Recent television credits include two series of the BBC's epic series World on Fire and three series of the popular comedy The Outlaws. Earlier television credits include ITV's Dark Heart, the BBC's The Hollow Crown and Carnival/Channel 4’s Any Human Heart, for which Dan won BASCA and Ivor Novello Awards as well as an Emmy nomination, and Sir David Attenborough’s 10-part The Life of Mammals.

Dan's many film credits include Universal Pictures' On Chesil Beach, the critically acclaimed Lady Macbeth, biographical feature Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist, Louis Theroux’s documentary feature, My Scientology Movie, Menno Meyjes’ De Reünie as well as his earlier feature about the young Hitler, Max (winning yet another Ivor Novello award for Dan), and Shadow of the Vampire, starring John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe, which received two Oscar nominations (Dan himself being long-listed by Variety as an Oscar contender for his score). Dan has worked on innumerable theatre productions, and in 2011 Dan received the Special Jury Prize for Excellence in Sound Design, at the Prague Quadrennial awards for his work on the acclaimed production Kursk.

Dan’s work is notable for its range as much as its quality. The luxuriant romanticism and gorgeous melodies of his scores for Any Human Heart, Max and A Matador’s Mistress (starring Penelope Cruz and Adrien Brody) contrast with the ambient minimalism used in Criminal Justice and Dead Set (E4’s high-profile horror drama based on Big Brother).  He is equally at home writing for the orchestra, as in his epic score for The Life of Mammals, and for electronics - often in a highly experimental way.  These two skills are brought together in his score for The Spectre of Hope, a documentary film about the photographer Sebastiao Salgado.

As well as working extensively in the theatre, not least as co-director of The Sound and Fury Theatre Company, Dan is also acclaimed for his work on art installations, such as Suburban Counterpoint: Music for Seven Ice-Cream Vans (Norwich Festival and London International Festival of Theatre, 2010) and Sky Orchestra (Bristol, 2003, Birmingham 2004, Stratford-upon-Avon 2006/7, Sydney and London 2011). Dan created the extraordinary mass-participation event for the inauguration of Coventry's year as City of Culture in May 2022, where thousands of people tuned into different musical streams via their radios - a monumental surround sound experience. Later in 2022 he was Head of Music and Sound for the Commonwealth Games ceremonies. 

Dan read music at Oxford University where he graduated with first class honours.  He received the Ralph Vaughan Williams Electro-Acoustic Scholarship 1995 which he spent at the Centro Richerche Musicali in Rome, and has also studied contemporary music theatre at the Banff Centre for the Arts.