LennSKI Entertainment was founded by aspiring filmmaker Lenny Sherman in the Fall of 2000. The banner was first used in his high school short film, Short Future, which was based on a short story he wrote during his senior year. Since then, Lenny has used the LennSKI name on six short films, not to mention a legion of mockumentaries, music videos, and video diaries, along with the aid of his closest friends, Dan Adkins and Matt Weatherford.
Born on January 25, 1983, Lenny Sherman grew up watching such classics as the Star Wars trilogy, Indiana Jones, Gremlins, the Karate Kid movies, and a legion of horror films. Aside from the popular popcorn blockbusters, Lenny also acquired a taste for cult cinema: little-known gems like Killer Klowns From Outer Space and The Toxic Avenger brought the world of movie-making slightly closer to home.
Growing up with a passion for writing, Lenny would indulge in self-written fantasies, manuscripts ranging between thirty-to-sixty pages, about characters who visited far-off places; this love of fantasy admittedly grew out of his love for Star Wars, and eventually he set his eyes toward the screen.
Knowing that he would not have the means to jump right into a space opera, Lenny took a video production class in his senior year of high school, where he met fellow LennSKI team member and friend Dan Adkins. The two collaborated on a number of projects that year, with Lenny seizing every opportunity to break out his dad's 8mm video camera for other class projects. This culminated in the first official LennSKI production, Short Future, based on his short story.
After graduating from Berkley High School in 2001, Lenny attended a local film school, the Motion Picture Institute of Michigan, and in 2002 directed his first project on actual 16mm projection film, entitled Attack of the B Movies. While winning no awards, it received much applause at the 2003 student film festival, held by MPI, and was screened at the Emagine Theater in Novi.
Lenny Sherman currently resides in Michigan with his wife Amanda and daughter Alyssa.
Dan Adkins, a Berkley alumnus, was virtually a member of LennSKI from the beginning. Born on July 14, 1984, he first met Lenny in a video production class his sophomore year. They soon found that they shared an interest in oddball films: Dan was particularly keen on the George Romero Dead films of the 70s and 80s.
After working together on several high school projects, Dan earned a key roll in LennSKI's third production, a modern take on Sophocles' play, Oedipus Rex. In Oedipus the King, Dan plays the part of Creon, although he is mostly remembered around the office for his glorious cameo role in the middle of the film: a stranger who pops in for a brief second and screams out, "YES! PORNO!!"
Dan was also an extra in LennSKI's most recent film, A Walk Beside Eden, and served as the film's camera operator. Lenny claims that Dan's role with LennSKI Entertainment began earlier, with his second short film, Star Whores: Dan actually supplied Lenny with a collection of Micro Machines action figures, not knowing that they would become stars in an epic Star Wars parody.
Born on January 17, 1985, Matt Weatherford's first official entrance into LennSKI entertainment was as the lead character, Luke, in Lenny Sherman's sixth and most recent film, Loose Change. However, since meeting Dan Adkins and Lenny Sherman in early 2002, he has made appearances in several mockumentaries, the music video Mother, and nearly every video skit to date, most recently Detroit Vice II.
Matt is always one to come up with ideas. Quite the perfectionist, Matt is always willing to go back and fix something he didn't like before, and continually strives to make the next production better than the last.
While there are currently no set plans, there have been talks of shooting Detroit Vice III, with a screenplay in the works from Lenny Sherman.