This article may have been created or edited in return for undisclosed payments, a violation of Wikipedia's terms of use. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. (January 2025)
Stella Velon is an actress, writer, and director who works in both English and French-language films. She made her directorial debut with the psychological drama The Critic, which she wrote and starred in as the female lead, and which earned her multiple award nominations and wins, including in Amazon Studios' inaugural All Voices Film Festival.[1][2]
She was nominated for a Webby Award for Best Individual Performance for her role in The Critic.[3]
Education
Velon attended the Paris Nanterre University, where she studied Economics and Business Management, while simultaneously taking acting classes in Paris and Copenhagen, before moving to New York to study at the HB Studio, to further pursue her acting career.[2][4]
Career
While in drama school, Velon worked as a professional model appearing in various ads and commercials for Calvin Klein,[5]Oribe, Lacoste, and others.[6][7]
She also made appearances on television shows and films such as Gossip Girl (alongside Sam Page and Blake Lively) and starred in independent productions such as Shutterbug, short films and music videos.[6][7]
Velon co-founded her production company The Punk Floyd Company with former fashion and beauty photography agent Jean Gabriel Kauss (president of JGK Inc.). Their inaugural production was the short psychological drama The Critic written, directed, co-produced and starring Stella Velon opposite Alan Smyth as the two leads.[4]
She was named Best Director at the 2018 UK Film Review Awards.[11][12] She was also nominated for Best Individual Performance at the 2020 Webby Awards for her work in the film.[13][14] She won the Best Short Film award at Method Fest Independent Film Festival, one of the four first prizes in Amazon’s first All Voices Film Festival for the film[13][15] and was runner-up for the Women in Film award at the Kinofilm Manchester International Short Film Festival.[16]
