Kristian Van der Heyden

Born in Wilrijk and raised in Zurenborg, Belgium. He dropped out of Catholic school to spend two years at Studio Amusement, now Studio A to learn about acting and production for Television. In his early twenties he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) to study Mixed Media Design, a field of study covering independent artists with broad interest in the Visual Arts, ranging from Performance Arts to video art, experimental film to curating art exhibitions. He graduated with the highest grades for Atelier in many years and was nominated for the Horlait-Dapsens prize in Arts for Master degree graduates. His thesis work 'Belching', a mixed media event combining improvisation and live film on stage in one fixed hour, was selected for exhibit as part of Solo Quint, the annual upcoming artist show organized by the City Museum of Contemporary Arts, Ghent (S.M.A.K) In 2010, Belching was selected for Kossovo's international film and theater festival, Skena Up! in Phristina during critical elections. Kristian Van Der Heyden was interviewed on World21 TV (by mistake?) as 'director of Belgium' and asked to comment on the national selection of films at the festival. When asked if he liked the selection, he said 'No' and then criticized the fact that the selection was endorsed by the local University's film department and contained mostly student films from the same class. Kristian Van Der Heyden moved to Los Angeles in 2010 and graduated from Stella Adler Academy of Acting in August 2011. He is now a mixed media producer working on a broad range of projects from digital content, docs to major motion pictures, and video art.