Education
University of Southern California.
University of Southern California.
Illsley was raised in Santa Rosa, California where he made films as a teen with a Super-8 camera. He graduated from the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television in 1981, where he met and started working relationship with Kevin Reynolds. Happy, Texas triggered a bidding war that played out at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, with Harvey Weinstein and Miramax beating out other suitors, which included Fox Searchlight, Paramount Classics and New Lincolnshire Cinema.