David Armillei

While pursuing a successful career as a New York- and then Los Angeles-based lawyer, David Armillei began a second career as a producer of female-driven documentary films. After these independent films won multiple awards (including the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival), David decided to follow his own muse and simultaneously pursue yet another path--writer.

GROWING UP THE ANTICHRIST, his first book, is the result. This experimental, poetic memoir is a collection of 40 pieces that reflect his experience coming of age as a perennial outsider in Franklin, Tennessee, Charlottesville, Virginia, and Palo Alto, California. Driven by a complex, but enduring, hope and balancing a respect for and distaste of the past, the book goes beyond David's own backstory to address the universal passions, fears, and confusions inherent in growing up.

In keeping with his "jack-of-all-trades" ethos, David was also formerly a minority owner of the Cleveland Guardians (née Indians), unsuccessful entrant into the N.B.A. draft, successful "Lifeline" on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", and "Boy Friday" to a well-known billionaire. During his little spare time, he can be found either hiking or accompanying his wife to watch their daughter dance.