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Bernie Van De Yacht is originally from Green Bay, Wisconsin, the youngest of 13 children. He earned a BA in Psychology and Theatre from The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MFA from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). After graduation, Bernie began working at an animation studio while he pursued his acting career. During that time, he was spotted by one of the artists and asked to pose for the character of Prince Derek in The Swan Princess. This opportunity allowed him to promote the movie all over the country, travel to the Cannes Film Festival, appear on a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, and even have a doll made in his likeness. During this time, Bernie performed in theatre around the Los Angeles area. He eventually became an animation casting director and has been casting films for over 25 years including The King and I, Trumpet of the Swan, Alpha and Omega, all the Swan Princess sequels, Happily N’ever After II, Ribbit and Norm of the North. He has cast for Morgan Creek, Warner Bros., Columbia/Tri-Star, Sony and Lionsgate. He is a proud member of the Casting Society of America (CSA) and was nominated for an Artios award for casting the animated feature film, Alpha and Omega.He is also a screenwriter, director, and teacher. In 2004 he directed a short film called, There’s Something About Meryl, which was the Official Selection at many film festivals around the country. He directed his first full-length feature film, Salvation, from his original screenplay. He is also co-partner in a looping company called ProADR, which looped such shows as Fargo, X-Files, The First, among many others. His first novel, A Man Walks Into a Hardware Store, was published by Solstice Publishing in October 2017. It currently has close to 400  reviews on Amazon, with an overall rating of 4.4/5. On Goodreads he has over 1000 ratings with a 91% rating. He was a quarterfinalist in the 2018 Nicholl Fellowship competition for his screenplay of Dottie and A Man Walks Into a Hardware Store. He went on to become a semifinalist for A Man Walks Into a Hardware Store. The audiobook of A Man Walks Into a Hardware Store, narrated by Jeff Harding, was published by W.F. Howes. It is now in pre-production to be a motion picture. He just completed his second novel, Midwest Farmers’ Daughters, which is also a screenplay. He and his wife have been married for twenty-four years and are the proud parents of two teenaged sons.