Alex's educational background began with a Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was awarded the Merit Scholarship. Under the guidance of Chris Sullivan and Nancy Andrews, he specialized in Stop-Motion Animation, a technique that gives the illusion of natural motion by making small position changes to inanimate objects.
Alex's academic achievements were recognized with the James Nelson Raymond Graduate Fellowship for his thesis film. He was also influenced by the works of renowned filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock and the novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Alex's professional career began with his first stop-motion film, Wolves at the Table, which won several awards, including Best Animation at the Knoxville Valleyfest Film Festival and Best Experimental Film at the L.A. Indie Talent Awards. He went on to direct animation for various projects, including Walt Disney's Annie award-nominated JoJo's Circus and Teletoon's Gemini award-winning series Life's a Zoo.
With the support of Canada's Cuppa Coffee Studios, Alex directed and animated The Devil's Due, a surreal short film that showcased his unique style and use of in-camera special effects. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and won a Gold Remi Award at Houston's International Film Festival for best independent animated short film.
Alex is married to CG Supervisor/Actress Mahsa Ghorbankarimi, and together they produced their first feature film, Luciferous, which won several Best Horror Feature awards. Their daughter, Mina Gorelick, joined the film industry in 2013 and voiced two Sesame Street short films. Mina's performance in Luciferous earned her a Special Jury Award at the Torremolinos International Film Festival in Spain.
Born in the former Soviet Union, Alex immigrated to Canada with his family in 1979 when he was six years old. His father, Lev Gorelick, was a chef, and his mother, Klara, was a dentist. Alex has a sister, Irena, who is a teacher.
As a young athlete, Alex was a competitive cross-country runner and goaltender for the Windsor Nationals. He also competed in the North American Maccabi Youth Olympic Games in Chicago at the age of 16. Alex was valedictorian at Vincent Massey high school and received several Academic-Athletic bursaries upon graduation.
Alex's educational journey continued with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Windsor, where he received the Board of Governors Medal for highest academic standing from the School of Visual Arts in 1996.
