08 Feb Staff Profile: Kelly Maxwell

Kelly —who we’re profiling this month—and Carolyn are the co-owners of Line 21, and have been friends for life, or at least since Grade 8. Kelly is the clumsiest staff member, but she is pretty happy doing payroll with her Quatchi pen, so no one bugs her too much. She loves words and kids and is very easily entertained by either… or, preferably, both.

Name: Kelly Duncan Maxwell

Years at Line 21: 19.

What you did before Line 21: I was a caption editor at Western Captioning in Gastown. Before that, I was an Anthropology graduate, History grad student, prep cook, office manager, sports association manager, Dbase 3+ hacker, tax preparer, and mental health worker. I flipped burgers in the Pit Pub at UBC for two years in the late ’80s—I recognize a lot of people around town from those years. In the early ’80s, I worked at Ticketmaster (with Carolyn Hicks) and also at Le Chateau.

Favourite part of the job: Definitely our team and our clients. It is an amazing privilege to be in contact with such smart, interesting, nice, competent people all day long, each and every day.

Favourite project(s) you’ve worked on: I have huge admiration for the people who bring shows from concept to completion. I love personal documentary projects and always appreciate a challenge to my thinking. Also, any film that can take you imaginatively right out of your current surroundings. I am also a huge fan of people who make episodical TV and keep us on their side for 65 episodes at a time. That’s amazing.

Best memory/story about working at Line 21: One of my favourite moments was at one of our early Christmas parties when I looked around at all these great people assembled and thought “They met each other and became friends because we started our company.”

Favourite Vancouver restaurant and why: We had our 2012 Christmas party at La Buca. This place is a hidden gem, and I do mean hidden, on MacDonald around 23rd Ave.. They had no problem with all of our dietary challenges (celiac, dairy free, seafood free, etc), and served us the most AMAZING meal. Highly recommended! And for lunch or afternoons, Aphrodite has amazing, wholesome, food, with a large gluten-free menu and a huge range of delicious gluten-free pies.

Favourite place to travel: We are just about to take a huge family trip to New York, London, and Edinburgh. I love cities. We were recently in San Francisco and Berkeley, which made me want to be an undergrad again.

Thanks Kelly! Check out our other staff profiles here.