Daniel Messé is the founder/principal songwriter of the band Hem, which began as a DIY project in 2001 (Rabbit Songs), and has gone on to worldwide acclaim over the course of six studio albums. In 2009, The Public Theater tapped Hem to score Twelfth Night for Shakespeare in the Park (starring Anne Hathaway and Audra McDonald, dir. by Daniel Sullivan), for which they were nominated for a Drama Desk Award. Along with Collaborator Mindi Dickstein, Dan has written four shows for Theatreworks USA, received a Jonathan Larson Grant from the American Theatre Wing and has been commissioned by Playwrights Horizons to write a new full-length musical (Trip). Daniel Messé is the composer and co-lyricist of Amélie.