Rising Stars: Meet Meshach Malley of Ohio

Today we’d like to introduce you to Meshach Malley.

Hi Meshach, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
For as long as I can remember I wanted to make movies. I started filming stories with friends when I was a little kid, running around my parent’s backyard with an old JVC camcorder from the 1990s. My parents did not let me watch a lot of television and so my act of rebellion was saying that I would make it myself. It’s been nearly twenty years and I haven’t stopped.

I was homeschooled from kindergarten through the end of high school and my parents were very supportive of my ambitions. When I was 9 years old I adapted Charlie and the Chocolate Factory into a 20 minute movie that I shot with other homeschooled kids and screened in our living room to family and friends. Two years later, I made an adaptation of Lunch Money by Andrew Clements as a 40 minute short film.

When I was thirteen, I began writing the screenplay for what would become my first original feature film. The following summer, when I was fourteen, I convinced my friends and even some of their parents to be in my 90-minute fantasy epic. We converted my parent’s garage into a make-shift film studio where we duck-taped green screen to the cinderblock and shot sword fights and chase scenes. The movie was called The Red Crystal and with all its special effects, took over three years to complete. We finally finished it and screened it at the Gateway Film Center when I was in high school.

Throughout high school, I continued to make video projects. I shot a five-episode Doctor Who fan series in the same garage with my best friend, building an entire TARDIS out whatever scrap material I could get my hands on. We also shot a five-episode sitcom with a set that could switch between a bar and an apartment. Each of these projects pushed me to learn more about filmmaking, editing, storytelling, and working with groups of people to bring a vision to life.

I knew that telling stories in this format was my life’s mission. I went to Denison University where I studied film production and theory.

I graduated in 2022, and moved back home to Columbus to open my own production company. I began taking freelance client work and building out a portfolio of corporate video. Between the client work, I started writing a feature film which I shot in early 2023 called “I’ll See You on Thanksgiving”. It had been nearly ten years since I made The Red Crystal and it felt like the perfect time to make another movie. I wrote, shot, directed, and edited the project. We filmed it out of the house that I was living in at the time. The movie was about a group of friends who made a promise to get together for Thanksgiving. They haven’t seen each other since they graduated college and when they do get together, their unfinished drama bubbles to the surface. The film was released November of that year with a premiere at Studio 35 and streaming on Amazon, Tubi and other platforms.

Since completing the movie, I worked on a series of short films and continued to grow my client portfolio. I worked as the assistant director on the film Ava and the Boy She Loved, produced by Emperium Studios. I shot and co-directed the horror short “The Woodsman” with Mikah Fikes. I also directed and shot music a handful of videos and a video game trailer.

At the start of 2026, I wanted to get back into creating narrative stories. I’ve always loved writing comedy and I’m endlessly entertained by dating dynamics. Pulling on some of the tropes my favorite sitcoms from the late 90’s and early 2000’s (Friends, Frasier, How I Met Your Mother), I developed the show Situationships. The idea behind Situaitonships was to create a comedy series that would work with a YouTube audience. I wanted to create a show where someone could watch a single episode or the entire show all the way through.

I found a fantastic cast, and we shot season one this spring. We released 21 short episodes and grew our YouTube audience from 0 to over 2,500 subscribers with some episodes getting over 100,000 views. The show was an absolute dream to create. The cast brought my screenplays to life and the lightweight production allowed us to move creatively through the stories.

With the first season of the show a success, we are now in production on Season 2 with episodes coming out every Thursday at 2pm. Our channel is called Rascal Town, as we hope to create more shows beyond just Situationships. I truly believe that the future of entertainment is going to be largely independent. It is a joy to be a part of that movement.

Today I work creating the show and building the Rascal Town brand, I also work freelance and continue to help people tell their stories through video. I love working with clients, or coming on set as a videographer or producer.

My background allows me to wear a lot of different hats. Sometimes I am the only one on set, behind the camera, directing the actors, and running the sound. Other times, I have the wonderful opportunity to work with other talented people to bring this visions to life. Either way, I love the craft and plan on continuing to tell stories like this for a long time!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have been many struggles along the way. I think the biggest challenge is cultivating a life where you have the time to do creative work. It can be so easy to spend all of your time just trying to makes ends meet. For years, the biggest struggle was how to find enough time to do what I loved until it could pay the bills. There were many late nights and early mornings, working multiple jobs and saying yes to projects because I needed to.

Throughout all of that, my guiding light was to not loose sight of what is important. The technology has now gotten cheap enough that if you want to make things there is no excuse. Start writing ideas down, call up some friends, pick up a camera and start shooting. Sometimes I still feel like I am waiting for someone to give me permission. It’s not going to happen. You have to make time for it and actually do it.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a filmmaker. That means I am a writer, director, videographer, sound recorder, video editor, and producer. All of these jobs are in service of telling a great story, be that for a client or for a narrative project. I think what sets me apart from many other people is my ability to wear multiple hats while also moving efficiently and focussing on what matters. I have produced dozens of short films as the only one behind the camera. I can set everything up, direct the actors, and shoot the scene. I think that this is a really important skill to build. The fewer people you need to make a project happen, the more cool things you get to make.

I also work as a freelance videographer and video editor. Sometimes I am hired to run an entire production, other times I will come out an assist another production company. My background wearing multiple hats, allowed me to move through different roles on set smoothly and understand how they all fit into the bigger picture.

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
I have had so many mentors and people who have been so encouraging. I had a professor in college, Marc Wiskemann who was the first professional who saw what I was capable of. I showed him something I had made and he looked at me very seriously and told me I could do better. He didn’t mean it as something rude, he was telling me that I was capable of more. He was right! On the next project I pushed myself to be better. It was not about something as silly as winning his approval, it was that he saw something that I did not see in myself.

My wife is a constant supporter of the work that I do. Often, for the weekend, our whole apartment is full of actors as we are shooting Situaitonships or some other project. She is so gracious about giving me the space to create my work! I could not do it without her.

Pricing:

• Video production and editing pricing available upon request and based on project

Contact Info:

• Website: https://meshachmalley.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rascaltown.tv/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meshach-malley/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5a3KFl1zcjAAz-DkxPPrUg