Began his career as a lab technician after high school and moved up through the ranks before emerging as an assistant director in 1924, confecting several comedy shorts before enlistining with MGM, where he assisted on such productions as "The Thin Man" (1934) , and "A Night At the Opera" (1935). At the behest of pal Buck Jones, Selander was promoted to feature director in 1936, helming a number of the cowboy star's latter oaters, in addition to a brace of Tim Holt and Hopalong Cassiday vehicles. He concococted numerous low budget actioners (mainly westerns) and TV episodes through the 1960s.