FILMMAKER | SPEAKER | AUTHOR
ABOUT CHRIS
Chris Hennessy is an award-winning filmmaker and author, and speaker whose creative output has somehow surged since his 2020 stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis.
A member of California Writers Club, Sacramento, and Elk Grove Writers Guild, Chris is a Rice University graduate who spent nearly three decades (1990-2018) at the forefront of the San Francisco Bay Area’s independent filmmaking scene, producing over 1,500 professional films for clients including Google, eBay, Office Max, Deloitte, and the SF 49ers.
Since retiring from filmmaking in 2018, Chris’s Hennflix YouTube channel and other platforms have garnered 6.9 million views. His television series Yolo YoYo's won Best New TV Cable Series (Access Sacramento, 2020). Season One (12 episodes) drew 125,000 viewers on Facebook. (TV stats not available.)
Yolo YoYo's Season 2 premiere episode, Miracles on College Street—a short documentary written, directed, and produced by Chris to publicize his memoir Touched by Hannah—won the prestigious Film Heals Award for most inspirational at the 2022 Manhattan Film Festival (NYC). The film also earned top five Best Documentary at Manhattan and runner-up Best Episode at the 2022 ACM Western Region WAVE Cable TV Awards.
Chris also produced three other award-winning films—a short comedy, a music video, and the Yolo YoYo's Season 2 finale, “The Stage; Following our Wildest Dreams,” which took Best Episode at the 2022 ACM Western Region WAVE Cable TV Awards.
After their legendary November 2025 book launch—standing room only, nearly 100 books signed—Touched by Hannah won a Bronze Medal at the 2026 Illumination Book Awards. Now Chris and Hannah are taking the book across Northern California with bookstore events from Sacramento to Silicon Valley and speaking engagements at NorCal California Writers Club chapters.