Next person biography:
Jimmy Kelly was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and started producing content at an early age. He served as head writer, performer, and host for his high school's annual talent revue and created, executive produced, and starred in his own comedic news/talk show, The Sunday Soapbox, while attending Kalamazoo College. The show ended in 2008 when Kelly moved to Los Angeles to earn his MFA in screenwriting from the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, graduating in 2010.
After graduating, Kelly co-founded Peanut Attorney, an online sketch comedy troupe, and started working as a writer, producer, and actor. He also founded the Trojan Entertainment Network (uscten.com),a networking organization for Trojan alumni in the entertainment industry, which was named Volunteer Organization of the Year by USC in 2015. Kelly co-led the organization for eight years before transitioning to an emeritus role in 2018.
Kelly's first produced feature, Somewhere Beautiful, was an official selection at the São Paulo International Film Festival in 2014 and won awards at smaller American festivals. The film was loosely based on the Atom Egoyan film Calendar, and Egoyan served as an advisor on the project.
Over the next five years, Kelly focused on for-hire work, developing pilots and made-for-TV films for emerging development companies and performing uncredited rewrites on projects for various clients. He also gained extensive experience in life rights adaptations.
In 2019, Kelly shifted his focus to personal passion projects, building relationships with producers in the US and Australia, where he first studied screenwriting while studying abroad in Perth. He also began researching the economic side of the entertainment industry and exploring policy proposals to expand nonprofit funding and other resources for independent film.
Kelly continues to serve as a head mentor and live performer for Young Storytellers, a nonprofit that uses screenwriting to bring arts education to schools across Los Angeles and other cities.
