Dep Kirkland

Screenwriter, Playwright, Actor and Director

Austin, Texas

Member Since:
February 2022

Last online:
> 2 weeks ago

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About Dep

DEP KIRKLAND is an actor | writer | director | producer

A native of Savannah, Dep first headed to the University of Michigan to study chemical engineering—because his dad thought it was a terrific idea. Next, he entered the legal field—because his mother thought it was a terrific idea, attending Georgia Law School, practicing privately, and serving as the Chief Deputy DA for Savannah, holding admissions to various courts, including the United States Supreme Court.

Continuing the charade, he relocated to Washington, D.C. to design, build, and direct an Anti-Piracy Task Force for the satellite television industry, creating a national network of over 60 former FBI agents. Next came a stint as a consultant to The Edison Project, a planned nationwide education network, working with Benno Schmidt, former President of Yale University, and Ham Jordan, former Chief of Staff to President Carter.

After wandering these intriguing paths for far too long, he came to his senses, listened to his own voice, and walked away from the law to pursue his dream of acting and writing—moving first to New York City, where he studied for six years with the legendary Fred Kareman in his Carnegie Hall studios, in addition to vocal production and dialect with Chuck Jones and Michael Howard Studios—and later on to Los Angeles—studying with William Alderson [former teacher and Associate Director at The Neighborhood Playhouse (Meisner) in New York], at Ivanna Chubbuck Studios, and The Beverly Hills Playhouse.

Dep has appeared in numerous stage, television, commercial, and film productions, most recently in the revival of television’s iconic Twin Peaks, directed by David Lynch, and in his own stage play—MsTRIAL—at New World Stages, Off-Broadway, in New York City.

Dep’s literary works have been produced on both coasts and he has written, produced, and directed several short films. He is also the author of the critically-acclaimed non-fiction book "LAWYER GAMES: After Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," the true story behind the infamous murder case which spawned an international best-seller and Clint Eastwood / Kevin Spacey feature film.

The film adaptation of MsTRIAL is currently in pre-production, one of a portfolio of some dozen features, along with a half-dozen television pilots, a professional-process project (e.g., Next Top Model, Project Runway) titled “DISCOVERY.”

Dep is a member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, the Dramatists' Guild, and the award-winning "VS." Theatre Company. He also serves as Chair of Isle of Hope Entertainment, a film development and production company.

Gender:
Male

Height:
5' 11"

Weight:
162

Body type:
Slim

Hair:
Bald

Hair color:
Other

Eyes:
Blue

Certifications

Photos

Twin Peaks Premiere - Los Angeles - Red Carpet

Videos

Loglines

MsTRIAL Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama MsTRIAL | Film Adaptation of Off-Broadway Play | An inappropriate but undeniable sexual attraction spins out of control, leading to an internationally famous lawyer being accused of raping his beautiful, brilliant young associate after an alcohol-fueled victory celebration, and sparking a ferocious legal battle with startling results, as the law in all its rigidity attempts to address a very grey, uncertain area of human conduct. | “Devastating” / “Law & Order meets John Grisham” ~New York Theatre Guide | “A Potent Salvo in Détente Between Sexes" ~Los Angeles Times
Breathing Recommended Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama BREATHING RECOMMENDED A disaffected young woman's life as a "townie" and self-diagnosed lost soul is suddenly disrupted by two older women – a bitter, older version of herself with a mysterious past – and an irreverent pest with unbridled joy for life. From within the clash that follows, Grace discovers an eternal truth: you can be alive at 75 or as-good-as-dead at 30; it’s a choice. She also finds a grandmother she never knew she had—and might not want to keep.
PERFECT Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama PERFECT Raised in a family of high achievers, a young mother gives birth to the dynasty’s first grandchild—a special-needs boy—and becomes obsessed with “fixing” him, her single-minded campaign threatening to destroy her marriage and exacting a psychological toll on her neglected daughter and husband, only to discover the truth about perfection from among the wreckage.
CIRCLE DANCE Budget: $5M - $10M | Drama CIRCLE DANCE CIRCLE DANCE, adapted from the stage play produced in both New York and Los Angeles, is the story of an All-American family: A legendary NFL Hall of Fame dad; a beautiful former cheerleader mom; a brilliant, quirky, freakishly perceptive daughter; and an all-sports champion son. A beautiful family portrait that belies the fault lines under the surface, fault lines that don’t stay buried for long. “With a title borrowed from a Bonnie Raitt song about heartbreak, CIRCLE DANCE aims, classically, at a portrait of a disintegrating family and a flawed individual who learns his lessons too late.” ~LAWeekly
LUCIFER's GAME Budget: $1M - $5M | Thriller LUCIFER’S GAME A reclusive cyber-security genius seeks revenge against the father who abandoned him and his perfect mother, joining a world-class hacker and his brilliant ex-girlfriend to stage a cyber-heist at the casino where his dad is head of security. But he discovers an uncomfortable truth about his sainted mother, driving him to risk his own life to save the man he thought he hated.
UNGODLY Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama A powerful New York City lawyer suffers a crisis of conscience following a series of tragedies and strives to turn the city’s attention on the weak and suffering.
ABSENCE OF COLOR Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama A story inspired by the true life of Beatrice Pastorius Turner, a 19th Century woman with a 20th Century mind, a prescient observer of the world around her, a painter of thousands of canvases but a cloistered mystery, living in a house painted black after her father's death and wearing Victorian clothing until her death in the middle 1900’s. A woman who may have been awakened sexually a good half-century before the phrase was invented. The question is, by whom. One answer lies in a place as dark as the dawn of time.
THE TOAST Budget: $1M - $5M | Independent A socially phobic young lawyer whose brilliant, hidden, carefully guarded self only emerges under the influence of copious doses of vodka and an assortment of drugs, becomes embroiled in an impossible, destructive relationship with a similarly disturbed, internationally famous model, and faces a choice, whether to live long in boring sobriety or live fast in the blissful ether.
ESQ. | Pilot Budget: $100K - $1M | Drama Sent to prison due to the incompetence of a silk-stocking law firm dabbling in Pro Bono work solely for the PR benefit, Johnny Giles graduates law school on-line, obtains the reversal of his own conviction, and confronts the firm and lawyers that screwed up his case. He doesn’t want money to keep him quiet and compensate him for their incompetence. He wants a job—as a lawyer—with the firm that sent him to prison. A firm that doesn’t want him.
SKIN | Pilot Budget: $1M - $5M | Drama SKIN is fine. It’s discreet. The bouncers wear tuxedos. There’s a back door for VIP’s with direct access to VIP rooms stocked with champagne and a different set of rules for an ever-changing tableau of characters from sports, politics, pure wealth, and the criminal underworld. SKIN is exclusive and expensive. SKIN is the finest men’s club in the world.
THE ADVOCATE | Pilot Drama To atone for a life-shattering mistake that led to the execution of an innocent man, former superstar District Attorney JACK KELLEHER fights to reform the corrupt political and legal establishment that created him.
NOC NOC Budget: $5M - $10M | Thriller When a D.C. attorney goes missing on a trip to meet his accused terrorist clients’ families in Pakistan, his headstrong fiancée decides to find him herself, risking her life in a deadly confrontation, not only with a terrorist cell plotting an attack but also with her own country’s intelligence services—those who know her deeply classified identity. (Female Jason Bourne)
GROWN-UPS | Pilot Comedy Young ANDREW, left as a child with his fun but borderline irresponsible uncle LARRY, is clearly—at the age of fifteen—the “adult” in their wacky household. Now at the tricky threshold of manhood, Andrew’s world is turned inside out when Larry decides to rent a room to the disturbingly beautiful, 25-year-old, KELLI RATHBONE, confronting Andrew with the challenges facing any 15-year-old boy in the presence of a funny, quirky, female goddess.
THE LAST PLANTATION Budget: $5M - $10M | Comedy The patriarch of an undiscovered plantation, dismantled in the 1860's and reassembled on a forgotten plot of land on the NY/NJ border, fights to save the plantation, his sheltered grandchildren, and the (supposed) slave family from the outside world, only to discover, in the end... the only slave in sight is himself. Blazing Saddles meets South Park.

