Justin Calen-Chenn

Growing up as a motel kid, Justin Calen-Chenn had a relatively normal childhood counting vending machine quarters and watching gang fights until he became homeless as a teenager and was unofficially adopted by his African-American street father, a man who brought him into his Black and Mexican crime family, a statement Justin will never say on record. He got involved in a life of street hustle and later, organized crime, but left that world behind many years later after witnessing a horrific incident in 2016. Soon after, he left to attempt a second career in Hollywood.

Justin is writing projects with eOne, Matt Jackson, and Ma Dong Seok (Don Lee), Chernin and Netflix Africa, Taraji P. Henson and Confluential, global icon RuPaul, Roth/Kirschembaum, and more. Other projects include a rap horror feature with Eli Roth, 50 Cent, and 3BlackDot. He has written a crime-action movie with Universal, 87North, and superstar Ludacris to star and previously had The Obamas' Higher Ground set to produce his international Netflix action-adventure thriller set in the world of pickpocketing and ballroom dancing.

In TV, Justin was selected to the 2020 Sundance Episodic Lab and has written on THE BROTHERS SUN, a Netflix crime-action series starring Michelle Yeoh w/ Brad Falchuk as showrunner (premiering in 2024), and served as executive story editor on Season Two of BEL-AIR, EP-ed by Malcolm Spellman. He has sold a sports/crime TV series to Paramount w/ EP and NBA legend Carmelo Anthony. Justin is repped by Grandview and CAA.