Jonathan Kesselman
Jonathan Baruch Kesselman (yes, he is Jewish), the godfather of the Jewxploitation film, was born and raised in the mean streets of the San Fernando Valley. He received his Bachelors degree from the University of Colorado, graduating Magna Cum Laude in Psychology with an emphasis in Neuroscience. After college, Jon spent two years in the corporate world as an Information Systems Consultant before being accepted into graduate school at the University Of Southern California School of Cinema/Television, where he received his Masters Degree in Film Production in December of 2001. While at USC, Jon's second semester short film, "The Hebrew Hammer," went on to semi-final at the 2000 Austin Film festival, and was chosen by the USC Film archivists in a collection of their ten favorite student shorts from the 1950’s to the present. While at USC, Jon also wrote, directed, edited, and produced a web serial for Doug Liman's Internet film site Nibblebox.com
From the strength of the script and his short, Jon’s first feature film, ‘The Hebrew Hammer’ was greenlit by Ed Pressman and John Schmidt’s ContentFilm while Jon was still a student at USC. The film had its world premiere at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, and 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.
Jonathan has also re-written a project for Fox Searchlight, served as a consultant/sketch writer for Comedy Central’s ‘Last Laugh,’ for two years, as a consultant for the 2007 MTV Movie Awards, and sold a spec Television Pilot, “Working Stiff,” to Sony Television. Currently, Jon completed writing “The Orbit Of Bob” for Nickelodeon as well as the live action feature film “Odd Todd,” based on the web cartoons of the same name for Paramount Pictures. Jon co-wrote ‘Odd Todd’ with creator Todd Rosenberg, and will direct this year.
Under his newly formed Production Banner, ‘The Worldwide Media Conspiracy,’ Jon is currently producing, “Confessions Of An Ivy League Bookie,” based on the Memoir of the same name by Peter Alson with Steven Shainberg (Fur, Secretary) Andrew Fierberg, and Christina Weiss Lurie of Vox3 Films. The film was written and will be directed by David Greenwald. It stars Justin Bartha, Ed Burns, and Judd Hirsch.
Jon has also recently finished directing a series of comedic commercial spots forAgencyRx, was a former humor columnist for Suicide Girls ( ‘Jonathan Kesselman’s Suicide Watch), directed the music video, “I’m A Sucker For A Girl In Uniform,” for the Brooklyn-based band The Churchills, a webisode for David Wain's series "Wainy Days," and taught comedy writing for the screen at Yale University for two years before moving back to Los Angeles.
Jon has also adapted, is producing, and will direct an adaptation of Glenn Frank’s Award Winning debut novel, “Abe Gilman’s Ending,” which was published last year. Martin Landau and Elliott Gould are attached to star. Jon is also attached to direct David Bromberg's ('Dedication') newest screenplay, entitled, 'Philosophy.'
Most recently, Jon sold an animated pilot to the Disney Channel, entitled ‘DNA Dan,’ and a feature film CGI comedy that he wrote for producer Chris Wedge at Blue Sky Studios (Ice Age, Ice Age 2, Robots, Horton Hears A Who). Jon's newest comedy web series, 'On The Streets,' can currently be seen on The Mother Nature Network and The Huffington Post.
Jon has finished writing and will direct ‘The Hebrew Hammer 2: Hammer VS Hitler,’ and a stage adaptation of the original film will run at the Planet Ant Theatre in Detroit Michigan, this December 2009. Currently, Jon is Executive Producing the television show, "Big In The '80s" starring and written by Kevin McDonald and Dave Foley for Canwest/Global TV.
Jon is also the 2009 Gold Medal IPPIE (NY Community Media Alliance) award winner for best multi-media feature for his series, "Writing In My Father's Footsteps."