Chris McCaleb (born March 14, 1978) is an American film and television director, producer and editor, best known as the co-creator of the

web series A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single i ...

''Prom Queen'' and co-host of the ''

Better Call Saul ''Better Call Saul'' is an American crime and legal drama television series created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. Part of the ''Breaking Bad'' franchise, it is a spin-off of Gilligan's previous series, ''Breaking Bad'', and serves as a ...

Insider'' and ''New Mediacracy''

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

s. In recent years, McCaleb has been

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

-nominated for editing on the

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

Breaking Bad ''Breaking Bad'' is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows Walter White (Bryan Cranston), an underpaid, overqualified, and dispirited hig ...

'' and ''Better Call Saul''.

Early life

McCaleb was born in Evanston, Illinois, but grew up primarily in Tucson, AZ. He graduated from

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located ...

in 2000 with a degree in Film Production. After college, McCaleb worked in

post-production Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. The ...

and as an editor and assistant editor, most notably under filmmakers

Michael Mann Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television who is best known for his distinctive style of crime drama. His most acclaimed works include the films ''Thief'' (1981), ' ...

and

John Sayles John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for ''Passion Fish'' (1992) and ''L ...

''Sam Has 7 Friends''

In 2006, while working for Michael Mann on the film ''

Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann (director), Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo ...

'', McCaleb was approached by co-worker Chris Hampel to join fellow filmmakers Douglas Cheney and Ryan Wise and producer Marcus Blakely in an experiment: an 80-episode serialized drama for the internet. The experiment came to be known as ''

Sam Has 7 Friends ''Sam Has 7 Friends'' was a 2006 series drama created, produced, and funded by the production company Big Fantastic and subsequently bought and distributed by the studio Vuguru. The series appeared on YouTube, Revver, iTunes and its own web site. ...

''. The story followed aspiring actress Samantha Breslow, and her relationships with each of her seven friends. The series ran from August 28 to December 15, 2006, when one of Sam's seven friends murdered her. Produced on a total budget of $50,000, the series garnered nearly 3 Million views during its initial run, and landed McCaleb and his co-creators representation at

United Talent Agency United Talent Agency (UTA) is a global talent agency based in Beverly Hills, California. Established in 1991, it represents artists and other professionals across the entertainment industry. , the company has more than 1,400 global employees. U ...

, which had just begun to look for talent online.

Big Fantastic

During the production of "Sam Has 7 Friends," McCaleb, Cheney, Hampel and Wise formed the filmmaking collective and production company

Big Fantastic Big Fantastic, LLC is a filmmaking collective and production company located in Santa Monica, California which creates, develops and produces online video entertainment. The company is currently most known for their popular web series ''Sam Has 7 ...

, specializing in the creation and production of high-quality scripted online programming.

''Prom Queen''

After the success of "Sam Has 7 Friends," Big Fantastic created their next project, the high school murder mystery ''Prom Queen''. McCaleb was the co-creator, and served as a director, writer, and producer. Funded by

Michael Eisner Michael Dammann Eisner (born March 7, 1942) is an American businessman and former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company from September 1984 to September 2005. Prior to Disney, Eisner was president of rival film st ...

's new production company,

Vuguru Vuguru is an American independent multi-platform studio founded by Michael Eisner's The Tornante Company in March 2006. The company has produced content including the web series ''Prom Queen'', '' The Booth at the End'', ''Little Women Big Cars'', ...

, the series was an instant success, with over 15 million views of the episodes during the original 12-week run, and has been viewed by over 40 million people to date. A 15-episode spinoff series, '' Prom Queen: Summer Heat'', was quickly ordered by Eisner, with production taking place in Los Angeles; Nogales, Mexico; and McCaleb's hometown of Tucson. In 2009, McCaleb and Big Fantastic produced a third season of "Prom Queen." Titled "The Homecoming," the 22-episode series debuted in Canada on July 4, 2010, on

CityTV Citytv is a Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The licence of the original Citytv station, granted the callsign of CITY-TV by the CRTC on November 25, 1971 to Cable Television Ass ...

, and was released in the United States in October 2012 on

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

's website.

References

External links

ChrisMcCaleb.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:McCaleb, Chris 1978 births Living people American television directors Businesspeople from Evanston, Illinois Film directors from Illinois