Dan Napoli

Dan Napoli is a writer, producer, editor, & director living in the Midwest United States. Napoli was born in Brooklyn, New York and is of half-Italian and half-Greek descent. He grew in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado where he excelled as a student and had modest success as an athlete. He attended the University of Nebraska-Kearney in the Fall of 1994 on scholarship, where he pursued a degree in journalism and played baseball until an elbow injury ended his career. Napoli became prominent radio DJ and became ingrained in the third wave punk rock revival of the 1990s, which would later become a sound signature of much of his film work. He graduated in 1999 with a degree in journalism and sports marketing. Immediately after college, Napoli took a job overseeing marketing and promotions for an action sports brand, where he would eventually begin overseeing video projects as a producer. In 2006, Napoli went full time with his own production company Disconnected Media, and moved into the editor's chair, producing promotional brand videos. As was the trend at the time, the pieces evolved into higher-concept, branded documentary work. Napoli's first feature length documentary Rivalry: The Vicious-XSV Story was released in 2010. Later that year, he began writing & directing Artifact: Film Series, a collection of documentary films for Planet Eclipse Paintball. In 2012, Napoli was tapped to develop a reality sports docu-series in style of NFL HardKnocks, following the creation and development of professional paintball teams. He co-created The Roster with Antony Leadbetter. After a short 3 episode pilot season was tested online, a second season featuring five 22-minute episodes and a 44 minute finale was produced. The show followed San Antonio X-Factor, and aired on Sky Sports in Europe, and on Vimeo On Demand worldwide. In 2014, a 3rd season was commissioned, following Chicago Aftershock. It was released online exclusively. In the Spring of 2015, Napoli Director WINTER IS COMING: Seasons In Entrepreneurship, for Frost Media Group, a documentary focusing on five business people- all friends- who were each experiencing the challenges of the different "seasons" of a business's life cycle. In the Fall of 2015, Napoli took a position with b2 Interactive, a prominent Midwest digital agency, to head up a new films divisions. In the Spring of 2016, the agency launched Hurrdat Films, dedicated to branded storytelling. Napoli was named Director of Visual Storytelling. The first Hurrdat Films venture was the documentary FIFTEEN: San Diego Dynasty, an 86-minute action-sports documentary film which followed San Diego Dynasty -winners of 64 professional events, as they tried to keep their streak of winning at least one professional event per year alive for an unprecedented fifteenth season. In October 2016, Napoli wrote and director THE BLUE MAN, a 38-minute film about Michael "Blue" Hanse, who's closed a 33-year paintball career by playing the event he created one final time. On March 15, 2017, Hurrdat Films released Napoli's next film, HOLY GRAIL. The 64-minute film chronicles the rise of Edmonton Impact, and follows the team as they try to win one event that really matters-and the one victory which has escaped them for 10 years-The World Cup of Paintball. In April, 2017 Hurrdat Films enter into a working agreement with the Omaha Storm chasers, and began production on a film tentatively titled SOMEWHERE IN MIDDLE AMERICA-50 Seasons Of Minor League Baseball with the Omaha Storm Chasers. The film will serve both chronicle Omaha's 50 seasons as the Triple A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals-the longest such distinction in Triple A baseball, and a the behind-the-scenes peak into what it takes to run a minor league baseball team. The film is slated for a July, 2018 released. In September, 2017, HOLY GRAIL was awarded with the laurel of "Pe-Selected" by the 2nd Annual Toronto International Independent film festival. On October 30, 2017, Hurrdat Films released the film BEST KIDS IN TEXAS-The Story of San Antonio X-Factor, a 97-minute documentary about the evolution of the competition paintball scene in Texas over the last two decades, and how it led to the creation of San Antonio X-Factor, one of the most unique and successful professional paintball teams over the last ten years..