Shawn Welling

Welling's career began in dance, before his rise in the indie film world. Soon after, he opened the dance studio Planet Funk Academy in Houston, TX. His career as a dancer saw him performing & choreographing for the NBA World Championship games for the Houston Rockets in 1994 and continued with NFL & NHL half-time shows, Cirque du Soleil (Dralion), Good Morning America, where Diane Sawyer heralded Planet Funk as "legendary." Welling has also produced a variety of successful master classes for clients such as Disney's "The Lion King" dancers and the cast for the Broadway hit "Oliver!" He has also worked with well-known MTV stars, Wade Robson, Brian Friedman, I.aM.mE, Les Twins, and many more. Welling's still photography work has been used by top dancers and models and was featured on the cover of Adobe Photoshop Users magazine. As a director, his first film, "The House of Dreams," won a Gold and a Platinum Remi at the WorldFest International Film Festival. His second film, "The Messenger: 360 Days of Bolivar" was released at Landmark, AMC, and Angelika theaters to sold out screenings, and was awarded Best Feature Film of 2009 by Houston Press. In 2011, Welling premiered his third feature film, also based on a true story, entitled "Project Aether." It earned numerous awards including Houston Film Critic's Society Best Actress, the coveted Young Performers Award, Houston Film Critic's Society director award for Best World Premiere, and Best Director of 2011 by Houston Press. Welling is working on his latest project -- a web series entering its fifth season -- "AXI: Avengers of eXtreme Illusions" (winner of the Grand Remi for best web series 2012 & 2013), and he is now enjoying the lauded release of his fourth feature, "The Legend of DarkHorse County," starring Lee Majors (Six Million Dollar Man), Michael Biehn (The Terminator), and Olivia "Chachi" Gonzales. In 2015, Welling Films won a studio record 11 awards for its short film, web series, and web site work, including a coveted World of Dance Industry Award. Welling released a short film about the love of his life, his dog, Max. The short, "If I Could Talk," quickly became Welling's most successful and awarded work of his career to date, achieving 6 award wins and nomination in its first year on the festival circuit. The film would go viral, garnering over 80 million views on Facebook and YouTube, and spawning a sister film and a sequel, "If I Could Run" and "If I Could Bark." In 2015, Welling married the real love of his life, Michelle, a Houston-based photographer. Welling entered 2016 with four shorts and two features in production and an ambitious slate of coming features, shorts, and webisodes, including the true-life family feature, "The Blimp Trap," the story of two imaginative Texas pre-teens who "caught" the Goodyear Blimp in 1970s Texas. Young actress Isabella Blake-Thomas would be nominated for a Young Artist Award, the "kiddie Oscar," for her turn as Billy in the film and win the Best Young Actress award at Worldfest International Film Festival in Houston. In 2017, Welling released "Strange Bird," an ambitious speculative fiction short film with an epic focus. Star Preslee Bishop won a Rising Star acting award for her work on the film, the eighth acting honor for Welling Films, joining over fifty official accolades for Shawn Welling's small independent studio. Welling was also named a filmmaker ambassador for the Chinese/American partnership that has become a signature of the Worldfest International Film Festival. In 2018, "If I Could Run" was released, and has already received 23 festival awards and 3 nominations, thus being Welling's highest award winning film to date. He also began filming "The Last Astronaut", a sci-fi drama starring ABC's World of Dance, Eva Igo as Evena. In November, Shawn and his wife, Michelle Simmons, brought into the world their first daughter, Emma Rain Welling. Their baby girl is also featured in the movie, portraying a newborn Evena. The movie went on to win 5 awards, "Rising Star - Eva Igo", "Best Young Actress - Chloe Klitus", "Best Young Actress - Alexis Arnold", "Best Cinematography", "Best Sci-Fi Feature", and 1 nomination for Best Supporting Actor- Darrin Henson. For 2019, Welling will be working with Deepwater Productions Motion Picture Group on three films.