Born and raised in Central Wisconsin on a potato farm, Erik Cieslewicz grew up in a town that could not fill most sports stadiums if everyone and ten of their friends showed up. While he tried everything as a child, from little league to church choir, Cieslewicz quickly gravitated toward the performing arts. After experimenting in a variety of mediums, including stage acting and singing in a punk rock band, he found his true passion in moving pictures once he saw David Fincher’s Fight Club.

Now focused on film, Erik attended the University of Wisconsin: Oshkosh where he studied in their Radio/Televion/Film program. He graduated in 2006 having directed a festival screened film and as the first winner of the Dean’s Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award in a creative film work in the university’s history. Finding work in local television after school, Cieslewicz was quickly promoted to photojournalist in less than a year at WSAW-TV. While at the station, he helped fill their trophy case with award winning photography and editing including the Emmy nominated and Edward R. Murrow Award winner Secrets in Shawano.

During his time in local televsion, Erik continued to work on independent film productions. In 2006 he directed the festival screened short Holy Chip! and in 2008 he directed Wisconsin media darling Microcosm, which also went on to screen in festivals. Feeling the need to get to a bigger production hub than Wausau, Wisconsin, Cieslewicz moved to Washington, DC in late 2008 to begin freelancing in production.

Hitting the ground running, Erik wrote two feature length screenplays for Blue Claw Entertainment that were pitched to Happy Madison, Morgan Creek and Mayhem Studios. His seminal work is directing the award winning pilot episode of the new television series Hard to Be Me by Edward Bach, but he has also gone on to direct multiple activist documentaries along with commercials for broadcast television and webcast.

Continuing his work in narrative fiction, Cieslewicz saw the release of the web series Confab added to his resume in 2012. As creator of the series as well as director for all twelve episodes of the first season, Cieslewicz showed prowess in yet another form of multimedia storytelling over his career.