Ian Kessner was born in Montreal, Canada and moved to New York after graduating in Cinema Studies from the University of Western Ontario. He completed NYU's summer film program and then wrote and directed Gone Fishin'. The film premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival before securing worldwide TV distribution.

Ian then signed with Viacom for whom he created the TV series Twisted Puppet Theater for Showtime (13 episodes) and The Dopes (pilot) for MTV. He wrote, directed and produced music videos for E!'s Fashion Week, No Fear for Comedy Central's Musical Shorts, and 22 comedic interstitial shorts called Chop Suey TV for USA Networks which won the Time Warner/Reel Time Film Festival.

During this time Ian wrote the screenplays Generous Heart Inc., and Chaotica, with NY underground filmmaker Amos Poe. He then wrote, directed and produced the David Blaine: Street Magic demo, and acted as consulting producer on the ABC special.

Ian then moved to Los Angeles where he directed the re-shoots of Wes Cravens' Carnival of Souls for Trimark Pictures, and the 35mm short The Puzzle which Premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival. The Puzzle won the 1998 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and was featured on Sci-Fi Channel's Exposure Series.

Ian graduated with his Directing MFA from the American Film Institute in 2002 and his thesis film Pack Of Dogs and won the FotoKem Production award. On Halloween 2007 Lifetime aired Hush Little Baby, which Ian wrote and exec-produced for the network.

2010 finds Ian developing a number of projects including The Diplobrats with Dr Dre’s Crucial Films, Leopard In The Sun with Muse Film's Chris Hanley, MDMA based on the real life story of ecstasy kingpin Sean Erez, and polishing his latest script; One Flesh, a supernatural tale of possession and past lives. Recently Ian co-founded Dark Star Films with fellow filmmaker Ariel Vromen.

Ian is a member in good standing with the WGA and a WGC.