Dan Buyanovsky is a filmmaker and creative director whose first love was writing. Actually, his first love was hip-hop. Writing came later. Writing about hip-hop came after that.
He was born in New York to Russian immigrant parents who taught him empathy and multiculturalism at an early age. He is multilingual and spent three years living in Japan; the result of a deep curiosity that has led him to explore new cultures and methods of communication, in hopes of better understanding the people he shares this planet with.
Dan began his career writing for magazines like Interview, Vice, and XXL, then worked as a writer and producer at REVOLT, MTV and Laundry Service, where he garnered an education in visual storytelling.
He went freelance in 2017 and, among other things, has: produced acclaimed series’ for Complex and Uninterrupted; directed a music video for The Killers and a comedy sketch with Diddy and Mark Wahlberg; developed an educational resource with renowned YA author Jason Reynolds; captured a moving portrait of historically reclusive modern artist Lee Ufan; and documented Zach Friedley’s attempt to be the first adaptive runner to finish at UTMB.
He still writes, too. Because writers never really stop writing. Outside of work, Dan has dabbled with DJing, podcasting and photography. Some say he does a lot; maybe too much. But Dan’s many creative pursuits are stitched together by a singular intent — to tell a story.
He’s only been able to do so because of a long list of collaborators, and the good people at Adidas, Beats By Dre, Bose, Cash App, CNN, Conde Nast, Netflix, Nowness, On Running, Samsung, Showtime and Yamaha, among others.