EDUCATION

Penumbra Foundation

2019 Tintype Photography

New York University Tisch School of the Arts

2012 MFA Dramatic Writing in Film

FILM | PHOTOGRAPHY WORK

2024 BLK ANTHOLOGY: HOOD FLOWER-GATHERERS (pre-production)

2023 Filmmaker for Kresge Arts in Detroit (director, editor, colorist)

2023 Serial Monogamous (producer, writer, director, editor)

2023 BLACK DETROIT: MEMORY MAPPING (tintype photography)

2022 Filmmaker for Kresge Arts in Detroit (director, editor, colorist)

2022 Take Flight (creator, producer, director, editor, colorist)

2021 Filmmaker for Kresge Arts in Detroit

2021 DMC Hospital Patient Story and Commercial segments (director)

2019 Shield (writer and director)

2018 VICE (photographer)

2017 Brooklyn Museum (photographer)

2017 Museum of Modern Art (photographer)

2016 Female Protagonist (director and photographer)

THEATRE WORK

2022 OBIE Award-winning 48 Hours in Detroit Festival (playwright)

2020 “baker’s dozen” for Concord Theatrical’s 45th Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival (playwright)

2015 OBIE Award-winning 48 Hours in Harlem Festival (playwright)

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023 Capitalize the B in Black, Baber Gallery, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2024 “TAKE FLIGHT”, a part of Revolutionary Times exhibition, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, MI

2024 “TAKE FLIGHT”, a part of Revolutionary Times exhibition, Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI

2023 Gilda Snowden Memorial Exhibition, The Scarab Club, Detroit, MI

2023 RESONANCE | REVERENCE, Galerie Camille, Detroit, MI

2023    Get Together, Reyes | Finn Gallery, Detroit, MI

2022 Womxnhouse Detroit, Detroit, MI

2022 ALLIUM, Norwest Gallery, Detroit, MI

2017 Photography as Social Conscience, Lore Degenstein Gallery/Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA

2016 Female Protagonist series (work selected by Mickalene Thomas), Baxter St. The Camera Club NY, New York, NY

2016 Show #35 group exhibition, Field Projects Gallery

2015 Power, Protest & Resistance, Skylight Gallery (Rush Philanthropic Arts), New York, NY

2015 Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY

2015 Los Angeles Center of Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA

2015 Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Tampa, FL

AWARDS | RESIDENCIES | FELLOWSHIPS

2024 2024 | 2025 Athena Film Festival Screenwriters Lab

2024 Seed and Bloom: Detroit Fellow

2023 Cranbrook Academy of Art Artist-in-Residence

2023 Nantucket Film Festival + Almanack Screenwriter Sessions

2023 CultureSource + Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Flourish Fund Grant Recipient

2022 2022 Sesame Street Workshop Writer’s Room Fellow

2022 2022 Womxnhouse Detroit Resident

2021 Idlewild International Film Festival, Detroit, MI, Best Short Narrative

2019 Reel Sisters Film Festival, Dwyer Cultural Center, New York, NY, Honorable Mention

2019 New Jersey International Film Festival, Rutgers University, Honorable Mention

2019 Festival on the Hill HBCU Film Festival, "Black Girl Magic", Prairie View A&M University, Best Screenplay

2019 Inaugural grant recipient, MOME NYFA “Made in NY” Women’s Fund in Film

2016 WAA/Weeksville Summer Arts Residency Fellow

2015 Playwright for The Liberation Theatre Black Playwrights Group

2014 Playwright for The Liberation Theatre Black Playwrights Group

 

