Dallas Jenkins

Dallas Jenkins jumped into the film world fast—like, 25 and already producing Hometown Legend, which somehow landed with Warner Brothers. Not too shabby. He started out directing shorts, first with Cliché (name’s kinda funny, honestly), then moved on to Midnight Clear, which snagged a Crystal Heart Award at Heartland and got Stephen Baldwin on board. Guy’s always been about getting big names in small packages. He also co-exec produced Though None Go With Me for Hallmark in 2006, which, let’s be real, is a pretty wild pivot but hey, work is work. 2007 rolled around and Jenkins took his Midnight Clear short and spun it into a full feature—got it out to festivals and actually raked in a bunch of trophies. Lionsgate picked it up, so you can still stream it if you’re feeling nostalgic. Then he decided to go bigger with What If... in 2010, stacking the cast with Kevin Sorbo, Kristy Swanson, Debby Ryan, and John Ratzenberger (yeah, the Pixar guy). It got a theatrical release, which is not nothing these days, and you can still find it floating around. Fast-forward to 2017: The Resurrection of Gavin Stone drops. Brett Dalton, Anjelah Johnson, Neal Flynn, D.B. Sweeney, and even Shawn Michaels from WWE—random but awesome—show up. Jenkins teamed with Blumhouse, WWE Studios, and Walden Media, so it had some serious muscle behind it, and Universal’s got it now. Lately, the guy’s been all about The Chosen. It’s the most crowd-funded media project ever—ten million bucks, no joke. First-ever multi-season series on the life of Christ. Jenkins is still running the show, and it’s basically his magnum opus at this point.