Alumni Profile: Chris Millis, '94

Chris Millis, ’94, is a prize-winning novelist, screenwriter, producer, cartoonist, and best-selling celebrity collaborator.

His first novel, Small Apartments (Anvil Press, 2001), won the 23rd annual International 3-Day Novel Contest, and was turned into a feature film that made its world premiere at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas, in 2012. It is now available from Sony Pictures on DVD. Directed by famed music video director Jonas Åkerlund, the quirky movie boasts a star-studded cast, including Billy Crystal, Johnny Knoxville, James Caan, and many more.

His second novel, God & California, is being published this summer by Vermont Press. The story was optioned in screenplay format by Lionsgate Films in 2008, but was recently optioned back to Millis, who plans to produce it as an independent film. God & California is the tale of a wounded army veteran and a defrocked Catholic priest, who embark on a road trip across America in a pink, Cadillac Eldorado convertible—breaking all Ten Commandments along the way in a quest to speak with God.

Millis’s illustrated books include An American Bestiary, by former senator, presidential candidate, and poet-statesman, Eugene McCarthy, and the children's book, A Clam Named Sam, by New England author and conservationist Lee DeVitt. He also co-authored Here’s the Situation with Jersey Shore star Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino.

Since 1995, Millis has co-created John McPherson's syndicated cartoon feature “Close To Home,” which is distributed to over 700 publications worldwide by Universal Press Syndicate.

Millis lives in in Saratoga Springs, New York, with his wife and two young sons.

Read an interview with Millis in the latest issue of 1300 Elmwood.