Dani Service is a University of Utah Film and Media Arts Graduate who graduated in 2023, and a former director of UStories. She works at Salt Lake Community College’s Partnership for Accessing College Education (PACE) program for first-generation students at East High School.
“It’s a really nice program,” she said. “The idea is that I’m supposed to mentor these students. These are low-income and first-generation students. A lot of them don’t have as many resources, so I’m just here to be a mentor for them—help them with college, especially—but anything they might need, college or in high school as well.”
Before graduating, Service worked at Youth City, an after-school program in Salt Lake. From there, she continued her career in education, working as a special ed paraprofessional and a college access advisor.
“I was a Film and Media Arts major because I love stories so much, but I didn’t like production so much,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll leave education. I really like this job—so I don’t know if I have any immediate plans—but I would still love to get a teaching license someday.”
When she’s not at work, Service can be found immersing herself in stories; whether it be reviewing movies on Letterboxd, reading X-Men comics, watching WWE matches, writing screenplays, or attending a zine event, where DIY print stories are traded.
“I’m so interested in storytelling; how we tell stories, and why we tell stories—and also the stories we tell,” she explained. “I think stories are really important. A lot of people will tell me, ‘I’m not a writer.’ And it’s like: How many movies have you seen? You can probably write. It’s definitely a talent, but you know the beats of a story. It’s pretty intrinsic to being human, and I think that’s really interesting.”
Service’s writing includes My Dinner with O.J., the first in a Night at the Museum inspired comedy zine starring Ben Stiller and O.J. Simpson. In high school, she wrote and directed Disgrace Jam, a mockumentary about a recreational basketball team that travels to the top of their league. After she rewrote the script in college, it won third place in the Film Production Club’s screenwriting competition.
“It’s emblematic of how much better I’ve gotten as a writer. Paul Larsen was my teacher throughout the whole thing. He’s retired now, but I really couldn’t be the writer that I am without him,” she explained. “I took screenwriting many times [with Larsen] because it was a workshop class. It was really geared towards having people at different skill levels intermixing to get fresh eyes on old work and get old eyes on new work,” she said. “It was a really beautiful class, and I met most of my good friends in that class.”
Since Larsen’s retirement, his screenwriting class has been taught by Hubbel Palmer, one of the writers for A Minecraft Movie. Although Service hasn’t taken the course since Larsen’s retirement, she’s heard it’s still very similar.
Service’s relationship with storytelling and media has changed since she came out as transgender. Movies she’s always enjoyed, like The Matrix, have taken on a new meaning. She, along with many other fans, sees the story of Neo as a trans allegory.
“My perspective is entirely different. Part of that is just that being a woman, period, is really different from being a man. But also being part of this very demonized culture or demonized identity. And this culture… This culture demonizes my identity. It’s made me value the art that we’re able to make,” she said. “I think it’s really important to have these stories. I mean, with I Saw the TV Glow. I didn’t even like that movie that much, but it’s so important to so many people, and that’s so beautiful. That’s what art is all about.”
Service finds it odd to see her old work—stories that are important to her—attributed to a name she no longer uses. “It’s got my old name and my old voice,” she explained. This work from her pre-transition life feels to her like it was made by “a different person entirely.”
Although she describes her transition as scary due to the political demonization of her identity and attempts by lawmakers to erase trans people from public life, she also calls it the best thing she’s ever done.
“Being trans is the best thing I’ve ever done… and it’s scary. I’ll get an email from Erin in the Morning every day. Some new awful bullshit I’m gonna have to deal with has just been passed wherever. And it’s scary, but it’s never steered me away,” she said.
“Part of why I know that they’ll never succeed here is that… The cat’s out of the bag, you know? It’s not just trans sex workers in the red light district. Everyone knows that we’re here. So no matter what they do, we’re gonna continue being here because our stories are out there now, and that’s really powerful.”
