Dallas Sonnier

Dallas Sonnier was born Joseph Albert Sonnier IV in the Highland Park neighborhood of Dallas, Texas, US. His parents, Becky and Dr. Joseph Sonnier moved from Shreveport, Louisiana to Dallas, Texas, shortly before he was born in 1980; Sonnier's nickname originated with his parents referring to him as "the Dallas baby".

Sonnier developed an ambition to begin making movies while still in high school; to this end, he began taking continuing education classes in screenwriting at Southern Methodist University during the Summer before his senior year at Highland Park High School. He attended film classes at the University of Southern California while still in high school, and later as an undergrad, becoming one of five students to inaugurate the school's joint business-film program, introducing him to studio executives, entertainment attorneys, agents, and talent managers. During this period, he learned about aspects of the film making process beyond writing and directing.

After graduating from USC, Sonnier obtained a job with United Talent Agency, beginning in the mailroom and working his way up to agent trainee. After a few years, he left to join a start-up management firm run by David Schiff. In 2008, Sonnier and Jack Heller, a USC classmate, founded Caliber Media. While attending San Diego Comic-Con, the pair met former wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin, eventually collaborating with him on nine low-budget action movies that were sold to distributors and premiered on DVD and video-on-demand. Caliber segued into other independent projects, before raising funds for two years in order to shoot Bone Tomahawk; the script had been written by one of the pair's clients, S. Craig Zahler, whom they had been managing for two years.

Zahler's script attracted Kurt Russell and Richard Jenkins, but the interested financiers wanted the script shortened. After several years of negotiations, Russell's agents were ready to move on if the movie was not fully financed in a matter of months. In 2014, Sonnier took out a new mortgage on his house in order to secure financing for the film. While the movie failed at the box office, it found success in ancillary markets like DVD sales and VOD rentals.

Following production on Bone Tomahawk, Sonnier departed Caliber to found Cinestate, a production company based in Dallas, with the intention of bringing film production to Texas. Sonnier would go on to collaborate with Zahler for two more films: Brawl in Cell Block 99 and Dragged Across Concrete.

In 2022, Sonnier became a key architect for the entertainment division of conservative news website and media company The Daily Wire.

Dallas has one sibling, brother James, who is two years his junior. While Dallas was growing up, his parents allowed his friend Phillip Prestwood to move in due to a challenging situation in his own home. Although Prestwood was never formally adopted, he was unofficially considered a third son in the family.

While working in the Hollywood movie world in his early 20s, Dallas Sonnier developed a drug habit. He went into rehab at age 26, and has reportedly remained clean since then.

In 2008, Sonnier married his wife Shannon, whom he had initially encountered at a Malibu party a few years earlier; 15 minutes after meeting her, he says, he knew he would marry her.

Shannon gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Camilla, in 2010. They also have a son, Albert Joseph V.