Brian McQuery

Born and raised in Chicago, Brian has always loved movies. He wrote his first feature screenplay after graduating high school and has written original screenplays in many genres. He skipped college and joined the workforce with jobs in insurance, sales, customer service, and telemarketing. Brian left his job as Director of Telemarketing in 2000 because he wanted to direct motion pictures, not telemarketing. He built relationships in Chicago's indie film scene and in 2002, wrote and directed the short film, Debt, which went on to screen at several film festivals. Over the next three years, Brian wrote, produced and directed the short films: Commitment, Snare, Three Couples, Everybody Sins, Promise, Let Go and Vacant, several of which played the film festival circuit and won awards in 2006 and 2007. Brian moved to Los Angeles in 2006 and has a well--rounded view of feature film production. He worked as a 1st Assistant Director and as a 2nd AD for 10 years on independent features, shorts, music videos, etc. His strong organizational and management skills enable him to keep the crew moving efficiently to make the most of limited resources on independent films while also maintaining a safe workplace. From 2009 thru 2014, Brian arranged for dozens of actors and filmmakers to do Q&A's for their classic films at New Beverly Cinema and he moderated many of those discussions. Several of these Q&A's can be seen on YouTube. In 2016, Brian released two short films. Intruder, about addiction and codependency, stars Jasmine Jessica Anthony, Heather Langenkamp, Dean Cameron and Christopher Nelson. Confession, about bullying and school violence, stars Jackson White, Cindy Pickett and Vernon Wells. Also that year, Brian was almost killed in a violent crime. As a last resort, he was put in a paralytic coma, on a ventilator and ECMO for a week. His jaw was wired shut for six weeks and he had to learn to walk again, but eventually he made a full recovery. The proud son of a Chicago Police Officer, Brian was surprised by how slowly law enforcement and the D.A.'s office were working on his case, forcing he and his mother to advocate for him. Plea is his first feature and is scheduled to premiere at film festivals in LA and NYC in June 2023. Brian is developing other features, some of which have actor attachments, as well as a TV series and continues to learn and work on his craft.