My full name is Sheridan Abram Cleland.
Go ahead. Poke fun. It’s okay. I’m used to it.
My surname is pronounced Clel-lund and not Clee-land. I’ve only just recently learned that the surname originated in Scotland, but some of the Cleland clan later migrated to Ireland and adopted an Mc, making it McCleland. It was actually my great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather that promptly dropped the Mc when he arrived in America in the mid-1700s. But don’t worry about trying to pronounce my name correctly, because no one ever does. Again, I’m used to it.
Moving on, I was born in Chillicothe, Ohio on August 24, 1980, which means I share a birthday with the likes of Howard Zinn, Steve Guttenberg, Dave Chapelle, Craig Kilborn, Cal Ripken Jr., Vince McMahon, Yasser Arafat, Rupert Grint, Kenny Baker and Max Cleland (no relation, I think). We all get together and kick it once a year. Well, except for Yasser.
The first moment of life that I can distinctly remember is walking down a movie theater aisle when I was nearly two-years-old, carrying a bottle in my left hand and holding my aunt’s hand with the right, all at the exact moment the baseball flies out of the shed and rolls to a stop near Elliott’s feet in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Seemingly auspicious beginnings considering the path I’ve chosen in life, I suppose.
The first 3 years of my life were spent near Bainbridge, OH, although I was raised in Point Pleasant, WV. I’ve also lived in West Palm Beach, FL (for a summer); Columbus, OH (for a year); Palmer, AK (for four years); Burbank, CA (for two years); and I am now currently a wandering vagabond in search of a new home.
I had no interest in filmmaking until getting the idea to create a music video for Cake’s song “Stickshifts & Safetybelts” during my senior year of high school. It was all downhill (uphill, sideways, whatever) from there.
Sometimes I’m a writer, director, editor, producer, musician, web designer, graphic artist, et cetera. I’ve never claimed to be good or great at any of those things. I’m just a guy with a dream.
Oh, I also excel at self-depecrating modesty. Questions? Just ask.