Kerry Michael Li was born in Kansas City, Missouri.

He then lived in Chicago, Illinois, with his parents and one older brother, attending Shoesmith Elementary school.

Kerry spent the 3rd and 4th grades learning from the Calvert Correspondence Course as his family traveled extensively through the Netherlands, England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal and northern Africa.

Returning to America in the 1970’s, his family settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they opened an art gallery, carrying the works of Picasso, Durer, Goya and more that were purchased in Europe.

After his parents divorced, Kerry went to a showing of Tom Laughlin’s movie Billy Jack, in which a half Native American soldier returning from the war uses his martial arts skills to defend the helpless students in a small town. Kerry joined a local karate school the very next day and hasn’t looked back since.

He attended Santa Fe Prep School, Acequia Madre Elementary, Harrington Junior High, Mid High and Santa Fe High School. Kerry obtained his first Black Belt in Ka-Ju Kenpo from J. Michael Moore at age 16.

Before graduating at the top of his class of over 1,000 seniors with a 4.0 GPA, Kerry was offered two college scholarships – one to Princeton and one to the University of New Mexico. Kerry chose the latter because they had a well-known karate program run by Gary Purdue (while Princeton had no karate program at the time).

Going to UNM in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as a Presidential Scholar, Kerry became captain of the university’s first competitive martial arts team and also won the Humanities Award for Excellence in Dramatic Writing. After obtaining a second Black Belt in Shotokan karate, Kerry left school to pursue the National Karate Circuit.

Kerry ran one of the most successful karate schools in history in Santa Fe, New Mexico from 1983-2000. During that time as head of the Martial Arts Academy, Kerry won 7 First Place National Black Belt Championships, 5 First Place World Championships, the World Grand Championship (in which all the 1st Place Black Belt winners at the World Championships are pitted against each other to see who is the 1st Place of all the 1st Places), 2 Time National Coach of the Year, 2 Time World Coach of the Year and his students won 26 First Place World titles and literally hundreds of National, Regional and State titles.

Kerry was honored by the United States Congress by being entered into the official Congressional Record and had an American Flag flown over the White House in his honor. He also received several commendations from various mayors, governors and state representatives over the course of his competitive career.

Kerry received a ranking in Okinawan Kobudo, or ancient weaponry, from Grandmaster Robert A. Trias, the founder of the United States Karate Association and the pioneer of American martial arts, who passed away in 1989.

In 1992, Kerry began working with a television and film director at Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California, after his karate school was used as a location for the film Kickboxer IV.

In 1999, Kerry and an investor met in Beverly Hills, California, to discuss financing of a script written by Kerry and his producing partner. Gold Circle Films was born out of that meeting.

Kerry worked at the film company for two years, involved in the making of a dozen feature films as a production executive, including My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Poolhall Junkies, The Man From Elysian Fields and Double Whammy. Kerry eventually worked up to Producer of Rolling Kansas, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Kerry currently lives in Los Angeles as an independent producer, running around town, pitching projects. He also writes for and edits several magazines, including Ultimate MMA, Elite Fighter, World of Firepower, Action Pursuit Games, Home Defender and Fit & Famous.

Kerry published his first solo novel, Full Force, which became an Amazon #1 Bestseller.

Kerry is hard at work on several novels, film screenplays and television pilots, working with Circle of Confusion as his developmental literary management.