Artist, skateboarder, designer, curator, director – Mikey Alfred is tough to box in, and even harder to keep up with. His debut feature flm is a gusty coming-of-age tale set amid the whir of LA skate culture. So why has every studio passed it up?
Text: Beth Webb
IT’S A SUN-SCORCHED MORNING IN NORTH HOLLYWOOD. Mikey Alfred has cheerfully flipped his phone camera to show me the bright, bleached front drive of his family home – a setting that couldn’t feel further removed from the cold, bleak surroundings outside my flat window. “I haven’t been there in two or three years but I like London a lot,” he says, almost sympathetically.
The 26-year-old filmmaker and skateboarding mogul is dressed smartly today in a black buttoned-up polo shirt that features the branding of Illegal Civ – the company he founded 14 years ago. A few times throughout our conversation, his dad strides past in the background – in one instance briefly wishing his son good morning, in another carrying a skateboard under his arm. Though it’s only just turned 10am in California, Mikey is already well into his day. “I wake up mad early,” he says. “I played water polo as a kid and we’d have to be at the pool at 6am, so that meant waking up at 4:45am. That hasn’t really gone away.”
Anyone familiar with Mikey’s story is already aware of his work ethic. The California native launched Illegal Civ as a clothing brand and skate crew aged just 12. He spent the following years expanding it internationally: today, it produces skateboards and accessories as well as apparel, while also serving as a worldwide events and production company. Along the way, he found time to tour with friends and collaborators Tyler the Creator and Frank Ocean, secured high profile partnerships with Red Bull and Vogue, and garnered almost 100 million views on the Illegal Civ YouTube channel – which showcases everything from skate videos to original documentaries.
His dream, though, was always feature films. In 2018, that began to resemble reality, when he earned a co-producer credit on Jonah Hill’s Mid90s, a coming-of-age film set among the LA skate scene. Mikey was key in sourcing the real-life skaters that would make up the film’s central cast and his work on the film drew attention from the likes of the Los Angeles Times, who ran a profile titled, ‘From skateboarding to Hollywood, Mikey Alfred dreams big’. In case there was any confusion about the direction Mikey wants to head, Illegal Civ’s current tagline – “The world’s first teen movie studio” – makes it patently obvious. Despite his rap
