David Himmel is a gale-force creative. His pursuits of the greater good have led him to be an oldies radio DJ, a creative director, an author, several different team mascots, the editor in chief of a health magazine, a Second City-trained actor, a stand-up comic, and the owner of three Volkswagen hatchbacks.
He is the author of Hope Idiotic (Literate Ape Press), The Last DJ: The Life and Times of a 20-Something Oldies Disc Jockey (Literate Ape Press), and A Camp Story (History Press). He has also written well-received comedic plays on his own and as an associate artist with The Fine Print Theatre, and was the head writer on Greetings! From Prison, the award-winning web series. He co-wrote, co-produced, and starred in the short film Enter the Mollusk (Amazon Prime). Himmel has had lunch with Dick Cheney, opened for The Beach Boys, Ray Charles and other acts, sold some fiction, written for a variety of publications, media sources, and corporate entities. In May 2007, he wrote the first cover profile on Kim Kardashian for the now defunct Racket Magazine. In it, he predicted exactly the Kardashian-influenced world we live in today. Blame Himmel. He deserves it and accepts the fault.
Himmel's journalistic efforts were rewarded when he received the Peter Lisagor Award for Best Sports Story in 2018. He is co-editor and a contributor of the literary magazine Literate Ape and co-hosts the Literate ApeCast podcast as well as hosts the monthly debate show and podcast BUGHOUSE! As a healthcare reporter, he writes and edits, and hosts podcasts for POLITICO, and writes the column, “Reasonable Hypochondria” for Chicago Health magazine. Himmel puts his inventive storytelling chops to work as a creative director at August Jackson. He previously served on the Associate Board of Gilda's Club Chicago. He lives in Chicago.
This is pretty much what David Himmel looks like.