Calvin King-Herrmann

Calvin Macrea Herrmann was born on December 21, 1988, in Seattle, Washington, to his Vietnamese mother and German & Scotch-Irish American father, Phuc (Tran) & Chuck Herrmann. His parents divorced when he was six years old, which later provided the inspiration for intense focus on singular parent-child relationships in his films. The divorce also led to him to move with his mother to south Seattle, where in the third grade he would meet childhood friend, actor, and frequent collaborator Gerald Grissette. As a high school senior, Herrmann applied to the prestigious film programs at the University of Southern California and New York University, only to be receive letters of rejection from both institutions. At the University of Washington in Seattle, Herrmann was again denied admission to their Creative Writing program, and so went on to earn a B.A. degree in English Literature in 2011. During this time, he made numerous music videos for The Rookies, an alternative rap band in Seattle which he co-founded, produced for, and sang in, alongside Gerald Grissette and two fellow childhood friends. After graduating from college, Herrmann once more applied to the USC School of Cinematic Arts, this time for their graduate film production program, only to be denied a second time. In a last attempt, he reapplied to the University of Southern California, for the third time in his life, and was finally accepted. Calvin Herrmann is a 25-year-old writer & director currently enrolled in the USC School of Cinematic Arts, studying for his M.F.A. in Film & TV Production.