I Heart Stark

More Than Love In The Air For Two SCA Alumni

Stark was the catalyst for more than just industry success for Chad and Dara Creasey.

Each year the Peter Stark Producing Program exposes 25 students to the full spectrum of the entertainment business, enabling them to refine and define their individual career goals, but for a pair of 2003 graduates, it was the catalyst for more than just industry success. Now, as husband and wife team Chad Gomez Creasey and Dara Resnik Creasey take time to celebrate the sale of their romantic comedy B.F.F. to Rogue Pictures, the two look ahead to building on their latest success.

“We started dating when we were writing Great Lengths, and found we had a great balance,” said Chad referring to their Stark romantic comedy about a young boy who sets out to prove his love for his Jewish girlfriend. Since Stark students are not permitted to produce their own screenplays, the two decided taking on each other’s work was a perfect match. “We have similar voices and most importantly, we don’t like working at the same computer at the same time.”

A scene from Great Lengths, Chad and Dara's Stark romantic comedy about a young boy who sets out to prove his love for his Jewish girlfriend.

“I’m all about dialogue and Chad is strong with story. It’s not until the final draft that we sit down and do battle over things like commas,” added Dara, who shared that the couple’s morning runs usually consist of discussions about characters before the two divide and conquer. “We lay out a detailed treatment so we’re sure to be on the same page before we begin writing.”

Though the two attempted to keep their dating relationship a secret, both admitted that “word gets around pretty quickly who the Stark couples are.” While both acknowledged they weren’t the first to team up in the program, they were surprised to learn they were the first in the same class.

“Finally, our classmates came up to us and said, ‘we all know’,” Dara laughed.

“And then it just got easier,” Chad said. “Sharing notes, working together, it was a blast.”

The “ultimate film geek” growing up in Boulder, Colorado, whose nickname during his Stark years was “the walking IMDB,” Chad majored in political science at Pepperdine University before his film epiphany while watching the movie Shaft.

“Not the original Shaft, mind you, but the new one” ribbed Dara, whose interest in film dates back to her childhood in Manhattan before majoring in economics at Tufts University—a path that pleased her parents, especially her lawyer father. “With Stark, I felt I was able to take what I learned, combine it with my interest in acting and channel it all into this one program.”

Chad and Dara recently wrapped up the television season as staff writers on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

The news of the Rogue Pictures sale made Dara’s father “so happy he kept saying he was picking his buttons up off the floor all day long. It was great to hear how proud he was of us, especially coming from a lawyer who works in an office all day.”

While professing they had no “ins to Hollywood,” both value the internships Stark was able to provide them. As Dara continued working at UTA during their second year, Chad followed up his internship position at Smallville (created by fellow Starkies Al Gough ’94 and Miles Millar ’ ’94) with a job as an assistant at a now defunct entertainment company, Signpost Films. When the company folded, he used the time from the layoff to write the team’s screenplay of Sydney White and the Seven Dorks, which was bought by Warner Bros., and then brought back to life in turnaround by Morgan Creek Productions. Universal is set to distribute it later this year.

More from Great Lengths.

While Dara worked for the director of A Cinderella Story
and held various part-time positions, Chad spent his post Starkie days as an assistant to John August '94, who is "so supportive and just amazing." Together, the couple recently wrapped up the television season as staff writers on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and agree that the Stark years “were the two most exhausting years of our lives.”

“We have every concept of how lucky we are in every way,” said Dara. “Chad and I come from different places but I can relate to everything about him.”

With that, Chad referred his wife to one particular aspect of his childhood.

“I had cows in my backyard.”

“Okay,” Dara laughed. “Maybe not everything,”

Associated Announcements:

Stark Spree B.F.F.