Biography

John Wellington Ennis is an award-winning filmmaker and author. He is known for his films "Pay 2 Play" (2014), "Free For All!" (2008) and the Upright Citizen Brigade's "Wild Girls Gone" (2007). He has mixed humor with social message since his NYC cable access show "Toolz of the New School" ran from 1996-2001 on Manhattan Neighborhood Networks, which grew a cult following for lampooning Mayor Giuliani. The first feature film Ennis directed was an improvised movie with the Upright Citizens Brigade founders Amy Poehler, Matt Walsh, Ian Roberts, and Matt Besser, "Wild Girls Gone." In 2006, Ennis co-founded Video the Vote, a citizen journalism project to document and report voter disenfranchisement. This national organizing effort can be seen in the documentary "Free For All! One Dude's Quest to Save Our Elections," which Roger Ebert called, "Engrossing, even enraging." His documentary "Pay 2 Play: Democracy's High Stakes" exposes money in politics while depicting running for office as a monopoly board. The L.A. Times wrote, "Compelling...researched, sourced and interviewed exhaustively." The documentary had extended theatrical runs in N.Y., D.C. & L.A. His 2020 documentary "Fish in a Barrel" shows how the NRA took over our elections, and how Russia took over the NRA. The documentary screened at AmDOCS 2021 and won an Impact DOCS Award.

Ennis has worked in television producing and directing Reality TV, and developed comedy for FremantleMedia, MTV, and Howard Stern Productions. His work has been seen on Last Week Tonight, Oprah, and Capitol Hill.
- IMDb mini biography by: The Burgett Group