Meet the creators of My Daisy DaysTM early learning DVDs
Jean Higgins, Executive Producer
Over the past 30-plus years, Jean Higgins has worked in 28 countries and throughout the United States overseeing the production of motion pictures, television productions and documentaries, including a variety of projects for The Disney Channel, ABC, CBS and Warner Brothers. Along the way, she has won numerous awards for filmmaking including the Emmy and the Peabody Awards.
With “My Daisy DaysTM” she is taking a dramatic departure from her primary focus since 2004- as co-executive producer of the world’s highest-rated television show, LOST.
Married to Tim Tyson, an arborist, Higgins has one son, Nicholas. She resides in her native California and on location in Hawaii.
Mary Carlson (Murphy), Producer and Director
When it came to filmmaking motivation, Mary Carlson (Murphy) didn’t need to look far: she credits her mother, Dru Carlson, and her father, Don Carlson, with stoking her love for the craft.
Dru Carlson was a studio-trained script supervisor and one of the industry’s first female assistant directors while Don Carlson was a highly regarded director. Following her parents’ Chicago-based lead, Murphy has been a mainstay in the film industry for over 30 years.
Her work has extended a third-generation family legacy that dates back to the 1940s, when her great-uncle, Norm Wilding, owned Wilding Studios in Chicago.
Carlson has worked on hundreds of commercials and more than 70 movies and television shows. In recent years, she has expanded her portfolio by teaming up with her brother Don to produce and direct commercials, industrials, training films, short films and other media.
Mary takes Daisy around to visit children in libraries and community events. Daisy is a therapy dog.
Don Carlson, Producer and Director of Photography
Don Carlson (top) and his brother, Rob Carlson, shooting My Daisy DaysTM
If you have followed America’s upper-tier movie and television productions over the last few decades, then there’s a very good chance you have seen Don Carlson’s work.
Carlsons’s career as a filmmaker and cameraman has spanned more than 30 years, including work on numerous productions that have garnered Academy Awards and Emmy Awards.
He is the eldest of four in a third-generation movie industry family. With his sister, Mary Murphy, he writes, produces and directs commercials, training films and other media.
Carlson is married to Susan and has two children, Donny and Hannah. All three enjoyed appearing in My Daisy DaysTM.
The Creative Support Team
Gloria Needlman, Ed.D., Early Childhood Education Expert
Gloria Needlman is an early childhood consultant and emeritus teacher from the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. She taught nursery school, kindergarten, and third grade during her 34 years there.
Dr. Needlman has conducted workshops across the country and in Canada for the National Association for the Education of Young Children. She has presented preschool science classes at the Museum of Science and Industry, and for preschools and Headstart programs on a variety of topics.
Dr. Needlman’s input has been widely sought-after, including her serving as early childhood consultant for Brookfield Zoo’s Hamill Family Play Zoo.
She is the author of more than 50 articles that have appeared in educational journals and teacher publications. For seven years, she and her son, Dr. Robert Needlman, wrote “The Doctor and His Mom,” a monthly column for two Scholastic magazines.
Dr. Needlman has three grown children, has been a grandparent to countless children over the years, and proudly is the grandmother to her one biological granddaughter.
She and her husband Allen, her supporter, have been married for almost 60 years.
Scott Higgins has worked in Los Angeles for the past 30 years as a freelance percussionist. He has been active in the performance of both live music and the recording of film and television soundtracks, as well as popular music CDs.
His live performances include concerts with symphony, opera and ballet orchestras as well as many years playing in the pit for Broadway shows. Recording projects he has been involved in have won an Oscar, an Emmy, and he was one of the musicians on Ray Charles’ last album, “Duets,” which won a Grammy.
“My Daisy DaysTM” is his first major foray into composing. Higgins lives in Studio City, California with his wife, Amy Wilkins.
