Drawn By Pain - Director's Bio

Director's Bio

Jesse Cowell grew up on the upper west side of Manhattan New York. As a child, when he wasn't being read to by his novelist mother or chasing fires and SWAT teams with his news photographer father, Jesse spent four days a week watching movies at his favorite neighborhood theatre. In the years that followed, Jesse followed his dream to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California's (USC) acclaimed Cinema School, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Cinema/Television Production. Along the way, he won several Cine Eagle awards and a student Emmy.

At this time, Cowell formed his own banner, Jeskid Productions, and mounted his first feature film, the highly irreverent comedy Shades of Gray which launched exclusively online in 2005. By releasing his film on the web, Cowell built up a very significant fan base and was even awarded the Audience Choice award for Best Director's Site by Movies.com. This led to Shades of Gray jumping to the big-screen as it was awarded Best Comedy Feature Film at the Microcinema Festival in Chicago that same year.

Throwing caution into the wind with the existing fan base 100 percent behind him, Cowell then mounted up with state-of-the-art HD equipment and began shooting what would be his most accomplished piece yet: the Webby Award winning Drawn by Pain. He took his creation and teamed up with cutting-edge animator Erica Langworthy while filming on the streets of New York. Cowell solely controlled the casting, scripting, shooting, directing, and editing aspects of the project, yet the series has the look, feel, and production quality of a thirty-man crew. Langworthy then creates her intense animation in sync with Jesse's unique vision. Drawn by Pain tells the story of Emily Waters, an eight-year-old girl who witnessed her father's brutality toward her mother, resulting in an ever-growing rage within her that manifests into the real world with vengeful anime characters.