Kevin Michael(IV)

Having pursued acting as one of the top actors under six at the KD Studio Actors Conservatory, Kevin Michael shifted his focus to filmmaking after being invited to attend a special production course at an actors studio in the Dallas metroplex. He was twelve years old. Enthralled by the craft, he found a week-long internship being trained as a camera assistant on the production of a series of videos for children's entertainer Eddie Coker. For the next year, he taught acting to children at Dallas Young Actors Studio while working as a crew member on in-house productions. He finished high school at fourteen and enrolled in community college. At the same time, he began an internship with a local television station, and at sixteen he was employed as a contract producer in rotation with the full-time producers for weekly stories. He was also put in charge of a half-hour special on teenage drinking to be made with the local Plano high schools, guiding development of the piece and leading production. A music video he co-produced for a local band earned him a Telly Award at fifteen.

Kevin attended Austin College with a concurrent study at Bond University, Australia, studying film and television production. During college, he was involved in numerous student pictures, consulting for three senior projects. Before co-founding Xteamartists, he worked in various capacities around DFW trying to get projects off the ground. While Post Supervisor for a cooking show called 'Fed Up!', he worked on a pilot for a 'voluntourism' series concept. Kevin also spent six months as a voice actor and creative producer for an audio drama called 'Hunting Alice' now being produced in LA. Following a casual meeting with Andrew Yorke, the two began collaborating on the feature-length picture 'Videotape'. Though filling numerous other positions as a filmmaker, Kevin also took over the role of producer: securing investments and equipment; coordinating shoots, post, and screenings; and managing the sales and distribution. Before turning to literature, Kevin produced a short with Andrew titled 'Bored Games' as a favor to a friend and professor running an arts festival in North Texas.

While developing several scripts together, both Kevin and Andrew turned to literature in order provide an avenue to make their stories public and gain exposure while raising interest and funds for their next feature. Kevin worked as Andrew's editor and managed publication of their works. Determined to make 'Runaway Empire' their next feature, he launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to publish the novella in print while they developed a screenplay. (Jan 2014) With the script complete and the novella ready for publication, Kevin has again shifted his focus to cinema, and he is working to secure funding for the motion picture 'Runaway Empire'.