View all 14 loglines

Credits

MsTRIAL (2019 - 2020)
Theater by Rick Andosca (Director) John Paris Off-Broadway | New World Stages | New York Chelsea Playhouse | New York
Twin Peaks - The Return
Television by David Lynch Chief Mike Boyd Multi-Part Series | Showtime
Law & Order
Television by NBC / Ed Sherin Eric Lorca
Law & Order SVU
Television by NBC / Ed Sherin (Drama) Eric Lorca Combined Project - L&O and L&O SUV | Appeared with Jesse Martin and Mariska Hargity
MsTRIAL
Theater by Barry Satchwell Smith (Director) John Paris Los Angeles Production | Court Theatre
CIRCLE DANCE
Theater by Rick Andosca (Director) Sonny Cannon Skylight Theatre | Los Angeles Judith Anderson Theatre | New York
INFLUENCE
Theater by Katselas Theatre Company / Steve Zuckerman (Director) Rolf Erickson
CHALLENGED!
Theater by Little Bird Theatre Company Bennie Elephant Theatre | Los Angeles
110 STORIES
Theater by Sarah Tuft (Director) Gary Grove Street Playhouse | New York
ABUNDANCE
Theater by Schoolhouse Theatre Company / Pam Kareman (Director) Jack Flan Abundance, by Beth Henley | Schoolhouse Theatre "How to subtly swagger must be seen in Dep Kirkland's many-shaded performance." ~New York Times
SYLVIA
Theater by The Actor's Loft | NY Theatre Collective / Maggie Maes (Director) Greg Trilogy Theatre | New York
FOUR DOGS AND A BONE
Theater by EBP / Kelly Moore (Director) Bradley Samuel Beckett Theatre | Theatre Row | New York
THE COUNTRY GIRL
Theater by Schoolhouse Theatre Company / Pam Kareman (Director) Phil Cook The Country Girl by Clifford Odets | Schoolhouse Theatre | New York "Dep Kirkland is an effectively shifty producer. 'I only know what I read in the papers,' he declares." ~New York Times
A THOUSAND CLOWNS
Theater by Jewel Jaffe Ross (Director) Murray Burns A Thousand Clowns by Herb Gardner Village Playhouses of Roswell | Atlanta
BILL'S SEAT
Film (short) by Karl Shefelman (Director) Jake Award-Winning Short Film by Karl Shefelman
BROKERS
Film by Minimum Wage Films / Allie Dvorin (Director) Alexander
FRIDAY THE 13th: THE STORM
Film (short) by Midnight Hill Entertainment / Joseph Patnaud (Director) Mr. C A Friday the 13th tribute short film by colleague/associate of Rob Zombie.