Damian John Harper was born in 1978 in Boulder Colorado, USA. After receiving his degree in Anthropology with Magna Cum Laude he worked as an ethnologist in a small Zapotec community in Oaxaca Mexico, as an underwater cave dive instructor in Brazil, than later attended film school in Germany where he graduated in 2012. 

His first feature screenplay LOS ÁNGELES was a quarterfinalist at the prestigious Acadamy of Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting and also selected for the Berlinale Co-Production Market. Following in the footsteps of Itialian-Neorealism the film, casted entirely with non-actors speaking the Zapotec indigenous language, celebrated it’s world premier at the 64th Berlinale than won prizes at the L.A. Film Festival and the Guadalajara Film Festival. In 2014 Damian received the First Steps Award, Germany’s most coveted award for new filmmakers.

His second screenplay IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RIVER, a family drama set in the rural Canyonlands of the American Southwest, was developed at the Cannes Résidence du Festival and was commissioned by ZDF / ARTE. This film received the New German Cinema Award at the Munich Film Festival.

Currently he works developing feature films for cinema and T.V. as well as series for traditional broadcasters and streaming services.

Damian John Harper describes himself as a photographer, film maker and damn good father.