Michael L. Harris – SERENDIPITOUS MEETINGS

Jerry Lewis could do no wrong if you wanted my opinion, growing up. He did it all. Produced, directed, and starred in his own films, and I wanted to do so too.

Growing up in a small Midwestern community, however, there were few opportunities to pursue film or theatre. When summer day when I was 14, I was exploring the lake where we spent our summer and found my way to “Enchanted Hills,” and it’s heretofore unknown to me summer theatre. I began to usher there and learned a lot about acting.  I spent the next few summers there learning about theatre and eventually performing there.

In college, I studied theatre but nothing much came of it until I went back for my master’s. One of my acting coaches, Tad Danielewski had been a producer, director, and acting coach in the early days of NBC. Some of his students included:  Martin Sheen and Eli Wallach. I was in his Professional Actors Workshop at BYU and my eyes were opened. At the time, Tad was involved in the creation of a new film festival, which operated out of an old English double-decker bus, was held in Park City, Utah, and is known as the US Film and Video Festival. The first year I attend I met Jamie Lee Curtis, I rode up to the festival with fellow classmate, Johnny Whitaker, and later met one of his co-stars, Jodie Foster.

Tad and his partners at the film festival ran into financial difficulties and approached Robert Redford about taking over the Festival. You know it today as Sundance.

Returning home after my time in Utah. I began to pursue my acting career and was fortunate to have a small role in John Sayle’s classic film, Eight Men Out starring Charlie Sheen and D.B. Sweeney, for which I earned my SAG card. I was pleased to hear that D.B. Sweeney with whom I shared the screen in “Eight Men Out,” Is currently running for election as a SAG-AFTRA National Board Member through the Chicago local. I auditioned Charlie Sheen several years before doing Eight Men Out when I was casting for a feature which I had optioned.

Over the years I have continued to pursue acting but also turned to the backside of the camera, producing 12 short films, and working on numerous commercials. I spent several summers crewing on a Winnebago industrial shoot in Iowa, where I cast the sister of the pilot on the fatal Buddy Holly crash- which happened just outside of the small town in Iowa where we were filming.

Presently, I am producing an internet series and gearing up for my first feature next summer, which is based on the book “Simon Sees” by best-selling author, Othello Bach. As part of my preparation, I have recently taken three classes from Sundance Collabs bring me full circle back to my college days.

I’m always eager to meet new people and form collaborative relationships.