bio

pants, aka matt kelley, was born in spokane, washington state to a korean mother and white father who met thanks to the draft and malaria. i grew up in the tiny towns of spangle and rollingbay where i spent my formative years drawing maps, harvesting sea life, selling plants and competing in classical piano competitions.

at 19 i dropped out of wesleyan university to bus tables and to found mavin magazine. in 2000 i expanded mavin into a nonprofit organization that raised millions of dollars to support health, education and policy projects for mixed heritage people and families. along the way i co-edited a book, produced a film, presented testimony to congress and served on a u.s. department of commerce census advisory committee. this work attracted the attention of some 500 media outlets and garnered 35 awards from civil rights orgs to our decider in chief, gw bush.

in 2006 i quit my job to travel and play nanny to my 0.25 korean, 1.5-yr-old niece in suburban chicago. before moving to seoul, korea this spring, i am spending my days writing, lecturing, consulting and staying involved with organizations that support youth and asian american and lgbt (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) communities.

email me.



former glory

new york times: when you contain multitudes (april 24 2005)
an article about mavin's most ambitious project- a 10,000-mile rv trip around the country to raise awareness of mixed stuff... and the project that convinced me to move on.

village voice: black and white and read all over (january 31 2006)
nycs weekly rag of record talks a bit about the film we produced about the tour.

utne reader: birth of a maven (sept/oct 1999)
this is my favorite article about my days at mavin. i was interviewed for it just a couple of months after mavin's first issue hit newsstands and it generated a lot of interest and support over the years. ah, those simple days!

lip magazine: race changes (february 21 2002)
heres a sassy article i wrote for a progressive magazine that was syndicated through alternet.org. i even use punctuation.

link magazine: who wants to be an entrepreneur (april 2000)
i appeared on this college magazines cover bald and splayed out on a red velour couch under the teaser 'tycoons at 20'. google cofounder larry page was one of the other tycoons. today hes a billionaire and im unemployed.

seattle voices with matt kelley (may 18 2005)
heres streaming video of an interview i did with a seattle television program.