[3] His first film,[4] Touched with Fire, was inspired by his struggles overcoming bipolar disorder,[5][6] and premiered at SXSW in March 2015[7][8] and was released theatrically in February 2016.

[14] After graduating in 2004 he went to Los Angeles to work for a film producer, when he had a psychotic episode, was hospitalized and diagnosed bipolar.

[17][18] There he also met his professor Spike Lee[19] who became a mentor and offered to executive produce a rap musical he had written while in the bipolar swings about the Apocalypse.

[19] Taking his wife's advice, he wrote the script and showed it to Spike who executive produced the film[20] which would be his feature debut, originally titled Mania Days,[21][22] starring Katie Holmes and Luke Kirby - a love story between two bipolar poets who bring out all the horror and beauty of their condition, until they have to choose between sanity and love.

[32] Dalio is married to Bulgarian-born fellow film director, Kristina Nikolova, and they live in New York with their two children.