Flaherty started to pursue acting at age 11. When he turned 13, he booked his first short film,
My First Kiss. By the age of 17, he had appeared in the indie short films
Spark,
Vacant,
The Parade, and
Portnoy. In 2010, Flaherty was cast as Stanley Lucerne in the
MTV adaptation of the British teen drama
Skins. The character is based on the character
Sid Jenkins from the original
British series. Daniel originally went to the
New York open call but didn’t get a callback. His agent arranged a second private audition, through which Flaherty won the role. Flaherty stated that his favorite part of working on
Skins was getting to contribute to the development of his character. ==Personal life==