Stephanie Donnelly (writer / director / Editor)
Stephanie Donnelly is a filmmaker from Long Island, NY. She received her M.F.A. in Writing/Directing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 2017. The Adventures of Penny Patterson was her thesis film. Her short films have screened at the Oscar-qualifying Palm Springs International Shortfest, the Cleveland International Film Festival, San Diego Comic-Con, and the Hollyshorts Monthly Screening Series, among many other festivals. She is a two-time Second Rounder in the Austin Film Festival Screenplay & Teleplay Competition and a four-time Graduate Screenplay Finalist in NYU’s female-focused Fusion Film Festival. Her teleplay based on The Adventures of Penny Patterson was a Semifinalist in the 2018 Screencraft Pilot Launch competition.
Stephanie received her B.A. in Film from Vassar College. She is currently based in Los Angeles, CA.
Ria Tobaccowala (Producer)
Ria Tobaccowala is an award winning Indian-American filmmaker from Chicago. Ria is a MFA film student at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Her short film, Life After was selected for several prestigious film festivals including Cleveland International, Florida Film Festival and Sarasota. The film also won best short fiction film at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival. Her newest short film, Freedom Shadow is in post-production. She is also developing an original TV show about women in tech.
Before graduate school, Ria began her career at Google. With a passion for storytelling and technology, she led the development of social web experiences and innovations using Google products with content partners, such as The New York Times, ESPN, Fox, NBC, The Food Network and Sony. Ria produced the 2015 YouTube interview with President Obama. She received her BA in Economics from Harvard University and MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.
Christopher Campbell-Orrock (Producer)
Christopher Campbell-Orrock is a Los Angeles based producer and dramaturg. He currently works at the television and film studio Media Res. Before moving to LA, Chris worked as a freelance director in New York City and as dramaturg to playwright Ayad Akhtar on projects for television and stage, including Junk (2018 Tony Award Nomination for Best Play.) Chris also directed and served as an Artistic Associate at both the Upstart Creatures and West of 10th theater companies.
Liam Donnelly (Executive Producer)
Liam Donnelly is a gay comic book writer/artist from Long Island, NY. He was first inspired to create female-focused comics after discovering Gail Simone’s “Women in Refrigerators” website in seventh grade. While a student at Wesleyan University, he wrote comic book reviews for The Wesleyan Argus, making a point to highlight comics that were created by and/or starred women. In 2011, he received the Darrel R. Lund Award for his artwork and the Bruce L. Dennis Creative Writing Award. He received honors for his senior thesis at Wesleyan, a graphic novel about campus rape culture, in 2015.
Reiana Essex-Simmons (Co-Producer)
Reiana Essex-Simmons is an activist and artist currently based in New Orleans, LA. Working primarily in the mediums of film and video, Reiana centers her work around marginalized communities that lack visibility, to portray narratives that are overlooked within mainstream media. Reiana is currently working on her thesis film Paris Noir for her MFA studies at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Felipe Vara de Rey (Director of Photography)
Felipe Vara de Rey is an award-winning director and cinematographer. Born in Madrid, Spain, he is currently developing his career in New York City, where he moved in 2011 to pursue NYU’s Graduate Film program. Over the last ten years, Felipe has directed and shot many projects, including feature films, documentaries, narrative shorts, music videos, electoral campaign ads, and commercials. The first feature documentary he worked on as a cinematographer, Cooking Up a Tribute, premiered at Berlinale 2015. Nosotros is his feature-length directorial debut. Felipe is a Fulbright Scholar, a recipient of the Steven J. Ross Fellowship, and he has been nominated for Arri’s “Volker Banhemann Award” for Excellence in Cinematography.
Kris Layng (Production Designer)
Kris Layng is a set designer, concept artist, and immersive experience director for virtual and augmented reality. He was nominated for an Art Director’s Guild Award for Maniac (Netflix), and he directed and co-created the VR film, Cave, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival 2019 in partnership with the NYU Future Reality Lab, Bose, and Google. He is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Cecilia Cholst (Costume Designer)
Cecilia Cholst graduated from SUNY Fashion Institute of Technology in 2014 with a degree in fashion design and plenty of costume design experience under her belt already. She has designed costumes for dance and film, including the New York Theatre Ballet. She is currently designing a bridesmaid line called Bow and Knot. Her favorite superheroes are Wonder Woman and Sailor Moon.
