filmmaker, MUSICIAN, DESIGNER & educator from Chicago, IL

Chris Kalis co-founded the award-winning and internationally recognized creative studio Plural Design, LLC, in 2008 and the Chicago-based electronic music group Chandeliers in 2005. The band's recordings and live performances have received praise internationally from notable outlets such as The Wire, Pitchfork, NPR, The Quietus, Chicago Reader, and Chicago Tribune. He has created the album art and has produced and mixed all of the group's recorded output. Chando Radio, on WLPN-LP Lumpen Radio, is a weekly electronic music program that he has co-hosted and produced since 2020.

In addition to Chandeliers, Chris has performed and recorded with the Chicago-based groups Drasii, Icy Demons, Songs for Gods, Michael Columbia, and Bronze. He is also a resident DJ and curator at the monthly SENDERS parties that he has hosted with Mike Broers since 2021.

His visual artwork has been exhibited at the Hyde Park Art Center, Co-Prosperity, Public Works Gallery, Chicago Cultural Center, and the Chicago Design Archive. 

In 2017, he collaborated with Nolan J. Downs as co-director and producer on the animated music video Snake Bomb, which premiered at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. The following year, he collaborated with Downs again to create sound design for the animated short Deducked, which screened at the Pictoplasma Conference and Festival in Berlin after earning a coveted Vimeo Staff Pick.

He combined his passion for electronic music, design, and filmmaking while working as a field producer and graphic designer on the award-winning feature-length documentary God Said Give 'Em Drum Machines, directed by Kristian R. Hill, about the history of Detroit Techno music. The film premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival.

Chris directed, produced, co-wrote, and held many other creative roles on the animated short Illuminatus!, which premiered at FilmQuest in 2024. The film is based on the cult classic novels by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson and was made in collaboration with animation students and faculty at DePaul University in Chicago. The voice cast includes Alex Cox, Jon Glaser, and Gregg Turkington. The film is currently in the festival circuit. It has screened at the Humboldt International Film Festival, the Columbus International Film & Animation Festival, and the Midwest Weird Fest and won Best Regional Short Film at the 2025 Bloomington Indiana Film Festival.

Chris is an Associate Professor in the School of Cinematic Arts at DePaul University in Chicago, IL.

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