JONAH Z HELMS is an award-winning writer, director, and puppeteer. His directorial credits include the festival-acclaimed short film Stolen Tundra, the micro-budget feature film The Pardoner’s Tale, which secured a distribution deal with River Coast Films, as well as the experimental film To The West, co-commissioned by The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History and the Chatter Music Series.
His most recent script, Shifting was a finalist for the BlueCat screenplay competition, which raved “the realistic dialogue, the ultimate questions about family and morality; all of the elements are satisfying and deeply thought out.”
Jonah brings a wealth of storytelling and performing experience as a designer and puppeteer for the Academy Award-winning animatronics shop Creature Effects. His performance credits include The Revenant, The Magnificent Seven, Tammy, The Lone Ranger, Godless, The Lovebirds, and three seasons as Mrs. Kipling on the Disney series Jessie.
Jonah graduated from Emerson College with a degree in film production. He credits his collaborative storytelling spirit to his twin sister, the riffraff of the New Mexican high desert, and the political-circus troupe, The All Species Project.