Kris Swanberg is an American businesswoman, filmmaker, actress and former high school teacher living in Chicago, Illinois. She has been credited at various times as Kris Williams, Kris Swanberg and Kris Rey. Her works as a director include the short documentary Bathwater, the Nerve.com documentary web seriesBoys and Girls and the feature filmsIt Was Great, But I Was Ready to Come Home, Empire Builder, Unexpected and the upcoming filmI Used to Go Here. She has also had small roles in a number of films, including First Man. From 2007 to 2019 she was married to filmmaker Joe Swanberg. The two co-directed, co-produced and co-starred in the 2006-2009 Nerve.com web series Young American Bodies; she also had acting roles in a number of his films.
In 2005, Swanberg coordinated The Future Filmmakers Festival, which showcases work from filmmakers under the age of 21. Swanberg's first feature film, It Was Great, But I Was Ready to Come Home, had its world premiere at the South by Southwest film festival in March 2009. Her second feature film Empire Builder premiered in 2012, starring Kate Lyn Sheil. Her third film, Unexpected, premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. It was released on July 24, 2015, by The Film Arcade. Her next film, I Used to Go Here, will star Gillian Jacobs and Jemaine Clement; Swanberg is credited as Kris Rey. Aside from writing and directing, Swanberg has had small roles in First Man and Joshy. and has had small roles in films directed by her husband including Win It All, Happy Christmas, Hannah Takes the Stairs.
Nice Cream
In the late 2000s, Swanberg was laid off from her job as a teacher with Chicago Public Schools and while searching for a new job, she recalled receiving an ice cream maker as a wedding gift. She began experimenting with new flavors and started a new artisan small-batch ice cream business called "Nice Cream", producing the dessert at Logan Square Kitchen, a shared community resource in Chicago. By 2010, demand had increased such that the ice cream was being sold in 18 local outlets, including specialty stores, farmer's markets, and two Whole Foods locations. In late July, 2011, an inspector from Illinois Department of Public Health forced her to shut down operations until she either agreed to use a premade ice mix, or constructed her own manufacturing facility and purchased a commercial dairy license. Although she submitted samples of her ice cream to labs for testing, which determined her bacterial levels were far lower than the state's published allowable levels, the State of Illinois shut down Swanberg's company until she purchases the large commercial equipment, and even if she uses pasteurized milk and boils all of her products together, she would still need to process it all through a commercial pasteurizer. Other small-batch ice cream makers in Illinois stated that they were concerned about the state coming for them next, particularly because they had invested significant sums in their businesses and could not afford to close.
Personal life
She married Joe Swanberg on June 30, 2007. In March 2020, it was announced the two had divorced. She has 2 children.
