Cellin Gluck

Born in Wakayama, to American parents, Jay and Sumi Gluck, Cellin spent his ‘formative years’ in Japan, save 3 years in Iran, where his archaeologist father and textile historian mother’s work took the family.

After graduating high-school from the Canadian Academy in Kobe, Japan, Cellin came "home" to the US and attended the Claremont Colleges, starting off in engineering with courses at Harvey Mudd, ultimately graduating from Pitzer College with honors from the Pomona College Theatre Department.

Though thoughts of following in his parents’ footsteps digging up the past intrigued him, he was convinced early by his father that archaeology was a hobby best followed by those with time and money. Having an ample supply of one yet little of the latter, Cellin decided to follow a much more responsible and certain path to success: Show Business.

Growing up in Japan with a Jewish New Yorker father and a Japanese American mother from California(via wartime “relocation” in Rohwer, AK),  uniquely qualified Cellin to direct his latest film, Persona Non Grata; The story of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who against the wishes of his government, is credited with saving the lives of over 6,000 Jewish refugees in Lithuania at the onset of World War II.

Using his bicultural heritage to its fullest, Cellin has spent the majority of his career to date in film production with a particular emphasis on Japan. First as an advertising agency producer, then commercial director, moving to films as an assistant director to Ridley Scott, Roger Spottiswoode, Mike Figgis, Sean Cunnigham and Robert Zemeckis to name just a few; giving him a chance to observe a multitude of masters exercising their craft first hand.

Before ‘Persona Non Grata’ for NTV Films of Japan, Cellin co-wrote/co-directed ‘Oba the Last Samurai’ in 2010 for the same studio; received international attention in 2009 with the Japanese ‘re-imagining’ of “Sideways - aka Saidoweizu”; filmed entirely on location in California collaborating with a Japanese and American cast & crew for 20thCentury Fox and Fuji Television Films (given to him after his success with the US Unit of “Lorelei, The Witch of the Atlantic” in 2005).

Believing that his greatest asset is his multi-cultural upbringing, Cellin knows that his own ‘composition’ gives him an innate sensibility for things both Eastern as well as Western. Allowing him to bridge cultures visually, viscerally and artistically as well as emotionally. Fluent in Japanese and French, can order dinner (complete with side dishes) and banter about topical events in Farsi from his time in Iran. Meaningful small talk in Mandarin still a bit over the horizon but a definite work in progress…