Justin Calen-Chenn

Growing up as a motel kid, Justin Calen-Chenn had a relatively normal childhood counting vending machine quarters and learning how to speed read until he became homeless as a teenager and was unofficially adopted by his African-American street father, a man who raised him amongst his Black and Mexican brothers and sisters, many of whom were involved in street life. Justin also got involved in a life of street hustle and later, organized crime, but left that world behind many years later after witnessing a horrific incident in 2016. Soon after, he left to attempt a second career in Hollywood.

In film, Justin first drew attention when his feature action spec was picked up by The Obamas and Netflix. He is working on projects with Fifth Season, Matt Jackson and Ma Dong Seok (Don Lee), Chernin Entertainment and Netflix Africa, Eli Roth and 50 Cent, Taraji P. Henson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's House Eleven10, Roth/Kirschenbaum and more. Other projects include an action thriller with Alex Tse, Rza, and Dark Castle and a crime-action thriller with Universal, 87North, and Ludacris to star.

In TV, Justin was selected to the 2020 Sundance Episodic Lab and has written on Emmy nominated THE BROTHERS SUN, a Netflix crime-action series starring Michelle Yeoh w/ Brad Falchuk as show runner. He was in a sci-fi mini-room for an unreleased video game from one of the creators of HALO and was an executive story editor and co-producer on BEL-AIR Season 2 and 3, EP-ed by Will Smith and Malcolm Spellman. He has sold shows to Paramount with NBA legend Carmelo Anthony and Justin Simien's Culture Machine producing and another with AMC Studios. Other collaborators include AGBO, Davis Entertainment and Ben Watkin's Blue Monday Productions. He is releasing a culinary crime-action comic book, BLADESMYTH, through 24/7 Comics in 2025.