Look, I’m not gonna write this in the 3rd Person, as I (Kevin McDevitt) definitely don’t have a "Director Bio" writer on-hand! In my 20 years of filmmaking I’ve founded an award-winning commercial production company and directed spots for Apple, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, and Adobe. I’ve produced and directed commercials, web series & music videos, built out multimedia content sites for brands, and created entire brand strategies for established nonprofits.
Several years ago, I was diagnosed with two rare & deadly bone marrow failure disorders and had to undergo a life-saving bone marrow transplant. Because I just can't stop filmmaking, I decided to pay that win forward by directing a viral music video to raise awareness for the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry (aka “Be The Match”) and hopefully help the thousands of others out there searching for their own cure. The Taylor Swift-parodying “Good Blood (Marrow Match Anthem)” music video was an online sensation, won multiple awards, and gained national press attention (TIME, Yahoo). Most importantly, the video has been watched by more than half a million people, many of whome were inspired to become bone marrow donors, saving the lives of those effected by blood cancers.
My dramatic recovery led to the epiphany that life is too short to work in advertising, and so I’ve forged a new path as an outdoor guide for First Descents, a national nonprofit that provides life-changing action-sports adventure trips for young adults effected by cancer. Miraculously, I’ve been able to start a family and am now the proud father of two pre-schoolers. I'm continuing to pay forward my good fortune by pouring my creative energies into my new indie film production company, Slacker Studios, and the memoir I'm writing about the years-long health struggles I was able to overcome.
At my core, I’m driven to make nimble independent films with heart and surprising scale, and I’ve founded Slacker Studios to create these films in a way that creates sustainable and equitable future for indie filmmakers. In 2021, I produced my first feature film, Val. This year, 2023, marks Slacker Studios’ debut short film, “Sea Change” by actor-director Sam Coale. 2024 will bring the much-anticipated release of my narrative directorial debut, the bicycle underwear epic, “bike short.”