Russell is the younger son of Sheryl and Paul Russell, co-founders of Christian Youth Theater, which Russell was part of as a child. Russell discussed acting in an interview when he was 13 years old: "That was my life. It was what everybody around me did. I didn't even think about it. I did my first show at 8, and I have done over 20 plays since. You can't do this if you don't like it. You have to commit yourself to it." Russell graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
Career
Russell, with Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole, created the Invisible Children organization in 2003 after they "traveled to Uganda and witnessed children camping out in the city ofGulu to avoid being kidnapped into the militia in their villages." With camera equipment obtained from eBay, they went to Africa as student filmmakers but had no plan for the focus of their intended documentary. According to Russell, the trip was inspired by the 1993 death of Dan Eldon, who had been beaten to death while trying to document the ongoing famine in Somalia. After Russell's group reached the Sudan their caravan was attacked by the Lord's Resistance Army, forcing a retreat to Northern Uganda. In Gulu, Russell and the others interviewed and videotaped children who had to commute to the city every night to elude raids by the LRA on their home villages in Acholiland. During filming, the three men contracted malaria, but omitted covering their illness so that the documentary would remain focused on the children. The footage they shot resulted in the original Invisible Children documentary draft, which was first screened in June 2004. Russell and others returned to Uganda for six months in 2005 to collect more interviews and documentation for the next Invisible Children documentary. In 2006, after the Washington D.C. screening of Russell and Poole's rough cut, the U.S. Congress approved discussion of the plight of the Acholi before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. The 2006 also won Russell, Bailey, and Poole the Pioneering Spirit Award at the 2007 Heartland Film Festival. With his wife Danica Jones and Jon M. Chu, Russell co-wrote a musical, Moxie, which the team sold to Steven Spielberg.
Legal issues
On March 15, 2012, at the height of the Kony 2012 video's viral popularity, San Diego police detained a naked Russell for psychiatric evaluation after he allegedly vandalized cars and made sexual gestures after removing his underwear, during a public breakdown that was filmed and released online. Russell was hospitalized for several weeks. A statement by his family said the diagnosis was "brief reactive psychosis, an acute state brought on by extreme exhaustion, stress and dehydration," as a result of the popularity of the campaign. In October 2012, Russell appeared on the TV show Oprah's Next Chapter to discuss the incident, describing it as an "out of body experience" and stating "that wasn't me, that's not who I am".
