Christopher Damm

Christopher Damm is an independent filmmaker and actor based in Silicon Valley, California. He was born in Encino, California. His mother a ceramicist and his father a real estate appraiser. In high school, he studied abroad at Kawerau College in New Zealand. He attended The University of California Santa Barbara and studied International Relations and Mandarin. His first exposure to acting took place while doing skits in Chinese class, often drawing hilarious laughter from his classmates. In college, he studied abroad at Qinghua University in Beijing, and at National Taiwan University in Taipei. After leaving college, he joined the Foreign Commercial Service as an International Trade Specialist and agency Filmmaker. He's served on temporary duty assignments at U.S. Embassies and Consulates in China, South Africa and Malaysia, and completed Foreign Service film assignments in Bulgaria and Spain. As a government filmmaker, he has made over 100 corporate and industrial videos, many of which feature women and Native American-owned businesses. Damm is fluent in Mandarin and has performed the Heart Sutra on three separate occasions in China. These national New Year's Eve television shows were sponsored by Tencent and viewed by audiences exceeding 20 million. After each show, his performance was often featured by major Chinese media organizations, and re-broadcast to hundreds of millions of Chinese viewers. Because of his Mandarin language skills, he works and acts in both Mandarin and English-speaking countries. As a performer, Chris has a bigger following in China, which is rare for an American actor. He began his filmmaking career as a cinematographer for legendary American filmmaker Rob Nilsson, the first American to win the Camera d'Or at Cannes and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Damm has done primary cinematography work on several Nilsson feature films including Permission to Touch, made in 2015, and Bridge to a Border, 2014, both of which premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival. He has appeared on several Discovery Channel and Reelz Network television shows and often acts in Nilsson's feature films. He played Bruiser in "The Mission", one of the first WWII-based virtual reality shorts. The film showcased at the 2015 Sundance Festival, which according to the January edition of PC world magazine, "stole the show." In addition to Sundance, The Mission showcased at the South by Southwest and New York Film Festivals. In 2015, he helped produce, film and act in the Independent sci-fi feature film Browncoats: Independence War. The film premiered at San Diego Comic-Con, and also played at several domestic and international Comic-Cons including Salt Lake City and San Jose. In 2021, Damm is in the post-production phase of his first television pilot as Producer, Director, and Writer. The pilot is World War II series, tentatively titled Eastern Front - The Series. The first episode, The Ambush, focuses on a female T-34-85 Soviet Tank Commander who fights her way into Germany during World War II.