Today we’d like to introduce you to Kev Dooley.
Hi Kev, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
That’s a long, sometimes sordid tale! But let’s focus on my life here in Austin. My partner and I both were offered jobs in Austin on the same day in mid 2019, so we packed up our lives in San Antonio and moved up the road a bit. We’d always known we wanted to land in Austin when we first moved to Texas in 2006, and it was a dream to finally make it happen.
I quickly became involved as a volunteer at Fantastic Fest and that first year when I attended, I realized I had found my people. Over the course of the past 7 years I have continued to volunteer in different positions until I was eventually asked to join the staff, first as assistant head of submissions and now as head of submissions for the festival.
I also spent a lot of time in introspection during the lockdown of 2020 and came out as trans non-binary at the age of 42.
Since that time I have really spent my time learning who I really am and trying to live as authentically as possible. Part of that, for me, is being creative and supporting other creators.
I love my work with Fantastic Fest which allows me to help the festival find and support up-and-coming filmmakers. And, as of 2026, I’ve joined them. Together with an incredible community of creatives here in Austin I’ve raised the funds, shot, and will soon premiere my first short film and I’m already in development as writer and director on two feature film projects, as well as helping others produce their projects.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Personally I’d be wary of any one who says it has been a smooth road! There have been all kinds of struggles along the way.
Moving to a new city and building new relationships is always tough, but adding in identity and gender issues, a global pandemic, and the resultant job stability issues have made the past few years a constant fight just to survive, let alone thrive.
Luckily I’ve formed some of my best, deepest relationships here. I’ve met some of the kindest, most accepting, and genuinely cool and creative people I’ve ever known. I’ve also seen my kids and my partner grow into their best selves here and all of those relationships have truly made the struggles along the way completely worth it.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Like many people I have a day job (usually) to fund the work I truly love. Something tells me no one reading this wants to hear about another content marketer in the tech industry.
My first passion though is writing. Since picking the pen back up in 2017, when I wrote my first (terrible) screenplay, I’ve written dozens of scripts for original TV shows, feature films, and shorts… but since a script is really just a blueprint for a final project, these really became a private form of self expression more than anything.
Then, while on the set of a friend’s short film where I was serving as production designer and puppeteer, we were all chatting through different ideas we had for projects. I mentioned something I’d written a couple years earlier and one by one had people asking to crew on it if I ever made it. Eventually it dawned on me that I had an entire crew and half my cast on board already.
Fast forward to 2026 when I finally brought that script to life, directing my short film Terms & Conditions. And while I can’t announce it’s premiere just yet, I am excited to introduce the world to my particular brand of horror comedy soon.
And honestly, horror is the place where my creativity most always starts. It’s a genre that I connect to on a deep level as it allows exploring stories and themes about what’s wrong and horrifying in the world in a digestible and often cathartic way. And as someone who spent over 40 years not feeling at home in their body and gender, it’s also given me a way to explore the horror that’s in all of us. Horror is also why I was drawn to Fantastic Fest originally and now help genre filmmakers find their audiences.
And despite everything I just said that sounded very pretentious, I’m actually the biggest of fan of what I call junky cinema. Low budget, rough around the edges, boundary pushing… all of it. No shade against people making elevated horror where our trauma is the real villain, but I’ll leave that to them. I want to entertain, shock, and make people question what kind of person would laugh at such a thing as they uncontrollably cackle at what they’re seeing.
Also… randomly I have taken up professional wrestling lately. I’ve been training and recently had my first match with Fight Opera, a promotion I lovingly refer to as “theater nerds putting on a wrestling show.” And while the jury’s still out on how long my now 47 year old body lets me do this, I think it’s safe to say you’ll see some version of me in the ring at their next show this October.
What are your plans for the future?
Despite currently in the market (again) for another day job, I feel like I’m finally hitting my stride creatively.
As I mentioned I’m in development on two different feature film projects. One of which, a horror film called Necrolepsy, is really gaining steam, even attaching some big names in the industry to build out our special effects. It’s a contained, claustrophobic story about a drug trail gone awry and the staff trying to survive the night while the test subjects have become ravenous cannibals. We’re currently pursuing a few different avenues for funding but I’m hopeful to shoot my first feature film sometime in the next 12-18 months.
The other project that I’m really excited about is something I’ve been jokingly referring to as my Bonnie and Bonnie story. It’s the story of a trans woman and her partner on the run after she puts a transphobe in the hospital, only to realize he’s a cop afterwards. So, nothing timely or relevant or anything. It’s a little earlier in the process, but I’m confident it’ll find it’s way forward.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kevindooley.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/captainkdooley/
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kevinbdooley
