Bob Destri Hilgenberg Hollywood, USA

BOB DESTRI HILGENBERG

Writer/Actor/Director

Bob began his professional acting career with a Drama Logue Award-Winning performer in the West Coast production of Oliver Hailey's "Father's Day".

But it was at The Groundlings and Second City, LA where he began to not only perform comedy but write it as well.

He turned his popular sketch Hey Mike! into an award-winning short film (many including Mike Judge helped turn it into a VHS cult classic).

That led to the USA Network offering Bob a job writing for their late-night TV show Up All Night, (staring Gilbert Gottfried & Rhonda Sheer) where he quickly became Head Writer and partnered with fellow Second City performer and friend Rob Muir.

Bob & Rob's unique comedic style helped them quickly transition into feature film writing, with a series of comedy rewrites and original pitch sales, all at major studios. To date, Bob (alone or with Rob) has written on over THIRTY feature film projects for virtually every major studio in Hollywood and around the world. A crazy early job was writing thousands of lines of dialog for the pop-up bubbles used in MICROSOFT BOB a big early software misstep for Microsoft, but it was cool to be part of their early history.

Some early career highlights include an original screenplay, Scared Guys, sold to Sony Pictures with Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions, producing. Also, rewrites on "Stuck On You" for Twentieth Century Fox, Father Knows Best for Nickelodeon & Paramount Studios, and Yours, Mine & Ours for MGM.

“Small World” was sold to Paramount then made its way to FOX, where it has had some of the biggest names in the business attached to star.

A turning point for Bob was in 2005 when he (and Muir) were hired to write Monsters Inc. 2 and Toy Story 3 for Walt Disney Pictures. It was Bob's introduction to the world of animated feature films, and in spite of the roller-coaster ride during the Pixar buyout...he was hooked on animation.

This led to a career highlight writing Walt Disney's Tinker Bell And The Great Fairy Rescue, starring Mae Whitman, Pamela Adlon, and Michael Sheen. Released in 2012, the film is revered all over the world and made Bob a hero to his then ten-year-old daughter, Sydney!

Tinker Bell & The Great Fairy Rescue - Full Movie

More recently, Bob sold the feature comedy MOTHER UP! with friend and "SUPERSTAR!" MOLLY SHANNON to Walt Disney Pictures along with and Rob Muir. The female-driven comedy revolves around the world of parenting. (In turnaround at Disney - make an offer!)

Bob wrote and co-directed the award-winning short film, Hiding In Walls. Produced by Patrick Stack, the film features an all-star cast, including Jane Lynch, Danny Trejo, Johnny Sneed, Chris Moynihan, and Jim Rash. The comedy satirizes Bob (and Rob Muir's) adventures as Hollywood screenwriters.

Briefly back to Television, Bob co-created and wrote the sitcom "Grown-Ups", for Columbia/Tri-Star Television. The comedy stars Michael Weatherly, Sam Seder, Julie Warner, Anita Barone, Farah Forke, and Pat Finn. Directed by the immensely talented Jonathan Prince.

He directed multiple episodes of The Celibate and won Outstanding Director In A Comedy Series at the LA Web Festival.

Bob and Rob were until recently developing a live-action-hybrid feature film with Walt Disney's Academy Award Winning Producer, Don Hahn, and Academy Award Winner, Robert Zemeckis.

UPDATE: Winter 2021 – Bob is developing a motion picture that follows the fifty-year journey and herculean effort of his former landlord and friend Holocaust survivor Leopold (Poldek) Pfefferberg who almost single-handedly willed Schindler's List into being.