Daniel grew up homeschooled in a double-wide outside Charleston, South Carolina, on a salvaged blue Power Mac G3. Acting and commercial work came early; technology and politics were never far behind.
He studied theology, then business, and somewhere in between woke up at Bible college to find Entertainment Weekly covering a HarperCollins book trailer in which he kisses a robot. It's a long story and a good one.
Technology, art, business, politics, faith.
He’s never been convinced they’re separate subjects.
Founder
Established 2017
Daniel started CYSTRA in his Charleston living room in 2017. The consultancy handles infrastructure, security, and now AI for organizations in healthcare, energy, law, and entertainment. Lately the best part of the job is building the AI systems everyone else is still holding meetings about.
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Film · 2020
Associate producer & second unit director.
Daniel worked with director Amanda Milius on The Plot Against the President.
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Producer at AMDC Films.
Feature films and documentaries.
Rubicon Potomac
Daniel has spent a decade in American politics at every level from “not impressive” to “you’d recognize it.” Since the 2012 cycle, he has worked on presidential campaigns and more Senate and congressional races than he can remember, some of them even by choice. His roles have ranged from chief strategist to digital operations.
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Daniel helped found Stop the Steal and ran its message from internet fringe to national debate. Love it or hate it, you know about it.
In 2022, he sued a media outlet for publishing false claims about his role. The court allowed a narrowed defamation claim to proceed, holding that the outlet's framing was capable of defamatory meaning. The case resolved in 2024 to both parties' satisfaction.
Feel free to read the article if you want to catch up on the drama... and if you can find it.
It started with a salvaged blue Power Mac.
An illustrated beginning.
Politics is downstream from culture. Culture is downstream from technology. And technology just changed forever.
So his current focus is AI: how to make it useful inside organizations, and what it means for the people running them.
He bought his first bitcoin inside Second Life with a video game gift card from CVS, which tells you most of what you need to know. Two Bengal cats run the house.
Off the clock he lifts, travels, reads everything from science fiction to theology, and likes cars that are faster than necessary.