Dan (My Best Friend's Secret Life)

**Dan** (Philip Boyd) is the main villain from the 2022 Lifetime film, *My Best Friend's Secret Life* (alternately titled: *My Escort Best Friend and Friends in Deadly Places* airdate January 16, 2022)

## Backstory

Dan's backstory revealed that he is the leader of a sex trafficking ring. A year prior to the movie's events, he started to target a high school girl named Grace Martin, which he had enlisted Laurel in befriending. Laurel started taking Grace to Club West Quarter, an exclusive gentleman's club. But Dan began to blackmail Grace into going and Grace soon realized what was going on. In response, Dan kidnapped Grace and dumped her body into a nearby ravine, making her death appear to be a suicide. Which was later ruled by police.

## Events

Entering the film's events, Laurel befriended Maggie (the film's main protagonist), and quickly introduced her to her dangerous lifestyle. Which included skipping class, and stealing from shops. Laurel eventually took Maggie to Club West Quarter under Dan's orders. Laurel encourages Maggie to drink more and tries to pawn her off to the older men at the club. Maggie then gives out her social media handles to Dan. Maggie's out-of-place behavior was quickly noticed by her mother Kate. Maggie lashed out at her mother for being too overprotective, leading to Maggie being grounded and having to do manual labor at Kate's bakery as punishment.

Laurel showed up to Maggie's house after an argument with her dad. And Laurel explained to Maggie that the reason that she was involved in the ring was so that she could make easy money as her father had no job and could not support her and her sister. Laurel convinced Maggie to come to Club West Quarter with her and Maggie acquiesced. Maggie started having suspicions after she saw Laurel go off with an older man. Maggie wanted to tell her mom about everything but Laurel warned her not to say anything to anyone, as it would not go well for the both of them. Shortly after Laurel left. Dan appeared in front of Maggie's window and took various pictures of her as she was undressing.

Maggie soon realized that her grades were slipping due to Laurel's influence. Maggie wanted to stop but Laurel convinced her to skip class again after forgetting to study for a test. This time however, pair was caught by Kate as they were shopping and Kate took Maggie back home. Dan is angered by this and wonders why Laurel couldn't do her job correctly. Dan was also worried that Laurel saw Maggie as her friend and not a target. The altercation was witnessed by Kate's business partner, Aimee. Aimee came over to see what was wrong. Laurel assured Aimee that she was fine and Dan was just a friend

Dan also saw Maggie's boyfriend, Kurt Roberts, as an obstacle, and placed a note in his locker, luring him to the local park. There, he is attacked with baseball bats by Dan and the club's bouncer, Francisco. Kurt ended up hospitalized as a result. Later that night, Maggie received a text from a number ordering her to go to Club West Quarter or else they would send racy pictures of Maggie to everyone. Maggie stole money from Kate's purse and was picked up by Laurel.

After Kate saw that Maggie was missing from her room, she tracked her down using an app installed on her phone.

By that point, Maggie had suspected Dan of being behind everything and wanted to help Laurel

## Trivia

* Philip Boyd previously played villainous Andrew James in 2021's *Driven to kill* and would later Nate in 2023's *Kidnapping in The Grand Canyon*.