SCREENWRITING RECOGNITION

2024 Quarterfinalist, 2024 Big Break Screenwriting Competition

2023 Finalist (top 3), Nantucket Film Festival Screenplay Competition

2022 Semi-finalist, Almanack Screenwriters Colony

2019 Semi-finalist, Atlanta Film Festival Screenwriting Competition

2019 Quarter-finalist, Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting

2019 2nd round, Sundance Development Fast Track

2019 Finalist, HBOAccess Writing Fellowship

2019 Semi-Finalist, Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition

2019 Quarterfinalist, Nashville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition

2019 Quarterfinalist, 6th Annual ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship

2019 2nd Round, Spring ScreenCraft Film Fund

2011 Finalist, Fusion Film Festival (“Full length feature” and “Short form” screenplay categories)        

ARTIST TALKS | LECTURES | PODCASTS

2024 Featured Artist, Film Screening + Lecture, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, MI

2024 Featured Artist, NOVA 24 Photo + Film Festival Film Series + Artist Talk with Miles Reuben, The Carr Center, Detroit, MI

2024 Moderator, 53rd Annual Scarab Club Exhibition of Contemporary Photography, The Scarab Club, Detroit, MI

2024 Dope Women in Media: Honoring the Women in Film in Metro Detroit, Ann Arbor Art Center | Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, MI

2024 Truth In This Art Podcast - Juanita Anderson + Danielle Eliska: Filmmaking in Detroit’s Landscape, Podcast, USA

2023 Moderator, THE PRELUDE, NOVA24 Photo + Film Festival, The Congregation Detroit, Detroit, MI

2023    Photography Lunchtime Lecture Series, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI 

2023 Toyota Lecture Series Art and Design Symposium, GM Auditorium | College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI

2023 Lecture, Capitalize the B in Black exhibition, Sarah + Daniel Opperman Auditorium | Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI

2022 In Conversation with Mario Moore, Midnight and Canaan exhibition, David Klein Gallery, Detroit, MI

2022 Moderator, “Pray for Us” Artist Talk, Norwest Gallery, Detroit, MI

2022 In Conversation with Zachary Cunningham and Andrew Cullum, Noir Cinema Film Festival, Detroit, MI

2022 In Conversation with Ricky Weaver, Detroit Womxnhouse, Detroit, MI

2019 In Conversation with Marshalle Montgomery-Favors, Detroit Historical Museum, Detroit, MI

2019 Artist Talk at She Bad: Women in Film screening, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

2019 Artist Talk at New Jersey International Film Festival, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

2019 Artist Talk at Reel Sisters Film Festival, Dwyer Cultural Center, New York, NY

2019 Artist Talk at the Detroit Women of Color International Film Festival, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American, Detroit, MI

JUROR | CURATOR

2024 Juror, 53rd Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Photography, Scarab Club, Detroit, MI

PHOTOGRAPHY PUBLICATIONS | REVIEWS

2016 Photographer’s Forum Collection book, The Best of Photography 2016

2016 interview, Osmancan Yerebakan for Baxter St. Blog

2016 review in The New Yorker, written by Vince Aletti

2016 Finalist, Photographer’s Forum Magazine

2015 Finalist, Photographer’s Forum Magazine

2015 Photographer’s Forum Collection book, The Best of Photography 2015

PRESS COVERAGE

Gilbert Family Foundation Invests in “Seed and Bloom” to support BIPOC artists in Detroit

Seed and Bloom: Detroit Grant Program Empowers BIPOC Artists to to Flourish

PBS News Hour: REGENERATION: BLACK CINEMA exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts

Reyes | Finn exhibit brings together more than 150 Detroit artists

Bringing Black Life into Focus: Danielle Eliska to visit CMU to discuss her photo and collage solo exhibition

BABES WHO HUSTLE feature Interview with Writer + Director Danielle Eliska

SHIELD Comes to Indie Fuxion and Slays by Nicole Franklin

Princeton resident to debut film at New Jersey International Film Festival

New Jersey Stage feature Article + Review: "Shield: Superheroes Do Exist" by Gary Wien

BLAC Magazine: DWCIFF at Charles Wright Museum of African American History by Paris Giles

Interview with Danielle Eliska Lyle on EBTV with Albert Nigrin, NJIFF

Independent Magazine - Women in Film Portraits: Danielle Eliska Lyle

The Reel Women 7-Day Feature of Writer + Director Danielle Eliska

CV