Paul Dalio began to pursue filmmaking at 20 years old when he moved to New York to study screen writing at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Dramatic Writing program. During that time he spent his Spring breaks going to China to do documentary work for the China Care Foundation, following the surgery and adoption of handicapped Chinese orphans into American families. After graduating from NYU he went to work for the David Lynch Foundation, which brought Transcendental Meditation to schools with high crime rates, shooting and editing footage to demonstrate the effects of TM on the stress levels of children and crime rates in the schools. In 2007 he began the NYU Graduate filmmaking program. There he met his wife and collaborator, Kristina Nikolova. He co-wrote and edited her debut feature, "Faith, Love and Whiskey" which premiered at the 2012 Slamdance Film Festival. Paul was taken under the wing of his NYU professor, Spike Lee, who became the executive producer on Paul's debut feature, "Mania Days," which Paul wrote, directed, edited and composed the music for. Paul made the film five years after overcoming his own struggles with manic-depression(bipolar 1) in an attempt to reconcile the beauty and horror that comes from it.
