Mike Olinger

Besides being a writer, director, producer and editor, Mike is also the founder, President and CEO of Gift for Fiction Entertainment, one of only two active production companies working in the Reno area. Mike is a 21 year old with a lifelong interest in movies that led him in his early teens to a career as a film critic. After 7 years of work and school, Mike was finally able to realize his lifelong ambition to make a film of his own. His debut effort, Less Like Me, which he wrote, directed, produced, edited and made a small cameo in is the culmination of that ambition. His first feature doubled as his first foray into any type of real filmmaking beyond the realm of high school class projects, and much as he learned screenwriting as he wrote his first draft of Less Like Me, he learned the arts of directing, editing and producing as he went as well. He counts Kevin Smith, Charlie Kaufman, Woody Allen and Wes Anderson as big influences on his writing and his life, but counts David Mamet, writer and director of such films as The Spanish Prisoner, State and Main and House of Games as his key influence in every aspect of his filmmaking approach. He is currently working on the script for Gift for Fiction's next movie, Prayers of a Stalker with his long time friend and co-producer Jason Williams. The movie will be directed by friend, co-producer and Gift for Fiction Vice President Jeremy Capurro. Outside of Prayers of a Stalker, Mike has a number of short films in production, including a spoof of The Day After Tomorrow and a silent short film set in the 1920s.