Michael Sellers - Writer/Director

Michael Sellers is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the University of Delaware with a Masters Degree in Film from New York University. After graduate school, he spent ten years in the Central Intelligence Agency on active duty in Poland, Ethiopia, the former Soviet Union and the Philippines.

Throughout his time in the CIA, Sellers dabbled in music and writing, recording and releasing an album of original music and producing several Filipino artists for the local market, as well as one international album by acclaimed Philippine artist Freddie Aguilar.

Emboldened by his venture into music producing and growing restless with his career with the CIA, Sellers left the agency and re-launched his career as a writer and filmmaker. Sellers' first step on the journey back to filmmaking was to create Pacwood Films, a Philippine-based production company, under which he produced three domestic Philippine movies: Umiyak Pati Langit (Tears of Heaven), Class of '92, and Anak Ng Dagat (Son of the Sea).

Sellers' first Hollywood co-production was 1992 s Rage. In 1993, Sellers followed this up with another international co-production, Fortunes of War starring Martin Sheen, Michael Ironsides, and Haing Ngor. Sellers then wrote and produced several documentaries including Rising Above the Storm, about the departure of the U.S. Navy from Subic Bay. He formed a joint venture with ABS-CBN Broadcasting, the top Philippine media conglomerate, for whom he wrote and produced Goodbye, America, a feature film examining the same subject and the effect of America's overpowering influence on local cultures such as the Philippines where the U.S. presence was ubiquitous. Goodbye, America starred Michael York, James Brolin, Alexis Arquette, Rae Dawn Chong, and Corin Nemec.

For international sales, he formed a new Los Angeles-based company, Quantum Entertainment, with partner Pamela Vlastas, and under Quantum successfully licensed Goodbye, America in over 80 countries around the world. He followed this with Legacy in 1999 starring David Hasselhoff and Rod Steiger, and Doomsdayer in 2000, starring Udo Kier, Brigitte Nielsen, and Joe Lara. Sellers began spending more time in Los Angeles, where he executive produced Quicksand starring Michael Dudikoff, Control starring Sean Young, and Silence starring Kristy Swanson.

In early 2002, Sellers curtailed his film executive work to focus on writing, first completing The American, about a CIA officer in Afghanistan in the weeks after 9/11, which he optioned to a major studio. He then wrote Vlad, an historical horror-adventure film he also directed, filming on location in Romania with a cast that included Billy Zane, Brad Dourif, and Francesco Quinn. Vlad won the Director's Choice Award at the Fort Meyers Film Festival and swept the top honors at the Cine-Macabre Awards in Atlanta. Sellers followed up Vlad by co-writing and producing Karla, a true crime drama based on the court transcripts from the murder trials of Canada's most infamous serial killers, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. Karla (www.karlathemovie.net), which starred Laura Prepon, Misha Collins, and Tess Harper, was released by Monterey Media in January, 2007.