Michele Caspani

Born and raised in Lake Como, Italy, Michele (pronounced Me-kay-lay) developed a passion for film early on in his life, when he borrowed his older sister's digital camera to shoot an epic Charlie's Angels-like action comedy with his friends. When his mother encouraged a 12-year old Michele to watch the movie The Hours, he was captivated by the emotional sensitivity and the elegant visual style of Stephen Daldry's storytelling, and realized that he wanted to pursue a career in film. After obtaining a diploma in 16mm filmmaking from New York Film Academy while still in High School in 2008, Michele went on to study Economics and Management for the Arts, Culture and Communication at Bocconi University, one of the most prestigious business schools in Italy and among the top 10 business schools in Europe. In 2011, as part of Bocconi's Partnership in International Management, Michele lived for 6 months in Buenos Aires, Argentina, studying Argentinean Cinema and Marketing. In 2012, two months before graduating from college (with a thesis entitled "New Media and new models of audiovisual production" documenting the 4-month experience of producing a $2,500 fashion short film for the web), Michele was hired at Fox International Channels in Rome, Italy, as a Junior Internet Coordinator in the Digital Department. In 2013, Michele moved to Los Angeles to attend the Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California. The Stark Program, led by Academy Award-winning producer Lawrence Turman (The Graduate, American History X) is the oldest, most prestigious and most competitive Master of Fine Arts in Producing for Film, Television and New Media in the world. While at USC, Michele worked at Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Searchlight and The Weinstein Company. He was also the recipient of the Stark Special Project grant to produce a $17,000 short film, entitled Grandma Money, which is now being accepted into film festivals worldwide. Among his other productions, Man v. Food Italia surpassed 185,000 views on YouTube. Michele is currently working on the production crew of Woody Allen's next film, while pursuing and developing his own short and feature film projects both in the US and in Europe. Since 2007, he is also a journalist and correspondent for Italian film and television websites BadTaste.it and BadTv.it. Michele speaks Italian, English and Spanish fluently.