We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kelan Brown a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kelan, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

In March of 2022, I applied for a grant for a short film project that I was producing titled ‘In the Gray’. It was a script that shone a spotlight on those most likely to receive abortion care in the US, and those rarely talked about, mothers. It put the audience in the position to empathize with a woman that they would likely want to dislike. I found the script quite compelling and it also aligned with the types of stories that I want to tell as a creative – stories that examine the untold and darker sides of women. And while ‘In the Gray’ pushes back against the mythic narrative of who receives abortion care, it isn’t an overtly political story. Frankly, I think it will make people on both sides of the issue feel uneasy. It’s about a woman wrestling with her deeply personal faith and needing to make a choice for herself. It’s disquieting, but not divisive.

I found out that we got the grant in June of 2022, and two weeks later Roe v. Wade was overturned. From that point on the significance of this project became more and more apparent. For our team, telling this story was how we fought back against the war on reproductive health. It was incredibly personal for us, and as we began to screen ‘In the Gray’ at film festivals, it was clear that it was personal for our audience too. At every screening, at least one woman in the audience approached our director afterwards, often in tears, to share their own stories and to say thank you. That reaction meant everything to us as filmmakers.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hello! My name is Kelan (like Helen with a K) and I’m a Canadian producer/writer, who has been lucky to call Toronto, New York, and now Los Angeles home.

I grew up deeply connected to the arts, creativity, and storytelling, and went on to study acting in Toronto before working in theatre in New York. I spent a few seasons at Powerhouse Theater, a co-pro between New York Stage & Film and Vassar College, that focused on developing new theatre works, including ‘Hamilton’ and ‘The Humans’. Exploring creation in that capacity was incredible because the work centred on finding the most impactful version of each story, not simply the performance. But I often found myself asking, why is this the story we’re creating right now? As my desire to be on stage dwindled, my love for the creation process grew. I wanted a say in whose voices we hear and the messages being shared.

That desire to find the blend of creative and producing led me to producing for film and television. My work primarily focuses on exploring the untold and darker sides of women. My creative partner, writer-director Alexandra Hensley, and I have collaborated on several projects under our banner – Slightly Hysterical Tendencies. Such projects include: ‘In the Gray’ about a Christian mother considering an abortion, ‘Coasti’ about the hidden grief of a queer muslim woman, as well as ‘The Morning After’ – currently in post-production – which looks at a young woman’s experience after a night out where she has to question if something may have happened to her when she can’t remember getting home. We are also developing a feature film about a female Marine’s experience of war. Additionally, I have optioned a book series from the author J. Bree about a teenage assassin that I am developing as a television series.

I am inspired by female filmmakers with personal experiences and stories they want to share that are often left in the margins. To me, the greatest purpose of storytelling is to share roadmaps of experiences that others can use to navigate their own lives. Beyond simple entertainment, stories inspire us, challenge us, connect us, and shape us. As a producer, I can amplify voices that I believe need to be heard, and it might sound trite, but I am grateful everyday to do the work that I get to do.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Oof. This is a good question. Something that came up recently when I was speaking as a panelist to an undergrad film class was separating the idea of failure from your evolution as a creative.

I remember as a teenager overhearing a conversation about someone from my hometown, who went to the same acting program that I would eventually attend, who was back in our community because they “didn’t make it” and that was the catalyst for a very skewed concept of success that I would hold for years to come.

I ended up at that same school and was so scared of not “making it”. The fear, frankly, kept me from starting my evolution into producing. I didn’t want to admit that I had fallen out of love of performing because that felt like failure, but it wasn’t. My experience with acting and performing is a huge asset to my understanding of storytelling in the field I’m in now.

I don’t regret my journey because it got me where I am now – always trust the timing – but I want creatives, especially younger creatives, to know that as you progress in your careers there will be moments that offer you an opportunity to shift on your path. When that happens, check in with yourself. Those might very well not be opportunities that you want to take, which is totally valid, but if you are feeling drawn in a certain direction and afraid that the shift will be perceived as failure – don’t. It’s not a failure. It might just be the first step towards the next chapter of your story.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

As mentioned previously, I have definitely struggled with a fear of failure which is not particularly conducive to having a creative career. I like when there is a clear right and wrong way of doing things, because I know that I can and will put in the effort to get it right. However, things aren’t that clean cut in creative fields. There isn’t often a right or wrong, but there are many conflicting voices of what constitutes “good” or “bad”.

Resources that have helped me to reframe my personal narrative around failure include Brené Brown’s books, such as ‘The Gifts of Imperfection’, ‘Rising Strong’, and ‘Braving the Wilderness’. Another resource that I have found incredibly illuminating as a creative is Elizabeth Day’s podcast ‘How to Fail’. There are two interviews with Phoebe Waller-Bridge that are a year apart and fascinating. In the first one, she talks of how her struggles to get acting jobs led to creating ‘Fleabag’. Then a year later, Phoebe is back following the explosive success of ‘Killing Eve’ and speaking about how no one wanted to make that project.

I love listening to people, who we revere as being very successful, speaking openly about the unseen struggles and failures that led them to where they are today.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @kelnbrown
• Other: IMDb: Kelan Brown