#79 | Jonathan Kesselman | Writer/Director
On today's episode is American Filmmaker Jonathan Kesselman, a Dublin Based award-winning filmmaker and writer. He launched his career writing and directing 'The Hebrew Hammer' in 2003 to international acclaim with its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. It later played a number of international festivals before being picked up for theatrical distribution (Hanukkah 2003) by Strand Releasing in conjunction with Comedy Central and Paramount Home Video. Voted among the top holiday movies by the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Boston Globe and Time Magazine. Jonathan's second feature film 'Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero' starring Maz Jobrani and John Heard, had its world premiere at the 2014 Austin Film Festival, where it won the Comedy Vanguard award as well as the Audience Award. Jimmy was released theatrically May 13th, 2016, followed by a release on Showtime and Netflix. Jonathan has written for: Fox, Paramount, Nickelodeon, Disney, Sony, Blue Sky Animation, MTV, Comedy Central studios, and WWE (yes, it's fake). Jonathan also works as a commercial director with such clients as Nintendo, Renault, Red Mango, Irish Rail, American Media Inc., and Mr. Olympia. Ironically, Jonathan taught 'Writing Comedy for Film and Television' at Yale University while concurrently acting as the humor columnist for the alternative goth-porn site Suicide Girls.