When Kelley Hiatt moved to St. Louis from Los Angeles two years ago, she just assumed that she’d have to fly back and forth to southern California to keep working in her field.
A location manager for film and television, Hiatt got her start helping TV producer extraordinaire Dick Wolf find locations in her native Chicago for Chicago Fire and Chicago PD. Eventually, she moved to LA, where she found filming locations for Shonda Rhimes’ Shondaland productions. She had 20 years of experience in the industry when it was paralyzed by both actors/writers strikes in 2023. That’s when Hiatt and her husband decided to move to his hometown, St. Louis, even if it had an impact on her career.
But Hiatt needn’t have worried. Coincidentally, in 2023, Missouri lawmakers approved a new set of tax credits for film and TV productions, resurrecting a program that went dark in 2013. The state can now give up to $16 million in tax credits each year for films and episodic TV that meets certain criteria. Hiatt was soon brought on board as the film commissioner for the St. Louis Film Office…