Biography

Kelly Moneymaker is an Alaskan Creative Media Producer (film + sound + music). Her mission is to authentically represent other storytellers by facilitating transparency through the lens of her Samoan genealogy and birth-adoptive Inupiat identity. Kelly has a BA in Creative Media Production and an MA in Creative Enterprise from Massey University (Wellington, NZ), which focused on Indigenous research frameworks and methodologies for creative technology. Kelly's multicultural roots have inspired her passion for Indigenous storytelling and the environment, which led to her directing the Award-winning documentary VAKA. The short student film premiered at the UNFCCC COP25 in Madrid, representing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade New Zealand (MFAT) and the Ministry of Climate Oceans Resilience and Environment Tokelau (MiCORE). VAKA garnered several awards including Best Documentary Short at the Toronto International Women Film Festival, New York Indie Shorts (Best Student Female Director, Best Sound Design), and was chosen as one of the Top 10 films of 2019 for the UNFCCC's Climate Crisis Film Festival. Her feature documentary, "Drum Song: The Rhythm of Life", along with a short animated companion piece, "Reclamation" are about Indigenous climate adaptation in her homeland of Alaska. They were co-created with rural Native communities and Arctic researchers. Kelly says, "It has been an honor and privilege to return to my homeland and learn from the co-creators of "Drum Song". Each stage of the research and filmmaking process has been and will continue to be led and approved by the local Indigenous communities who've co-created it so we may lift the diversity of our voices and resound together." Moneymaker has been a professionally represented musician since age 14. She is best known as a member of platinum-selling pop vocal trio Exposé. Moneymaker co-wrote and co-produced, Joy, a multimedia holiday album for Blue Aeris Ltd. (Mercia Records, The Orchard/Sony UK) for Futures Without Violence. It had over 2.2 Million views during the first month after its release, and currently has 1.3 Million streams on Spotify. She also co-wrote and co-produced a soundtrack album for NBC's Days of Our Lives, and her music has been placed in over 25 other media productions. Kelly says, "Expanding her storytelling scope from music to filmmaking has been a natural exploration since she grew up watching documentaries with her dad during the dark and cold winters in Fairbanks". She lives in Alaska with her husband, Peter Reckell (Bo Brady, NBC's Days of Our Lives) and their daughter, Loden.
- IMDb mini biography by: Kelly Moneymaker