Eli Hayes grew up in the suburbs surrounding Milwaukee, Wisconsin but recently graduated from Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York with a degree in psychology and creative writing. He became interested in the world of cinema during his teenage years, upon viewing the works of visually-driven directors like Terrence Malick and Lynne Ramsay. These days, he's based in Nashville, Tennessee spends much of his time attending school, directing micro-budget short films and writing about the movies that he loves.