Michael McKinley

Michael is an author, filmmaker, and journalist.  A Vancouver native, he was educated at the University of British Columbia, and then at St. John’s College, University of Oxford, and now lives in New York City. As a journalist, he has written for The Guardian, The Daily Mail, Los Angeles Times, Sports Illustrated, Vancouver Sun, National Post, Saturday Night Magazine, Chicago Sun-Times, New York Observer, New York Daily News, Politics Daily, The Players Tribune, The Washington Post, Religion News Service , America Magazine, and Comic Relief US, and has won national newswriting awards.

 He co-produced and co-wrote several documentaries for CNN Presents: “The Mystery of Jesus,” a documentary examining the historical Jesus, “The Two Marys: The Madonna and the Magdalene” which won a Gracie Award for Best Hour-long Documentary aired in the US, and the two-hour documentary “After Jesus: the Birth of Christianity”. He co-created with Barbara Shearer and produced The Jesus Strand for History TV, as well as Epstein’s Shadow: Ghislaine Maxwell for NBC Peacock. He was Executive Producer of Man Vs. Machine for TSN. He also wrote the dramatic portions of episodes for Perfect Disasters on the Discovery Channel. He wrote, directed and produced the feature documentary Let’s Do A Miracle, and is developing several TV drama series. 

He is the author of several books, most recently Willie: The Game Changing Story of the NHL’s First Black Player, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. He also wrote Yardley’s Ace: The Making and Breaking of US Military Intelligence, Codebreakers: The Secret Intelligence Unit that Changed the Course of the First World War (with James Wyllie) and Finding Jesus: Faith. Fact. Forgery, the companion book to the CNN TV series he co-created.

He is also the author of Ice Capades: A Memoir of Fast Living and Tough Hockey, with Sean Avery. McKinley’s first novel, “The Penalty Killing: A Martin Carter Mystery,” a tale of murder set in the world of pro sport, was nominated in April 2011 for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Crime Novel. His novella, “Facetime: a story of art, time and murder”, an Amazon Kindle Single best-seller, was published in January 2014. He has several books coming out in 2024: Diamond Dust: How A Nice Mormon Boy Became A Brilliant Counterfeiter, with Russ Swain; Lou Vairo: Godfather of US Hockey, with Lou Vairo; A Quiet Life, thriller novel with Will Cooper; and Something Wicked, a thriller novel with Monsignor Jack Myslinski.

Nancy Merritt Bell

Nancy is a writer, editor, filmmaker and journalist. Born in Toronto, Nancy was educated at the University of Toronto, before going on to complete a Masters in Modern Drama at York University, where she was awarded the Black Green Prize for Theater. Nancy was also resident playwright and dramaturg, developing and producing over twenty plays at New York University’s Studio Theater, with Ric Zank, with Necessary Angel in Toronto, at the Cass School, London, the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, The Sorbonne, and at the Konzerthaus, Berlin, under George Tabori.

Nancy has been a developing editor and researcher of over forty series for families and teens, including Emmy-winning favorites Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Harriet the Spy, The Odyssey, Degrassi, Northrop Frye: A Personal View, and more. Her work has taken her around the world, where her creative collaborations include Disney, Sunrise Films, National Film Board, Studio B, Sullivan Entertainment, Playing with Time Productions, Channel D, FunBag, Cambium Pictures, Waterstreet Productions, Pink Slip Productions, CNN, Amazon , MightEMedi, Therefore Films, FireWater Productions, and The Oxford Film Company.

Nancy was archival producer, and producer for the documentary Let’s Do A Miracle. She is working on a novel with Michael McKinley which will be released in 2025.

A development editor of YA and middle reader books, her work includes the award-winning Wings by William Loizeaux, and his Clarence Cochran a Human Boy (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), plus Invisible Isabel by Sara Fymme (Tangent Press), House of Northern Lights by Valen Watson (SquarePress). Upcoming non-fiction works include You Can Sit with Me: The Girls Guide to Bullies, Meangirls and Grumpy Grownups and Light Me with Dr. Jen Roberts, as well as My Last Summer with Josh by Hardy Frosst (KidsCanPress).

As a journalist, Nancy has written for the online educational publications Newsela and Capstone Press, as well as for the Vancouver Sun, National Post, The Victoria Times-Colonist, The Ottawa Citizen, The Globe and Mail, Saturday Night Magazine, Chicago Sun-Times, and also for film and theatrical journals, including Frank Journal, TheArter, CineFile, and DanceCanada.