Dean Pitchford

Dean Pitchford was born and raised in Hawaii and graduated from Yale University. He began his career as an actor and singer off and on Broadway in (among other shows) Godspell and Pippin before turning to songwriting, screenwriting and directing.

He won an Oscar® and a Golden Globe for co-writing the song Fame. Three years later, his screenplay and lyrics for the hit movie “Footloose” resulted in an international #1 film, a #1 album (it bumped Michael Jackson's Thriller from its nearly-yearlong perch at the top of the charts) and six top-forty songs, including two #1 singles.

Besides his kudos for Fame, Dean has been nominated for three other Academy Awards®, two more Golden Globes, seven Grammys and two Tony Awards. His songs have been recorded by such artists as Whitney Houston, Barbra Streisand, Cher, LL Cool Jay, Bette Midler and Martina McBride, and have sold over 70 million copies.

His musical stage adaptation of Footloose played over seven hundred performances on Broadway and was seen all over the world.

Dean's first two Young Adult novels, The Big One-Oh and Captain Nobody, have been published by Putnam/Penguin. His audiobooks recordings of both (released by Listening Library/Random House) were nominated for Grammy Awards.