By Published Apr 2, 2026, 12:32 PM EDT As a graduate of Columbia University in New York City, Tatiana studied theater and comparative literature. She has been passionate about all manner of storytelling from Jane Austen adaptations to anime. Aside from writing for Screen Rant, she co-hosts podcasts: The Flash Podcast and Ladies With Gumption. Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap
After winning hearts as the world's kindest veterinarian on Schitt's Creek, Dustin Milligan's most recent role is reigniting his rom-com potential. Are We Still Married? debuted last month at as part of the festival's Independent TV Pilot Competition, but the 11-minute short contains the emotional highs and lows of a full-length feature film while still leaving room for a stellar 5-season television run.
Are We Still Married? follows Jack (Milligan), a loving husband and brand-new vampire who would like nothing more than for his wife, Laura (Taylor Misiak, Dave), to let him back inside their house. The premise opens the door to a myriad of possibilities, which is exactly what writer-director Kit Steinkellner was going for. Steinkellner has created stories for a variety of platforms, from her start in theater to her award-winning comic Quince and the Sorry For Your Loss, which premiered on Facebook Watch in 2018. Now, she stands at a crossroads with a beautiful and complicated story that can fit many a medium.
ScreenRant interviewed Steinkellner about the strange real-life event that eventually led to Are We Still Married?, the casting process for Milligan and Misiak (not to mention the friend whose perfect idea they were), and the equally incredible options to turn the project into a feature film or a television series.
What To Expect When Your Husband Is Bit By A Bat
ScreenRant: The origin for this short came from a conversation you had with your husband after he was bitten by a bat. How did it evolve from that moment to where we are now?
Kit Steinkellner: My husband was bitten by a bat 12 years ago, and we've been together for almost 20 years, so it was just one of the many crazy things that have happened to people who have been together for a couple of decades. I wasn't looking for something to do with it, but it existed as a story we told at parties sometimes.
About a year and a half ago, I knew I wanted to make something independently. I knew I wanted to direct, I knew we'd be doing it on a shoestring, and I knew that we'd probably be limited to one location, like a house. I thought, "How can a house feel cinematic? How can a house have real stakes and scope?" That's when this thing from 10-plus years ago rolled from the back of my brain to the front.
Being a writer-director is just keeping a thousand things in the back of your brain, and when the right moment arises, they roll to the front of your brain. Once the premise coalesced — I don't want to say it wrote itself, but it kind of did. Once I had my North Star of what I wanted to do, it was all laid out in a pretty straightforward fashion.
ScreenRant: Since the short is only 12 minutes long, you can't really spell out all the possible vampire lore in it. But did you have certain vampire universe rules in mind, and did you have an idea of which iterations of said lore were true in your story versus not?
Kit Steinkellner: I wanted to play by real, classic Dracula rules. God bless Stephanie Meyer for introducing sparkles to the Vampire verse, and God bless Kevin Williamson for introducing a ring you can put on and walk around during the day. I always appreciate the flip, but I thought the point of the premise and tone was to do something fairly fresh and new by setting a real, adult, grounded relationship drama in this world.
I wanted the vampire rules to be as recognizable as possible. I didn't want to get too deep in the weeds, so I just wanted to play by the rules that we all remember. No sunlight, you've got to be invited in, garlic is kind of touchy... I just wanted to keep it real, clean, and straight. I did love the idea of him walking by a mirror and not having a reflection, but there was never an opportunity to do it.
Casting Dustin Milligan & Taylor Misiak
ScreenRant: The casting is wonderful. As a , I was excited to see Dustin Milligan. He and Taylor Misiak are so good at toeing that line between comedy, drama, and romance. How early on did you have them in mind, or did they come after a series of fortunate accidents?
Kit Steinkellner: It was kind of a combination. I was so naive about independent filmmaking. I was like, "I'm going to write this in August and shoot it in October," and then we didn't shoot until March of the following year. It's really tricky to get everything to align!
But while Dustin and Taylor were very early ideas, I need to shout out my friend, Cara Rosenbaum, who's a casting director. She did not cast this, per se, but she acted as a consigliere. [Laughs] As a close friend of my Godfather family, she knows LA-adjacent actors like the back of her hand. I was like, "Cara, this is what I want to do. These are the guys." And she was like, "You should have Dustin Milligan. You should have Taylor Mishack. Just call their agents and shoot your shot." So, I really have to credit her.
This is the point of a casting director, be they official or just a friend: they have that encyclopedic knowledge and golden gut for actors. Because the minute she said both their names, I was like, "You're right, it should be Dustin. You're right, it should be Taylor."
ScreenRant: One touchstone that came back a couple of times was Jack insisting that he wouldn't hesitate to let Laura in if the roles were reversed. What does casting that doubt mean for them in that moment?
Kit Steinkellner: I think the interesting thing about being the writer-director here is that I have my version of it, but Dustin, as the actor who embodied the character, could have his own answer. And so would Taylor, as the person playing opposite him.
What I would say to that is I do think he's a wife guy. I think she is his North Star. His life is really based around her in ways that are both healthy and maybe a little codependent or unhealthy, and it's more than just an effective tactic or a strategy or something you can say that can really lay the guilt on the person who needs to let you in. I think he actually cannot imagine a world without Laura.
I do think Laura loves him deeply, and he's so important to her. But this night, for her, is about answering the question of, "Can I imagine a world without you?"
Are We Still Married? Has A Future, But The Details Are Unknown
ScreenRant: While the short serves as a complete story, it was in the TV Pilot competition at SXSW, and I can imagine endless possibilities for its continuation. Do you have plans? Are you hoping to expand it into a television series with this cast?
Kit Steinkellner: I've never had this experience before, where I create a piece while genuinely not knowing what Chapter 2 is. I'm like, "I know what Chapter 1 is, so let me write it. Let's make it and see what happens."
In the year that followed, I did write the feature version of it, which ended up on the Black List under a different title. I'm very proud of that accomplishment. But in order to have the conversation with SXSW, they did ask for a series bible or pitch deck, so I basically did all the legwork I would do to sell a television show. It's a little bit of two roads diverging! We are at a bit of crossroads, and we are exploring both options.
But when I go to sell a show, I will tell the buyer what the pilot's going to be if it hasn't been written, what the season's going to be, and then tee up what the series is going to be overall. That groundwork is set. But I don't know how this will turn out, and I love not knowing. It's the only time in my life I've approached a project not totally knowing what medium it belongs in, just giving both a shot and seeing where it lands.
ScreenRant: I think either one would be great, but I'm 100% like, "I can't wait to see what happens in the season 3 finale."
Kit Steinkellner: I think there is a lot to explore. There was an AMC executive who said that the engine of a television series is an impossible problem to solve, and every episode, you're trying to solve that impossible problem. If I think about all my favorite TV shows, there's always something really impossible at the heart of it.
And I do think this is an impossible problem. They're literally two different species, and they can't live with or without each other. It's impossible. So, I'm excited to figure out what the longer version of it is. I just don't know through what medium yet.
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