Kris Wheeler, documentary filmmaker/producer/writer/former magazine publisher.
• Kris Wheeler is an accomplished journalist, magazine publisher and documentary filmmaker with more than 25 years of experience in various media fields. He has spent a career crafting the skills of a storyteller, with his early years spent within the newspaper ranks as an award-winning reporter and feature writer.
— 1992, he was tapped by Freedom Newspapers (a national newspaper chain) to cover the Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain for Freedom’s Florida region.
— 1993, Kris, at 32, became the youngest ever managing editor for the U.S. division of Australia’s Rural Press Limited, the world’s largest publisher of agricultural magazines and newspapers.
— 1995 to 2008, he founded and published the magazines Agri-Alternatives, Atlanta House & Home, Cattle South, and Coastal Homes & Lifestyles.
— 2008, embarked on a second career as a documentary filmmaker /producer.
— 2009, produced coverage of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music in Morocco for CNN’s Inside Africa.
— 2010, he directed and co-produced Back From the Dread, a direct-to-DVD music documentary and concert film about the early years of Americana band Dread Clampitt.
— 2010, Kris and Wayne Franklin teamed up to create Self-Proclaimed Entertainment (SPE) to pursue joint-venture projects in documentary film and TV.
— 2011, CBS, TBS and the TLC series Pitmasters tapped talent under contract to SPE for a proposed series about the world of competitive barbeque.
— 2012, the pair’s second documentary project, Duke & The King, made its World Premiere at the Nashville Film Festival in April of that year, and is currently on the indie film festival circuit.
In addition to his skills as a writer, communicator, and manager, Kris is recognized by his peers as being highly creative with the talent to seek out and share compelling stories that celebrate the human spirit and illuminate the art of living.
… JUST THE FACTS:
• Seventh Generation Georgian
• Home: Canton, GA
• Raised in a Southern Baptist family … sat under countless sermons of hellfire and brimstone … and survived ; )
• Grew up in a farm family with a long history of raising cattle.
• Whenever I wasn’t doing the cowboy thing, “playing ball” was my thing.
• Earned a BA in Mass Communications from West Georgia College.
• Came up through the newspaper ranks as a reporter/feature writer.
• Entered the magazine publishing business in 1994.
• Embarked on a second career as a documentary filmmaker in 2008.
… THE DETAILS:
MY “PEOPLE” hail from Virginia but left the state in the late 1700s, ultimately settling in the foothills of North Georgia’s Blue Ridge mountains. Both sides of my family have lived in my native Cherokee County since the early 1800s, making me a seventh-generation Georgian.
I GREW UP the eldest in a traditional Southern family with a long history of farming — mainly raising cattle. I spent so much time in barns during my youth I actually kinda like the ‘odor’ of cow manure. Don’t laugh … I’m serious 
On days when I wasn’t chasing ornery cows, you would likely find me on a “ball field” somewhere swinging a bat, dribbling or dodging tacklers.
I EARNED a BA in Mass Communications from West Georgia College.
MY CAREER has changed with every stage of life. The early years were spent within the newspaper ranks as a reporter and feature writer. I covered the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, later serving as managing editor for an Australian-based magazine publisher. By 1994 I was eager to do my own thing and decided to pursue other publishing endeavors, ultimately founding and publishing the magazines Agri-Alternatives, Atlanta House & Home, Cattle South and Coastal Homes & Lifestyles. In 2005, I embarked on a second career as a documentary filmmaker, and by 2008 committed to working full time as a filmmaker/producer.
POLITICAL VIEWS … often confused independent thinker.
FAVORITE FOODS are sushi and cornbread (not necessarily together)
MY PASSIONS are filmmaking, history, mountain biking and mysteries of the cosmos.
