Danny Strong

An actor turned award-winning screenwriter, Danny Strong grew up outside Los Angeles. After graduating from USC with a theater degree, he started his television career in 1994 on the "Saved by the Bell" spinoff, "Saved by the Bell: The New Class." Strong bounced around for a few years after that, with bit roles on several shows, including the classic sitcom "Seinfeld" and the Michelle Pfeiffer teacher drama "Dangerous Minds." A supporting role on another TV spinoff, "Clueless," came his way in 1997. This led to Strong's biggest break later that same year, when he joined the cast of the wildly popular "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" series. Strong played Jonathan Levinson, a depressed student whose fortunes turn when he dabbles in witchcraft. When "Buffy" went off the air in 2003, Strong quickly got back to work, with a major recurring role on the family dramedy "Gilmore Girls" as Doyle McMaster, editor of Yale's school newspaper. Having always aspired to be a screenwriter, Strong asserted himself as a serious writing talent in 2008 with the star-studded HBO original film "Recount," based on the 2000 Presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush--and the subsequent Supreme Court case challenging the voting results in Florida. Strong won a Writers Guild of America Award for "Recount," his debut screenplay. In 2010, he returned to acting, scoring a recurring role on the AMC advertising drama, "Mad Men," as inept copywriter Danny Siegel.