bio

The Shelton Brothers grew up in Santa Barbara, attending Cold Spring School, Santa Barbara Junior & Senior High School. Ben was the Student Body President in ’98-‘99, acted in Theatre plays & musicals, and played 2 years of varsity basketball. Josh was in the Jazz Band, won numerous awards, and played the trumpet all over town starting at age 13.

Ben started making films when he was 13 and never stopped. In Junior High, his Social Studies teacher gave them the option for their final project to either write a paper or make a movie. It was an easy choice.

Ben & Josh both went to college in the Northwest. Ben at the University of Puget Sound, received a BA in Theatre Arts, acted in theatre plays and musicals, played varsity basketball and was the Student Body President… Same stuff as high school. Josh went to Whitworth College in Spokane and received a BA in Music Composition.

In 2001, Ben and Josh collaborated on a 45-minute Movie Musical that took them about a month to write, shoot and edit.

In 2003, Ben moved back to Santa Barbara, substitute taught at Santa Barbara High, and coached the Freshman basketball team for the summer and then moved to LA to pursue filmmaking. Over the next few years, Ben worked as Set Production assistant for films and TV shows in LA and in New Orleans. Josh moved to LA to pursue a music career. He started the band VAJRA (http://www.vajramusic.net/) that plays in Santa Barbara and in LA.

In 2006, Ben and his college friend, Eric began to get recognized for their on-line videos on YouTube and their website: http://benanderic.com/ – The RIVERDANCE RAP, PAUL BROGAN VIDEO LOG #1 were only a few that reached over 1 Million Views On-Line.

Due to their YouTube success, BEN and ERIC were hired to write, direct and star in a 10-spot campaign to launch Mobizzo, the mobile content service of Fox Entertainment (now known as Jamster). The spots ran nationally on FOX and FOX affiliates.

In 2007, BEN and ERIC signed the Paul Brogan character to a web-series deal with MySpace. On February 3rd, 2008, Paul Brogan aired on FOX’s Super Bowl pre-game show. They also created in-game entertainment and on-line content for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and Miami Heat.

In October 2007, Ben and Josh collaborated on a new project entitled “My Name is Lisa” for the Fox Searchlight's International Short Film Competition "YouTube Project: Direct". The short film is about the Alzheimer's Disease, which is one of many serious scary diseases still without a cure, and was Ben’s Senior Thesis Project. “My Name is Lisa” won 3RD PRIZE in the the Project: Direct competition, and went on to win the YouTube Award for BEST SHORT FILM OF 2007. “Lisa” is also an Official Selection in the California Next Gen Film Festival, Now Film Festival, Portable Film Festival and Crackle Shorts Contest.

Ben and Josh co-wrote “My Name is LIsa”. Josh scored the film, and Ben directed the short. They are currently working on another short film as well as the feature length screenplay of “Lisa”. Please contact them if you are interested in being involved in any of their projects.