Meet Michael Kellman | Writer/Director

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

Hi Michael, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
In the spirit of total honesty: I don’t have a work-life balance at all. I’m 27, so relatively early in my career, and I don’t have a wife or children. I work a day-job to pay the bills, and I work on my filmmaking. That’s more or less all that I do. I think if you’re a person with very ambitious career aspirations, it’s almost impossible not to have at least a period in your life where that balance is heavily weighted towards work. I’ve been in that period for a number of years now, and plan on remaining in it for at least a few more. I think it’s a lot easier to throttle back once you’ve established yourself in your field. But until that point there is, in a way, infinite work to be done.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’ve always been completely enamored with stories. When I was a kid my parents read me to sleep at night, and as soon as I could read on my own, I did. When I was in elementary school I read all the books in the library on a few topics, and then proceeded to badger the librarian every so often, asking her whether new books on said topics had come in. That same obsession went for movies and television. Watching movies together was a big thing for our family, and I was taken in by the screen. I’ve always found it amazing that a story that ostensibly has nothing to do with you as a viewer can evoke such strong emotional responses. It’s such a huge part of what makes us uniquely human. When I was about sixteen I began to think maybe film could be the career path for me, and by eighteen I was sure. I have a particular love for comedy, and in college I was the president of the improvisational comedy group. We did something like sixty shows during my time. I am a writer, director, producer, editor, and sometimes actor.

I made fifteen or so shorts before my first feature film, which I dropped out of film school to create. That movie is called Say Less and is currently doing film festivals. It premiered at Cinequest a few months ago (Feb. 2025), where it won the audience award for best comedy. Say Less is a coming-of-age dark comedy about a brother and sister in high school. It’s a little bit The Edge Of Seventeen meets Risky Business. It takes the struggles of high-school teens seriously, because at that age it feels so serious. I took a lot of inspiration from having grown up with two sisters. It is ultimately a movie about seeing and being seen.

At the moment I’m in the middle of shooting my second feature, Burn Pretty, which is a no-budget feature originally inspired by the films of the French New Wave. I could find adjectives to describe my work but the only really useful description of it would come from a depiction of it. Watching some of it, in other words. I have a slightly… off-kilter sensibility. A little odd. I’m most proud of the best thing that I’ve created so far, which is a screenplay that I hope to get the opportunity to make someday. I am, at least so far, a bit of a hell-or-highwater filmmaker. Without any institutional support (thus far), I’ll figure out whatever I need to in order to make it happen. This is my passion, an enormous source of meaning for me, and what I’ve dedicated myself to. I care a lot.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
The Huntington Gardens at the Huntington Library in Pasadena are gorgeous and I recommend them highly. Go to the beach and go surfing. Go for a hike in Malibu. And you have to go see stand up at The Comedy Store.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My mother and father, the best parents anyone could hope for.

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