Phelim McAleer is a veteran investigative journalist, a New York Times best-selling author, filmmaker, podcast host, playwright and one of the world's leading Crowdfunders.
McAleer has raised almost $3m in five separate crowdfunding campaigns. His Gosnell movie was the most successful movie project ever on Indiegogo. It raised $2.37m from almost 30,000 people. The film was released on over 600 theaters in October 2018 and was a #1 DVD in America on Amazon.
Gosnell is a ripped from the headlines story about a respected doctor who ran a medical clinic in an impoverished Philadelphia neighborhood. But behind the doors of his clinic the smiling, avuncular Kermit Gosnell was also America's most prolific serial killer.
Along with his wife journalist Ann McElhinney he has written the New York Times Best Seller Gosnell – The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer, published by Regnery and available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Books A Million. The book debuted as #3 Best Seller on Amazon and sold out 3 days after publication.
McAleer co-hosts with his wife Ann McElhinney a weekly podcast The Ann and Phelim Scoop where they investigate and report unreported stories, comment on politics, culture, uncork beverages and share recipes. The show is available on all major podcast platforms and on YouTube.
Most recently, McAleer wrote and co-produced a theatrical event FBI Lovebirds: UnderCovers, staged at the Reagan Building in DC. The verbatim play exposes how top FBI operatives tried to destroy President Trump's campaign and his presidency by starting the "Russia Collusion" investigation. This play was filmed before a live audience and will be released online.
The Federalist said FBI Lovebirds: UnderCovers was a "comedic hit" and “plays like a ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch, only every word is true and it’s actually funny.”
Politico called it “Hamilton for the MAGA crowd”.
National Review described it as "DC Satire at it's best..that left the audience howling". Even the left-leaning publication The Guardian had to admit the play was “Compelling,
excruciating...” and that “Dean Cain was perfectly cast...”. HBO's Vice News called it “Underground, edgy” and “The most dangerous play in Washington DC”.
McAleer produced and directed FrackNation - a documentary about fracking which was funded through a $212,000 crowdfunding campaign. The New York Times described FrackNation as "provocative and meticulously researched."
McAleer caused a storm when his play Ferguson, about the police shooting of Michael Brown, was staged in Los Angeles. Although the play was based entirely on verbatim transcripts of eyewitness testimony to the Grand Jury actors objected to the script and nine of the 13 cast walked out before opening night. They were upset that the eyewitness testimony did not match their idea of how the shooting actually happened. Alternative newspaper LA Weekly said Ferguson was "divisive, but riveting" and "an incendiary night of theatre".
For his online series Clinton Emails On Film – writer Mark Steyn said it was an example of McAleer doing “the work you can guarantee most of the American media have no stomach for.”
He has produced documentaries for the BBC, CBC (Canada) and RTE (Ireland) and two independent feature length documentaries. Before becoming a filmmaker, Phelim was a foreign correspondent for the Financial Times in Eastern Europe. He also covered Romania and Bulgaria for the Economist.
Before that he covered Ireland for the UK Sunday Times. McAleer began his career in journalism covering the Northern Ireland troubles first as a reporter in Crossmaglen (known as Bandit Country) and then for the Irish News in Belfast.
He has worked as a filmmaker and journalist in many countries including Romania, Uganda, Madagascar, Bulgaria, Chile, Indonesia, Canada and China. McAleer has appeared on or is a regular contributor to an array of international media organizations including Fox News, CNN and the BBC. He has been interviewed on over 100 US and international radio.
BOOK
Gosnell: The untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer
FILMOGRAPHY
FBI Lovebirds: UnderCovers (2019) Co-writer, Producer
Gosnell (2018) Producer, Co-Writer FrackNation (2013) Writer, Director & Producer Not Evil Just Wrong (2009) Director & Producer
Mine Your Own Business (2006) Director & Producer The Search for Tristan's Mum (RTE, 2005) Co-Producer Return to Sender (CBC, 2005) Associate Producer
THEATER
$18 Billion Prize (2018) Co-writer, Producer
Ferguson (2017) Producer
SPEAKING TOPICS
1) Dr. Kermit Gosnell: What I learned investigating America's most prolific serial killer
2) FrackNation: How the fracking revolution changed everything
3) The Dangers of Environmentalism
4) Capitalism – A Love Story: How I rejected liberalism and learned to love Capitalism
5) Global Warming & Environmentalists Hypocrisy
6) How Social Welfare Kills: a British case study
7) How not for profits and environmental organizations are determined to keep the poor of the world in poverty – and how you can stop them
