Todd Mei

Todd Mei grew up in Orange, California and graduated from Villa Park High School (1990). He was senior class president and competed on the wrestling team. He enrolled at the University of California at Santa Barbara (1990-1992) and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley (1994) with a BA in English literature. While At UC Berkeley, he acquired an interest in myth, theories of textual interpretation and studied poetry under former American poet laureate Bob Hass. He spent 1993-1994 abroad in the UK studying at the University of Kent (Canterbury), where he was to return in 2004 to complete a PhD on the philosophy of work. His academic misadventures as an undergraduate include being kicked out of a Shakespeare seminar at Kent for being a "black hole" and "intellectually disruptive", being told off by a famous member of the UC Berkeley Classics staff for naively reading Plotinus in view of "Truth", and being removed from a drama course at UC Berkeley for impersonating Yoda in front of the professor. Allegedly, these events shaped Mei's unconventional approach to academic research. The creative roots of Mei's work in film stem from the time spent living and working in a video shop while he attended UCSB. Mei became close friends with the video shop owner and climber, Steve Edwards, and his brother Brian (a.k.a., the Edwards brothers). It is reputed that Mei and the Edwards brothers would go on "film binges" by choosing a particular actor, director, or genre and watching as many films as possible while working shifts, the most famous of which was the foray into Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire musicals and the summer of film noir. Though Mei would move to Berkeley, he frequented Santa Barbara often and would return for the summer of "Bouldering and Bourbon" of legendary climbing fame (1996). This included development of local climbing areas during the afternoon and evenings at the Blue Agave Bar drinking in suits and sporting tabs on maxed out credit cards. In 1997 Edwards and Mei decided to make a film spoofing film noir. Icarus Descending (1998) was shot on location in England and premiered at Dolby Labs in San Francisco in 1998. It is rumored that the decision to go ahead with the project involved Edwards selling his video shop and convincing editor Alan E. Bell to cut the film over steaks and martinis at Musso and Frank's in Hollywood. During the making of the film, Mei formed friendships with leading man Philip Ayckbourn, musician Valentin Gerlier and actor and writer Robin Mukherjee. Mei eventually moved to Madison, Wisconsin (1999) where he once again took up climbing. He ran the local climbing gym for three years (2000-2003) and helped to usher in a new era of drinking culture involving bourbon and three-martini lunches. His reputed claim to fame are twofold: briefly holding the world record for most pull-ups in 60 minutes (707) and making the best martini in all of Great Britain. Mei is also the founder of the Nacirema Drinking Society.