About

Kelly Candaele has had a diverse career as writer, filmmaker, professor and elected official in Los Angeles.  Candaele has written extensively for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, The Nation magazine and other national publications.   He traveled to Ireland three times when President Bill Clinton was pushing the Northern Ireland peace process forward. His journalistic work has focused primarily on the conflict in Northern Ireland, Los Angeles political developments, history, culture and baseball. In addition to Northern Ireland he has worked as a journalist in Great Britain, Brazil, Sweden, Cuba, Spain, Australia and Vietnam. Mr. Candaele has lectured at Hebrew University in Jerusalem about the conflict in Northern Ireland, and at a number of other colleges and universities.

Candaele has produced and directed a number of documentary films. His documentary film A League of Their Own, about his mother’s years as a professional baseball player in the 1940s, was awarded an Area Emmy as part of a public television series.  He wrote the story for the Columbia Pictures feature film about the women’s league which stared Tom Hanks and Madonna.  His brother Casey played for parts of ten years in the major leagues coming up with Montreal and also playing for Houston and Cleveland.   He is currently directing a documentary titled Heads, Hands, Hearts that follows the workers who are constructing the Wilshire Grand in downtown Los Angeles.

Candaele also produced and wrote an award-winning documentary on the life of assassinated Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, which was narrated by actor Paul Newman. In 2007 Candaele’s documentary film When Hope and History Rhymed – which explores the aftermath of the Northern Ireland peace agreement – premiered at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. The film has being shown throughout Ireland and the United States.

His documentary film from 2009 – Second Chances – Union Made – looks at how former gang members have turned their lives around by joining building trades unions to help re-build the City of Los Angeles. It premiered at Paramount Studios in April, 2008 and has aired on several public television stations. His 2010 documentary film, El Clasico – More Than a Game, looked at Spanish history and politics through the soccer rivalry between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. The film has screened throughout Europe and the United States.  In 2014 Candaele Directed and Produced another film on soccer, history and politics – this time in India. Goal Kolkata examined the role of soccer in the anti-colonial struggle in India and in the partition of India in 1947.

In 1996 Candaele ran for and was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District. He was one of seven members who oversee the nine-college district that enrolls over 130,000 students a year. He served as President of the Board in 2000, 2004 and 2009 and retired from the College Board in 2013 after four terms.

Candaele has worked as a labor organizer and helped rebuild the National Air Traffic Controllers Association in the wake of the 1981 PATCO strike.   He worked for several years with the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and taught labor history and politics at the Labor Center at Los Angeles Trade-Tech College.

Candaele obtained a Masters Degree in Psychology and Counseling from California State University, Chico in 1979 and studied European History at the University of California, Santa Barbara.