Daniel Stern was born in Bethesda, Maryland, to a social worker father and a day care manager mother. He has been acting professionally since the age of seventeen. Following his high school graduation, he auditioned for the Washington Shakespeare Festival seeking a job as a lighting engineer but ended up as "a strolling player with a lute" in their production of "As You Like It." Shortly thereafter, he made his way to New York where he "took a couple of acting lessons" and began to assemble an impressive portfolio of such off-Broadway credits as "Split," "Frankie and Annie," "The Mandrake," and "The Old Glory." In addition, director Peter Yates cast him as one of the four Indiana teenagers in the highly acclaimed film La bande des quatre (1979). Variety in acting roles appeals to Stern. Following "Breaking Away," he appeared in Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980), Claudia Weill's C'est ma chance (1980) and John Schlesinger's Honky Tonk Freeway (1981) before returning to New York to appear off-Broadway in the two character play "How I Got That Story," which led to critical acclaim and a starring role in Barry Levinson's Diner (1982). Other film credits include I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982), Tonnerre de feu (1983), Hannah et ses soeurs (1986), The Boss' Wife (1986), Milagro (1988), Born in East L.A. (1987) and Mort à l'arrivée (1988) In addition to his voice-over work on the series, Stern directed several episodes of the popular and critically acclaimed television comedy, Les années coup de coeur (1988).