Ben Muller (Composer)
Ben Muller is a composer, songwriter, keyboardist, and saxophonist based out of Brooklyn, NY. His work has been showcased in the Movement Research Festival, the Newark International Film Festival, the SheNYC Theatre Festival, and the LA New Wave Film Festival, among others. He is a member of the folk-rock group The New Rockwells. He is currently pursuing a Masters in Scoring for Film/Multimedia at NYU Steinhardt.
Allison Twardziak (Casting Director)
Allison Twardziak is a New York based casting director. She recently cast The Oculus Emmy Award winning VR Short Film Henry, the SXSW Grand Jury Prize winner Fort Tilden, the Berlinale, New Directors/New Films feature She’s Lost Control, the Sundance features Appropriate Behavior, and My Best Day, The Slamdance feature Faith Love and Whiskey, the Woodstock feature Bastards of Young, Outfest’s Lyle starring Gaby Hoffman, the web series F to 7th, The Dog starring James Franco, Chloe Sevigny, Whoopi Goldberg, Logan Marshall-Green and Olivia Wilde. Recent features include Fits and Starts with Wyatt Cenac and Greta Lee which premiered at SXSW, March 2017, Lemon and The Fost Portfolio premiered at Tribeca Films and she just finished casting MGM & Eko’s upcoming Interacting Series WarGames, today’s version of the 80’s classic. Her next project will be casting Tim Sutton’s 5th feature Funny Face. Allison has cast over 40 shorts which premiered at Cannes, Sundance, SXSW and the Clermont Film Festival. In addition to her film projects, Allison works independently on commercials (On camera, VO and real people casting). She holds a B.F.A. from New York University, studying with the Atlantic Theater Company.
Alicia Rodis (Stunt Coordinator)
Alicia Rodis is a coordinator, stunt performer, intimacy director, and actor here in New York City. She hails from Cleveland, OH and moved to New York ten years ago. You can see her work on Elementary (ABC), Boardwalk Empire (HBO), Over My Dead Body (Discovery ID), Block Island (Feature), and a number of shorts. She is also a founding member of Intimacy Directors International, where she is a director and advocate for safe and dynamic scenes of intimacy in stage and screen. She had a phenomenal time working with the cast and crew of Penny Patterson.
Eli Cohn (Sound Designer / Re-recording Mixer)
Eli Cohn is a Brooklyn based sound designer and re-recording mixer. Over the last decade he has collaborated with many of independent film’s leading voices. Recent work includes Shaul Schwarz & Christina Clusiau's Trophy, and Andrew Dosunmu’s Where is Kyra?
Hadrien Royo (Colorist)
Hadrien is a French filmmaker born in Paris. After graduating from law school in his country, he was chosen as a recipient for the Carla-Bruni Sarkozy Foundation Fellowship, funded by John A. Paulson and moved to New York City as an artist in residence. As he is now finishing his MFA in Filmmaking at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, he is also starting his post-production and color grading company, Afterimage.
Daniel Heffernan (Visual Effects)
Sometimes referred to as the Leatherman or Multi-tool of Post, Danny started his career working as a Studio Assistant in an Audio Post facility. After honing his aural skills, he landed an Audio Engineer position focusing on sound design, editing, and mixing. Amongst his audio credits are animated series such as Super Jail, Ugly Americans, and The Venture Bros. Short format television like Inside Amy Schumer. Plus feature films and documentaries alike, including The Skeleton Twins and I Am Big Bird. In most recent years, however, Danny’s deep interest in all sides of post production drove him to immerse himself into the video world, exploring the art of editing and graphics. His unmatchable work ethic, attention to detail, and exceptional people skills made him a valuable asset as a Video Editor at Great City Post, where he formerly worked before leaving for his dream job as a New York City Firefighter. He now works freelance and continues to dabble in both Audio and Video.
Alik Barsoumian (Still Photographer)
Alik Barsoumian is an independent filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY and Los Angeles, CA. She received her MFA in Filmmaking from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Lydia Chammas (Still Photographer)
Lydia is a writer/director based in New York where she is working toward her MFA in the Graduate Film Program at NYU. In addition to her own work, Lydia advises other writers and filmmakers at the script stage, as well as in the edit room. She also spends much of her time mentoring kids in screenwriting and storytelling. At present, she is developing a feature script slated for production in 2018.
