Mike Kelley, BA’89, is an award-winning television writer, producer, and creator. Starting his professional career working as a production assistant in Los Angeles, he has gone on to write and produce hundreds of episodes of TV beginning in the late 90s, including NBC’s “Providence,” The CW’s “One Tree Hill,” Fox’s “The OC,” and CBS’s “Jericho.”
He created his first solo series in 2008, the well-received 1970s-era drama “Swingtown” for CBS. In 2011 he created Disney/ABC’s international hit and Golden Globe-nominated “Revenge,” which ran through 2015 and continues to spawn fresh global remakes in foreign markets, including Brazil and India, as recently as 2023.
During the run of “Revenge,” Kelley shared his Hollywood experience in a feature documentary: “Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show,” alongside industry notables JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof, among others.
In 2019 he created Netflix’s soapy thriller “WHAT/IF” starring double Academy Award-winner Renée Zellweger. During that time, he simultaneously worked as executive producer for the Best Picture Oscar winner Tarell McCraney’s 2020 Peabody Award-winning series “David Makes Man” alongside Oprah Winfrey and Michael B. Jordan.
Before his pivotal years as an IU undergraduate working toward his degree in telecommunications, Kelley grew up in Winnetka, Illinois, where he was a high school classmate of Grammy-nominated indie-music icon Liz Phair, who provided the score for “Swingtown.”
Kelley has been nominated for several awards, including the Teen Choice Awards, People’s Choice Awards, and Golden Globe Awards.
Kelley and his husband live in Chicago with their 14-year-old Labrador retriever.