Part fairy tale, part adventure story, and part coming-of-age testimonial.
Jeff Mueller is a film/TV writer/producer and journalist; a Yale graduate with an MFA from Columbia in Film Directing/Screenwriting. While film projects have always been his first love, along the way he was also CEO of a sizable design based manufacturing business for seven years. At Yale, Jeff was mentored by independent film icon Michael Roemer, who encouraged him to change career direction into television journalism. As a result, while still at Yale, Jeff pursued opportunities in photo-journalism with assignments in Nicaragua and El Salvador. After graduating, he worked as a Reporter/Cameraman/Field Producer for KOB-TV (NBC Albuquerque).
Once at Columbia, Milos Forman invited Jeff to join an elite group he tutored personally. This inspirational environment set the scene for Jeff’s thesis film (Dreams of Love) which was chosen by the Faculty, led by Annette Insdorf, as the top graduate film of the year. In the process Jeff had discovered Claire Danes who starred in his film and made her screen debut under his direction.
With a Columbia MFA under his belt Jeff needed to earn some real money and was snapped up by J. Walter Thompson/New York as a Broadcast Producer making commercials for clients including Kodak, Kellogg’s and Nestle. Jeff reported directly to James Patterson, then Creative Director but now the world’s highest paid author. Looking for more creative freedom, Jeff quit JWT to work as co-writer and director on a feature film project starring Ice-T. It was optioned and developed but never produced. So, while exploring other film opportunities a chance meeting with two creative entrepreneurs led to a seven year stint as CEO of a design-based manufacturing business which Jeff grew to a $12 million operation with 125 staff.
Having taken the design business as far as he thought he could, Jeff took a break to go sailing, seek peace and continue the quest for the next great film project. The passion for sailing had been kick started in 1985 when he took a year after Yale as a watch captain crossing the Atlantic with Don Street on his 44' engineless yawl Iolaire.
Jeff's second Atlantic crossing could hardly have been more different, as he took on the challenge of sailing a 48’ carbon fiber racing yacht in mid-winter from the UK to the Caribbean. Jeff selected and trained the amateur crew, managed a major refit on the south coast of England, dodged the Biscay gales in January and skippered the boat safely to the Caribbean. He continued on to win regatta victories in both the Caribbean and Southern California while working on several documentaries including being the primary Line Producer on the women’s rights feature Equal Means Equal.
Mueller currently holds the screen rights to the Canadian novel The Republic of Nothing, and has written a feature screenplay from it. He is seeking producing partners and a director.