Don Mancini

American screenwriter, director and producer

Don Mancini

Mancini at the 2024 WonderCon

Born|

George Donald Mancini[1]

(1963-01-25) January 25, 1963 (age 61)
Other names| Kit Du Bois
Donald G. Mancini[2]
Education| St. Christopher's School
Alma mater| University of California, Los Angeles
Columbia University
Occupations|

* Screenwriter
* director
* producer

Years active| 1988–present

George Donald Mancini (born January 25, 1963)[2] is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. He is best known for creating and writing the Child's Play franchise (1988–present).

## Career

[edit]

Don Mancini during the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, holding a Chucky doll.

Having been a horror fan since his childhood, Mancini's inspiration for Child's Play were films like Trilogy of Terror and The Twilight Zone episode "Living Doll"; aware of the "killer doll" as a horror trope, Mancini realized that the concept had never been executed as a feature-length film with animatronic effects work. As a film student at UCLA in the mid-1980s, Mancini was amused by the popularity of the Cabbage Patch Kids line of dolls, and that the ubiquitous dolls were disappearing from toy shelves and prompting physical fights between parents. Mancini's father had worked in the advertising industry all his life, and he knew how effective marketing could result in consumer bedlam. Based on this, Mancini wanted to write a dark satire about how marketing affected children, with his first effort being as the co-writer of Child's Play (1988).[3][4]

Mancini wrote all seven films in the original Child's Play film series, and was the executive producer of Bride of Chucky and Cult of Chucky. He began directing Child's Play franchise entries with Seed of Chucky (2004), followed by Curse of Chucky (2013) and Cult (2017), and was the creator, writer, and director of the Chucky TV series.[5] He was not involved with the 2019 reboot.[4]

In 2007, he won the EyeGore award for career contributions to the horror genre. He sometimes goes by the pseudonym Kit Dubois. Mancini attended St. Christopher's School in Richmond, Virginia, University of California in Los Angeles, and Columbia University (Brad Dourif was among his teachers[6]) in New York City.[7][8][3]

## Personal life

[edit]

Mancini is gay.[9][10][11] He has described consciously incorporating queer elements into the Child's Play films;[10] his experiences as a gay man, including receiving bullying and abuse from his father because of it, informed Mancini's creative direction on the Chucky TV series, which features a gay protagonist.[10]

## Filmography

[edit]

Film

Year  | Title  | Director  | Writer  | Executive
Producer  | Notes

|
|
|
|
|

1988  | Cellar Dweller | No  | Yes  | No  | Credited as "Kit Du Bois"
Child's Play | No  | Yes  | No  |
1990  | Child's Play 2 | No  | Yes  | No  |
1991  | Child's Play 3 | No  | Yes  | No  |
1998  | Bride of Chucky | No  | Yes  | Yes  |
2004  | Seed of Chucky | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Directorial debut
2013  | Curse of Chucky | Yes  | Yes  | No  |
2017  | Cult of Chucky | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  |

Television

Year  | Title  | Director  | Writer  | Producer  | Notes

|
|
|
|
|

1990  | Tales from the Crypt | No  | Yes  | No  | Episode "Fitting Punishment"
2015  | Hannibal | No  | Yes  | Yes  | 2 episodes (writer);
8 episodes (producer)
2016–2017  | Channel Zero | No  | Yes  | Supervising  | 3 episodes (writer);
6 episodes (producer)
2021–2024  | Chucky | Yes  | Yes  | Executive  | Creator

## Awards

[edit]

Award | Category | Nominated work | Result

|
|
|

Saturn Awards | Best Writing (with Tom Holland and John Lafia)  | Child's Play (1988)  | Nominated
Best Writing  | Bride of Chucky (1998)  | Nominated
Special Recognition Award | Cult of Chucky (2017) and Child's Play franchise[12] | Won
Fangoria Chainsaw Awards | Best Screenplay  | Bride of Chucky (1998)  | Nominated

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "George Mancini Los Angeles, CA - Intelius". Intelius.com. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
2. ^ a b "FamilySearch.org". familysearch.org. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
3. ^ a b "Your Friend 'Til the End: An Oral History of Child's Play". Mentalfloss.com. October 28, 2016. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
4. ^ a b Collis, Clark (February 18, 2019). "You only Chucky twice: The strange story behind the two Child's Play franchises". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
5. ^ Petski, Denise; Andreeva, Nellie (January 11, 2020). "'Chucky' TV Series Ordered By Syfy From Film Franchise Duo & 'Channel Zero' Creator". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
6. ^ "Brad Dourif | Bloody Good Horror - Horror movie reviews, podcast, news, and more!".
7. ^ "October 06 Pine Needle". Issuu.com. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
8. ^ "UCLA's Don Mancini creates Chucky, gets lucky, breaks into show biz". dailybruin.com. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
9. ^ Rowe, Michael (November 9, 2004). "How Chucky got lucky". The Advocate. p. 54\. ISSN 0001-8996. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
10. ^ a b c Piepenburg, Erik (October 11, 2021). "Chucky Returns to Terrorize TV. His Creator Couldn't Be Happier". The New York Times. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
11. ^ Padgett, Donald (October 21, 2021). "Chucky Is Back & Queerer Than Ever Thanks to His Gay Creator". Out. Retrieved June 3, 2023. "I was never aware of being discriminated against [by film studio executives]...particularly as a gay guy. Although, you know, it's possible that I was and didn't clock it... because it's certainly -- even more than it is now -- was very much a straight white male club."
12. ^ McMillan, Graeme (June 6, 2018). "Saturn Awards Recognizing Jason Blum, Guillermo del Toro and More". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 6, 2018.

## External links

[edit]

* Don Mancini at IMDb
* Campblood.org Interview with Don Mancini Archived October 5, 2006, at the Wayback Machine

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* WorldCat

National|

* France
* BnF data
* Germany
* United States
* Korea
* Poland

Other|

* SNAC
* IdRef