Age: 37
male
Swedish actor, filmmaker, writer and director who first gained major attention as the director and star of experimental short films like The Cave and Native Son: Fall/Winter. As an actor, he is best known for his roles as Johan in Pool (2020), as Lukas in Transference (2014) and as Landon in "Hansel & Gretel: Warriors of Witchcraft" (2013), as well for his roles in The Cave (2012) and The Ape (2009). As a director and writers, he's also known for his work on Hold Me Down (2017), Nike: I David (2017), The Cave (2012), The Nix (TBA), Native Son: Fall/Winter (2012) and A Portrait of Ian Hylton (2013). Born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden, Niclas Gillis started studying film production in night classes at Stockholm University at age fifteen. He enrolled in a full time media high school a year later and soon directed commercials for a variety of Swedish companies. He spent his summer break from school working as a trailer producer for European television at Viasat in London, England, and had his first starring role as an actor in The Ape, directed by Jesper Ganslandt (official selection at the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals), the following year. Since moving to New York at nineteen, Gillis went on to direct video content for companies like the New York Times, The Line Hotel, and Native Son, the last of which was compared to Pier Paolo Pasolini's Teorema by New York Magazine. He worked as a contributing writer on film for The Last Magazine and as a story analyst for Universal Pictures International. Between January 2014 and December 2016, Gillis wrote, directed, produced, and edited Hold Me Down, a narrative short film about a day in the life of a 19-year-old single mother who works as a stripper at an illegal nightclub to support her child in the South Bronx. The film is based on real events and features a cast of women survivors of sexual exploitation and domestic violence. "We wanted the women who live this life to have the opportunity to tell their own story, to raise awareness of the conditions that they face, and to show all those who suffer life in silence that they're not alone and that their story matters", Gillis says. Hold Me Down premiered to critical acclaim at the Gothenburg International Film Festival in January 2017. Through a partnership with Project Rousseau, it paved the way for the women involved to get out of prostitution and attain stability in their lives. In May 2017, Gillis directed the Nike "I, David" campaign featuring famed ballet dancer, David Hallberg. On their website, Nike wrote: "Gillis, a rising star within the film industry, promises to be the premiere talent to watch."
Niclas Gillis
Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor
for Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor in Red, White and Royal Blue
Suggested by kitsunechan
What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales? When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, geniushis image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse. Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through? Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn't always diplomatic.
