Daniel Waters (screenwriter)
Daniel "Dan" Waters (born November 10, 1962 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an  American screenwriter and film director.

He is the older brother of director Mark Waters.

Early life
Waters was born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in South Bend, Indiana. In high school, Waters wrote a popular column called "Troubled Waters" for his high school newspaper, where he wrote fictitious stories about his real-life classmates—not unlike the writing that appeared in his Heathers screenplay. He then wrote, directed and starred alongside Larry Karaszewski in a local sketch comedy called Beyond Our Control, in the early 1980s. Waters then moved to Montreal where he graduated from McGill University. After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles, and was the manager of a video store.

Screenwriting credits
He came to prominence in 1988 for writing the black comedy Heathers, for which he received a 1990 Edgar Award. Heathers was an attempt for him to write of the true nature of teenagers and high-school society. Heathers was not a box office hit for Waters when it was released, but the movie has since become a cult classic.

Over the next four years, he served as co-writer on the comedy The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, scripted the sequel Batman Returns, and then wrote the films Hudson Hawk (for which he re-teamed with Heathers director Michael Lehmann) and Demolition Man. He received the "Worst Screenplay" Golden Raspberry Award for both Hudson Hawk and Ford Fairlane.

Turn as a director
In 2001, Waters made his directorial debut with Happy Campers, another teen comedy in a black vein that, after a long delay, was released straight to DVD.  His follow-up, Sex and Death 101, a hybrid of science fiction, dark comedy, and romantic thriller, won the Golden Space Needle Award for Best Director at the 2007 Seattle International Film Festival. It was released theatrically on April 4, 2008 in New York and Los Angeles. The film reteamed Waters with Heathers star Winona Ryder.

Filmography

Heathers (1988)
The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (with James Cappe and David Arnott) (1990)
Hudson Hawk (with Steven E. de Souza) (1991)
Batman Returns (with Wesley Strick) (1992)
Demolition Man (with Robert Reneau and Peter M. Lenkov) (1993)
Happy Campers (2001) (also Director)
Sex and Death 101 (2007) (also Director)
Vampire Academy (2014)