a music career that produced seven albums, principally under the name Roderick Falconer, as he was first known in the U.K. Collaborating with some of the top talent in the world of rock, Rod's peak musical output spanned more than two decades, continuing well into the period of his immersion in the motion picture and television industry. Many of Taylor's songs have been covered by other artists such as Tricia Yearwood, Jose Feliciano, Linda Ronstadt and other well known artists in the U.S. and Europe. In recent years much of Rod's musical contribution has been in the area of film and television as both a composer and recording artist. Most recently Rod performed his music on the soundtrack of the Warner Brothers television series, Witchblade. His recordings are currently available on iTunes and most other leading internet music sites. In television and film Taylor has written and produced in a wide array of genres, creating network series and writing both independent and studio feature films and television movies. He has developed series pilots and movies for Fox, Universal, Warner Brothers, Spelling Entertainment, Viacom, CBS, NBC, ABC, UPN, HBO, Showtime, MTV, and VH 1.