Daniel Henning is a queer director, producer, actor, and writer, known for his lifetime of artistic work. He is also recognised for his work in the LGBTQ+ community, including the Midnight Stroll initiative in Hollywood, a grassroots effort to aid at-risk transgender and homeless people along Santa Monica Blvd.
In more recent years, he has gained recognition for his work as an audiobook narrator, another area where he supports the LGBTQ+ community.
I first discovered the depth of his talents while listening to him perform TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea (2020). He has narrated a number of Klune’s books, including my personal favourite, In the Lives of Puppets (2023).
Narration is not really the correct term for it, as it is much more of a performance. He breathes life into the characters, giving each a distinct voice.
He had to audition for The House in the Cerulean Sea by reading the first full chapter. Henning said, “When I read the first page, it absolutely got into my soul – it just sang out to me.”
Klune said of Henning’s performance, “Once I heard his voice for (the character of) Chauncey, that’s the only voice I’ve ever heard for Chauncey. He understands the theatricality of the characters and just adds so much more to the whole experience.”
Klune’s books are not the only LGBTQ+ material that Henning has added his voice to. His diverse portfolio includes a number of queer works.
There are non-fiction titles like the anthology It Came from the Closet: Reflections on Queer Horror (2022), Antonio Pagliarulo’s Queer Saints (2026), and Elton John’s biography, Farewell Yellow Brick Road (2024).
Then there are novels like Erik J. Brown’s Better the Devil (2026) and P.J. Vernon’s Bath Haus (2026). Something for everyone, really.
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Another interesting story about Henning is that he had a pretty famous encounter with actor Alec Guinness. A Star Wars fan, 12-year-old Henning told the Obi-Wan Kenobi star that he had seen the film 100 times. Guinness gave him an autograph on the condition that he never watch it again.
The actor actually recounted the meeting in his memoir, A Positively Final Appearance (1999). Guinness wrote, “Looking into the boy’s eyes, I thought I detected little star-shells of madness beginning to form and I guessed that one day they would explode.”
This quote inspired the name of Henning’s independent literary and audiobook imprint, Starshells of Madness, created for books “that refuse to behave”. Its first publication? Queer People (1930) by brothers Carroll and Garrett Graham, a book about 1920s Hollywood that has been basically buried for 50 years.
Daniel Henning has also recently started a website to promote the world of audiobooks, AudiobookRush, once again working to help other people. I recommend that people support his work too.
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