Kel O’Neill is an American film director, artist, and actor. He is one half of the filmmaking duo Jongsma + O’Neill alongside
Eline Jongsma.
Life and career
Kel O’Neill grew up in
Andover, Massachusetts
Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was settled in 1642 and incorporated in 1646."Andover" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th ed., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 387. As of th ...
. Both of his parents were officers in the US Army, and met while serving together in Vietnam.
O’Neill made his acting debut in 2002’s
''XX/XY'', directed by
Austin Chick
Austin Chick (born 1971) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer, who made the films '' XX/XY'', released in 2002, and ''August'', which premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
Early life
Although born in Hartford, Connec ...
and starring
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Alan Ruffalo (; born November 22, 1967) is an American actor and producer best known for playing Bruce Banner / Hulk since 2012 in the superhero franchise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in the television series '' She-Hulk: Attorne ...
and
Kathleen Robertson
Kathleen Robertson (born July 8, 1973) is a Canadian actress, producer, writer and showrunner. She is best known for her roles as Kitty O' Neill in the Starz, Golden Globe winning series Boss, Hildy Mulligan in TNT's Murder in the First, Tina Edi ...
. He later played roles in
''Easier With Practice'',
''Stephanie Daley'', and
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for his work in the suspense, crime and psychological thriller genres. De Palma was a leading ...
’s 2007 war drama
''Redacted''. In 2007 he was hired to play the character of Eli Sunday in
Paul Thomas Anderson
Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970), also known by his initials PTA, is an American filmmaker. He made his feature-film debut with ''Hard Eight (film), Hard Eight'' (1996). He found critical and commercial success with ''Boogie Nights'' ( ...
’s
''There Will Be Blood'', but was fired two weeks in production and replaced by
Paul Dano
Paul Franklin Dano (; born June 19, 1984) is an American actor. He began his career on Broadway before making his film debut in ''The Newcomers'' (2000). He won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance for his role in '' L.I.E.' ...
. Of this experience and director Paul Thomas Anderson, O’Neill says “If he hadn’t fired me from ''There Will Be Blood'' I would probably still be an actor dreaming of making my own films someday.”
While still an actor, O’Neill began working with
Eline Jongsma, with whom he first collaborated in 2006 at an artist residency in Prishtina, Kosovo. In 2009, Jongsma + O’Neill began production on ''Empire'', a series of non-fiction video installations on the remnants of Dutch colonialism. The project had its premiere at
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in 2012 and its US premiere at the
New York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, it is ...
in 2013. ''Empire'' was adapted to the web in collaboration wit
POV and this adaptation was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy in the category New Approaches: Documentary Film. O’Neill and Jongsm
wrote about their experiencesfilming ''Empire'' in Suriname’s gold mines for
VICE
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...
.
In 2015, O’Neill and
Eline Jongsma won the
Tim Hetherington Trust Award, which they used to help produce their follow-up to ''Empire'', ''The Ark'', a VR documentary about the fight to save the Northern White Rhino from extinction. Shot in California and Africa, the project focuses on parallel stories: scientists in San Diego attempting in vitro fertilization to revive the species—of which only three remain—and workers on Kenya’s
Ol Pejeta Conservancy
The Ol Pejeta Conservancy is a not-for-profit wildlife conservancy in Central Kenya's Laikipia County. It is situated on the equator west of Nanyuki, between the foothills of the Aberdares and Mount Kenya. The Ol Pejeta Conservancy works to ...
guarding the remaining rhinos from poachers. ''The Ark'' had its world premiere at the 2016
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...
in the Storyscapes section.
O’Neill and Jongsma’s other work includes ''Exit: A Mobile Guide To The Apocalypse'', which was an Official Selection in the Future of Entertainment section of SXSW 2016.
Filmography irector/h1>
* ''The Ark''
016 o-director, with Eline Jongsma* ''The Empire Project'' (2012)
o-director, with Eline Jongsma* ''De transformatie van Genesis P-Orridge'' (2008)
o-director, with Eline Jongsma
References
External links
Jongsma + O'Neill*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oneill, Kel
American male actors
Living people
People from Andover, Massachusetts
American male artists
American artists
Place of birth missing (living people)
Year of birth missing (living people)
Film directors from Massachusetts