Meet Keertana Sreekumar | Filmmaker, Magazine CEO, & Suspiciously Young English Teacher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Keertana Sreekumar and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Keertana, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
Bay Area, baby! I grew up 30 minutes outside of San Francisco.

I grew up in Bay Area arts culture. At age 8, my artwork was showcased in the US Botanic Garden and Hayward National Gallery. At age 12, I raised $625,000 tax dollars for the Contra Costa Arts Commissioner board by speaking on the Measure X Tax Board. I was heavily invovled in arts philanthropy and made my own non-profit to foster young artists in the bay.

This all stopped when I was diagnosed with memory loss. My technical skill for art practically vanished, so I decided to pivot by managing artists and curating art galleries in my community. Even so, I felt disconnected from my arts practice.

It was during quarentine that I started researching filmmaking and writing semi-autobiographical stories about my life in order to preserve my adolecent memories. At age 15, I became the youngest winner of Toronto Independent Film Festival for my feature script, “The California Child”. The film is loosely based on my life, following an Indian-American teenage girl named California Gardener,

Funny story-I submitted to the festival under the guise of a 35-year-old white man named Gary Wilson. I was a minor and couldn’t submit under my actually identity, so Mr. Wilson was my only option. I ended up telling the festival the truth when I won (and sharing this insane story on TikTok, beginning my journey on the platform).

This launched my career as a screenwriter and filmmaker. I’ve written for sitcoms, features and shows across genres, with an emphasis on coming-of-age female narratives. Around this time, I left public high school to focus on my film career.

At age 16, I became a 1st grade teacher in a local private school. I missed being in a school enviorment and I love kids. I was officially Ms. Tana, the suspiciously young English teacher who spent weekends working on production sets.

I loved school and decided to finish up my degree at UCLA. Now I’m 17 and a junior in the English Literature department here. I absolutely love it. Being in LA has made it possible to be closer to the entertainment industry and take on more projects.

In general, all my art practices tend to be an attempt of documenting my life so I dont forget it. All my characters are a piece of me-crazy passionate, eccentric art fiends.

What should our readers know about your business?
K. Magazine is an arts culture magazine with an entirely female executive team. We are based in NY and LA, publishing in-print issues quarterly and publishing weekly online. We recently had our launch party in Manhattan to celebrate being the first US-based publication to showcase a South Indian non-binary person on the cover-Robin Thomas.

Star Catherine is the editor-in-chief of K. Mag, She’s a Staten Island native and we actually met through TikTok! We both began working on this business back in January 2023. At the time, we were just two ambitious teens with a vision of a publication dedicated to Celebrating Arts Culture.

Creating this business was definitely not easy. I financed this venture with my meager salary as a 1st grade teacher. The hardest part by far was planning the launch party. I had never been to New York before, but we managed to book a great venue in Manhattan and celebrate with insanely talented artists, filmmakers, writers, and business owners I had met throughout my creative career. It was truly a night to remember.

K. Mag highlights arts culture in every form. We cover high-end events like NYFW and Hollywood film premieres; but also highlight independent creatives from all backgrounds.

We stand as a publisher that defies the statistics as we are entirely run by POC women under the age of 21. It’s something that hasn’t been done before, exactly why we decided to do it.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m definitely biased as a Bruin, but Westwood is such an iconic location to explore. The food, the bus lines straight to Santa Monica, the amazing views and history-it can’t get better than that!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’m shouting out two of the strongest women I know. Firstly, my Amma (mother), Radhika Vellanoor, the gorgeous woman who I have the privledge of calling my mother. I grew up with her. We learned how to exist in this world together. We are both strong Malayalee-American immigrant women. She sacrified a lot to allow me to persue this atypical path, and I cannot thank her enough.

The second person I am shouting out is my Velliamma, Prameela Vellannoor, my mother’s oldest sister. She’s like a second mother to me. Velliamma was the first in my mom’s side of the family to get post-graduate degree. She instilled in both my mother and I to value education and to perservere despite adversity. Velliamma managed a bank in rural Kerala for over 25 years, dedicating her life to serve the community she grew up in. Honestly, she deserves this article more than anyone. She is a genuine powerhouse.

Website: http://keertanasreekumar.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keertana.sree/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keertana-sreekumar-b6147a224/

Other: http://kmagazine.org

Image Credits
Josh Li, Ishie Kaur, Erica Harris DeValve, Elena Grace