Kelsey Taylor
Raised in the wilds of Eastern Washington, Kelsey Taylor attended Loyola Marymount University where she earned a degree in Film Production and minors in both Film Studies and Music.
Kelsey's filmmaking career began as a cinematographer and camera assistant, which built a strong foundation for visual storytelling before her transition into directing. Her breakthrough sci-fi short film, ALIEN: SPECIMEN, was created through an initiative with 20th Century and has accumulated over 6 million views.
As a DGA commercial director, Kelsey has worked with brands like Volkswagen, Walmart, and Verizon her work ranges from comedy to dark world building. Southwest Airlines tapped Kelsey to direct their first branded short film, ALONE IN TOMBSTONE, a modern Western that further proved her chameleon-like ability to work in any genre.
Drawn to stories that live in the gray and allow for shifting perspectives, Kelsey's feature film, TO KILL A WOLF, which she wrote, directed and produced, is a modern reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood told through the lens of sexual grooming. The film premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in August 2024 and has gone on to win awards like, Best Directing at the Bend Film Festival, Stubbornly Independent at the Tallgrass Film Festival and Best Film at Film Fest Knox, winning an Oscar-qualifying theatrical release for the film which is slated for summer 2025.
Her next film, THE BAD THINGS, was a semifinalist in the 2022 Academy Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship competition. TO KILL A WOLF was a quarterfinalist in 2018.
Most recently, Film Independent selected Kelsey as one of six fellows in their 2024 Episodic Directing Intensive. Kelsey is represented by Bellevue and commercially by Eleanor, the only Black and woman-owned production company in the US, and most recently crowned “The 2024 Production Company to Watch” by AdAge.
