Dylan Kai Dempsey is an NYC-based filmmaker & film critic.  When storytelling intersects with social impact, he finds inspiration. 

His passion for media started back in eighth grade when he was sidelined by illness and taught himself editing.   

As an undergrad at Tufts University, he taught film & TV, both on campus and at a film school in Paris—and received Tufts’ first CJ Saraceno Film Scholarship.  As a development intern, he worked for Albert Berger & Ron Yerxa at Bona Fide Productions in LA (Little Miss Sunshine, Nebraska, The Leftovers) and Tracey Scoffield & Frank Doelger at Rainmark Films in London (Game of Thrones).

After graduating cum laude, he became a film journalist, covering festivals all over the world.  His reviews, interviews, personal profiles and social analyses have been published in multiple countries.  Publications include Vanity Fair, Variety, Ioncinema, No Film School, EkkoFilm and Nonfiction.fr.

In 2019, he was one of the first American critics invited to cover the “Sundance of China”—Pingyao International Film Festival—and his 2022 beginner’s guide The Art of Sundance is still the top Google result for “Sundance advice.”  

In 2023, he founded DylanKDempsey.com, an online publication dedicated to criticism from the filmmaker’s perspective.  As a filmmaker, his projects include indie shorts and campaigns for clients.  His roles include writer, producer, director and editor.

In 2025, with the support of fiscal sponsorship from New York Foundation for the Arts and an Individual Artist grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, he completed shooting his own indie pilot, #Likes4Lucas.  The redemption story of a fictional YouTube star, #L4L aims to help at-risk teens deal with digital addiction. 

Now in post-production, #Likes4Lucas will premiere in 2026 as both a short film and as the pilot for an eight-part episodic TV series.