Kelley Kali | |
|---|---|
 Kali in 2023 | |
| Born | Kelley Kali Chatman Northridge, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation(s) | Director, actor, writer, and producer |
| Known for | I'M FINE (Thanks for Asking) |
Kelley Kali is an American director, actor, writer, and producer. She is the creator of the 2021 indie film I'm Fine (Thanks for Asking) , which has won several awards in the film festival circuit. [1] Other directing credits include Lalo's House (2018), Kemba (2022), and Jagged Mind (2023).
Kali was born Kelley Kali Chatman, [2] in Northridge, California. [3]
She got her bachelor's degree in anthropology, with majors in archeology and minors in film and classical civilization from Howard University. [3] [2] As a student there, Kali directed on multiple episodes for the Belize dramatic television series Noh Matta Wat! [4] [5]
She attended the USC School of Cinematic Arts in TV and Film Production program, [6] graduating with a Master of Fine Arts in 2018. [6] She released the short film Lalo's House (2018), a drama concerning child sex trafficking in Haiti. According to Kali, the film was nine years in the making and had been part of her application project as well as her thesis project for University of Southern California (USC). [6] [7] The film won the Programmers Award at the Pan African Film Festival. [8]
Kali was professionally trained in acting at Ivana Chubbuck Studios and received training in directing from the University of California. [2] [9] Whilst a student, she was the President of the USC School of Cinematic Arts Graduate Council, and represented the school at USC Graduate Student Government events within the USC. [2]
In 2020, Kali directed, wrote, produced, and starred in the feature film, I'm Fine (Thanks for Asking) , which was released in 2021. [10] [11] She was also selected to work with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer's company New Form to develop her web series, The Discovery of Dit Dodson. [9]
In 2022, she directed the film Kemba , which was produced by MPI, [12] and premiered at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival in 2023. [9]
In 2023, she directed and produced the film Jagged Mind starring Maisie Richardson-Sellers. [10] [11] The film premiered at the American Black Film Festival, Miami in June 2023. [13]
 | This biographical article is written like a résumé .(October 2022) |
| This article contains a list that has not been properly sorted. Specifically, it does not follow the Manual of Style for lists of works (often, though not always, due to being in reverse-chronological order). See MOS:LISTSORT for more information.(October 2022) |
The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Screen & Television; Interactive Media & Games; Media Arts + Practice; Peter Stark Producing Program.
Irvin Kershner was an American director for film and television.
Ondi Doane Timoner is an American filmmaker and the founder and chief executive officer of Interloper Films, a production company located in Pasadena, California.
Charles Davenport Champlin was an American film critic and writer.
James Cunningham is a New Zealand film director and animator. He has directed twelve award-winning short films. He is based in Auckland, New Zealand.
Ildikó Enyedi is a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. She is best known for directing On Body and Soul, which won the top prize at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival among other awards, and was nominated for a Foreign Language Academy Award.
Christine Shin is a South Korean-born writer–director.
Mary Beth Fielder is an American writer, director and producer of television and feature films. She served on the faculty of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts from 1994 to 2009.
David Lee Miller is an American film director, screenwriter, composer and producer. He is best known for writing, producing and directing the award-winning teen comedy-drama film Archie's Final Project, also known as My Suicide.
Lauren Wolkstein is an American film director, writer, producer and editor. She is known for directing, writing, and editing the 2017 film The Strange Ones with Christopher Radcliff and serving on the directorial team for the third season of Ava DuVernay's Queen Sugar, which she followed with a producing director role in the fifth season. She is an Associate Professor of Film and Media Arts at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Andy Landen is a Canadian film director currently living in Los Angeles, California. Landen graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 2011.
Janet Grillo is an American filmmaker.
Narges Abyar is an Iranian film director, author, and screenwriter, best known for directing Track 143, Breath, and When the Moon Was Full. The film Track 143 is adapted from Abyar's novel titled The Third Eye narrating the story of a woman and her son during the time of war. Her films sensitively picture the sufferings of women and children caused by the society, war or radicalism.
Elia Petridis is a Lebanese-Greek film director and screenwriter, known for The Man Who Shook the Hand of Vicente Fernandez, and for his work in transmedia and virtual reality production. He is the founder and creative director of film production company Filmatics and the transmedia production company Fever Content.
Really Love is a 2020 American romantic drama film directed by Angel Kristi Williams and co-written with Felicia Pride. The film is set in Washington, D.C., and centers the romance between a struggling artist and an ambitious law student. Really Love debuted in October 2020 at AFI Film Festival. It received mainly positive critical reception and leads Wong-Loi-Sing and Siriboe received a Special Jury Recognition for Acting at South by Southwest.
Sevak "Sev" Ohanian is an American film producer and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-writer and producer of the films Searching and Run, as well as executive producer on the film Judas and the Black Messiah. He is also one of the founders of Proximity Media.
Katrine Philp is a Danish film director. She initially studied film production design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and later graduated from the National Film School of Denmark as a documentary film director in 2009.
Saim Sadiq is a Pakistani screenwriter and director who won the Jury Prize of the Un Certain Regard section at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival for directing the drama film Joyland, the first Pakistani film to be selected in Cannes. Joyland also won the Queer Palm award during its world premiere at Cannes.
I'm Fine (Thanks for Asking) is a 2021 American indie film co-written and directed by Kelley Kali and Angelique Molina, marking their feature length debut. The film had its world premiere on March 17, 2021, at the SXSW Festival, where it won the special jury prize.
Kemba is a 2024 American biographical legal drama film written by Christine Swanson and directed by Kelley Kali. The film stars Nesta Cooper, Sean Patrick Thomas and Michelle Hurd. The film based on the true story of Kemba Smith, a college student charged as a co-conspirator to her college boyfriend's drug-trafficking crimes and in 1994 was sentenced to 24.5 years in federal prison. Her case drew national attention and support from various organizations including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund which ultimately prompted President Bill Clinton to grant her executive clemency after serving 6.5 years. She later become criminal justice advocate and public speaker. Kemba Smith serving as executive producer of the film.