Basement Gary was written, animated, produced and (for the most part) voice acted by Sean Donnelly and Alessandro Minoli. Alessandro and Sean began their collaboration in the rustic mountains of Switzerland, where they both attended a small grade school in the late 20th century. In 1994 they made a comic book called Biff the Boxer and Asparagus Man and have have continued their artistic endeavors into this modern age.
SEAN DONNELLY
26-year old Sean Donnelly grew up in Santa Cruz, California and has lived in Brooklyn, New York since graduating from the NYU film and television program in 2004.
He has directed live action and animated clips for a host of commercial and music video projects including AOL, Scion, Microsoft, VH1, TiVo, The Spinto Band, Tally Hall, Galactic and Angela McClusky, among others. For samples of his work you can visit www.awesomeandmodest.com
Sean was selected by Creativity magazine as a director to watch in 2007 and was nominated for an MVPA award for best international video for his stop motion video he co-directed with Jon Watts for “Oh Mandy” by The Spinto Band.
Sean recently completed his first feature documentary film, I Think We're Alone Now, about two obsessed Tiffany fans. Since it’s 2007 premiere at Slamdance, the film has gone on to play at over 15 festivals including IDFA, Melbourne, Fantastic Fest and been reviewed by Rolling Stone, NPR and Variety. For more information you can go to www.ithinkwerealonenow.com
ALESSANDRO MINOLI
Alessandro Minoli has worked as a writer, comedian and actor for the past several years. He graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2004. He was most recently working for IFC.com, making videos and shorts like this.
Other recent projects include directing and writing for MTV.com’s sketch comedy show “Damien’s Other Show” with Damien Fahey. He is a contributing writer to the Onion News Network series for The Onion. In his long life, he has performed comedy in cabarets and theaters from Paris (Opéra De La Péniche) to almost every one of the seedy comedy clubs of NYC. He has also written music for film and theater. To see more of his work, go to www.alessandrominoli.com.
CYRUS SHAHMIR (sound design/music)
Atlanta-based Musician/Sound Designer, Cyrus Shahmir, started his recording career at the tender age of 12. He graduated from NYU (where he first met Sean and Alessandro) in 2004 and decided to hit the mean streets of Atlanta in search of his greater destiny.
He ended up as recording engineer for the then-semi-popular rapper, T.I., cutting his engineering teeth on recording sessions for rap luminaries such as Young Jeezy, Too $hort, Nate Dogg, Killer Mike, Mannie Fresh and many others. He works with a prominant sound designer, and has credits on Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and ATHFCMFFT.
He recently has done the sound design for spots on AOL Online, Cartoon Network, Cartoon Network Latin America.
His band, the N.E.C., is slated to release a split 10" vinyl to be released in early January '09 on Double Phantom Records/[OVE:EVO]. Two N.E.C. tracks and other original compositions are featured in Basement Gary.