About Sean

Sean Covel is a keynote speaker, movie producer, and grassroots philanthropist. His more than a dozen film and television projects include the indie sensation Napoleon Dynamite. Made on a shoestring budget, the film went on to generate over $46 million at the box office, shift high school culture, and inspire Halloween costumes that continue to this day.

 

As a keynote speaker, Sean draws on two decades of moviemaking experience to help organizations align teams, make decisions quickly, and execute without losing creative instinct. His work is grounded in real-world experience building projects from scratch and leading teams through uncertainty.

 

Raised in the Black Hills of South Dakota, Sean has built a parallel track of community-driven work. He founded The 12 Days of Pizza, which has delivered tens of thousands of meals to food-insecure families, and created the Porter the Hoarder children’s book series, part of a literacy initiative that has put free books into the hands of tens of thousands of students each year.

 

Sean frequently lectures at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, widely regarded among the finest film schools in the world. His course on building independent film projects became a cornerstone of the prestigious Peter Stark Producing Program, his alma mater.

 

Sean travels frequently when keynote speaking and working on film projects, but hangs his nunchucks in Deadwood, South Dakota.