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Talkhouse

Max Rissman’s debut feature, the supernatural romance <a href="https://www.uponwakingfilm.com/home" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upon Waking</a>, is out February 14. Ever since he was four years old, when he forced his parents to watch and subsequently act out The Wizard of Oz with him nightly, he has been captivated by the power of stories to transform the mundane into the magical. After attending college at Washington University in St. Louis and completing New York University’s MFA program in filmmaking, he followed the yellow brick road to Los Angeles, where he has been creating stories about characters coming of age and embarking on journeys of self-discovery. His web series Root for the Villain was an official selection of the 2018 Austin Film Festival, and his feature screenplay Hit Me Harder was featured on the 2020 GLAAD List.

Max Rissman

Film

Sometimes You Can Jump From a 10-Story Building and Land in a Thimble

Your favorite musicians, filmmakers, and other creative minds one-on-one. No moderator, no script, no typical questions. The Talkhouse Podcast offers unique insights into creative work from all genres and generations. <a href="https://pod.link/Talkhouse" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Subscribe now</a>, and explore more illuminating shows on the <a href="https://talkhouse.com/category/podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Talkhouse Podcast Network.</a>

Talkhouse Podcast

Matt Walsh is a two-time Emmy-nominated actor from HBO’s award-winning comedy series Veep. He can currently be seen in the comedy Unplugging, which he produced, co-wrote and stars in opposite Eva Longoria. He is one of the UCB 4, the founding members of the famed national improv-sketch comedy theatre Upright Citizens Brigade. In addition to his film and TV work, Walsh is a charitable founder with his wife Morgan of Gender Nation, which puts LGBTQ-affirming books in elementary schools around the country, and also organizes the Turkey Bird Classic, an annual golf charity tournament which benefits Defy Ventures, an organization helping formerly incarcerated people “transform their hustle,” teaching them life skills, providing education and mentorship that gives them a second chance. Walsh currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife Morgan Walsh and their three children.

Matt Walsh

Academy Award-nominated actor Haley Joel Osment has been one of Hollywood’s most versatile performers over the last 25 years. Ranging from dark, dramatic roles to off-the-wall comedic performances across film, television, and the stage, Osment has proven time and again why he is one of show business&#8217; treasures. His latest film is Bad Therapy, also starring Alicia Silverstone, Rob Corddry and Michaela Watkins, which is now available on VOD. Other recent projects include the Hulu science fiction comedy Future Man, Seth Rogen&#8217;s Amazon series The Boys, the true crime thriller Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile starring Zac Efron as Ted Bundy, and Bridey Elliot’s comedy drama Clara’s Ghost. Osment’s other recent television appearances have included Silicon Valley, for which he received rave reviews as VR entrepreneur Keenan Feldspar, and a special episode of The X-Files in which he played a chilling dual role.

Haley Joel Osment

Podcast

Haley Joel Osment Talks with Matt Walsh on the Talkhouse Podcast

Jerry Lieblich is a playwright, and the founder and lead artist of Third Ear Theater Co. Their plays include Mahinerator (The Tank), The Barbarians (La Mama), D Deb Debbie Deborah (Clubbed Thumb), Tongue Depressor (The Public Theatre/Brooklyn College), Nostalgia is a Mild Form of Grief (developed with Playwrights Horizons, Vineyard Theater, Page 73), Ghost Stories (Cloud City), Your Hair Looked Great (Abrons Arts Center), A Discourse on the Method… (Ensemble Studio Theatre), and Everything for Dawn (Experiments in Opera). Their poetry has appeared in Foglifter, Second Factory, TAB, Grist, SOLAR, Pomona Valley Review, Cold Mountain Review, and Works and Days. Their poetry collection otherwise, without was a finalist for The National Poetry Series.
(Photo Credit: Lizzie Fox)

Jerry Lieblich

How Can This Moment Be As Alive As Possible?

Michaela Watkins can currently be seen playing the title character in the comedy drama Suze, out now in theaters. She was recently seen in the movies Paint, with Owen Wilson, Nicole Holofcener’s You Hurt My Feelings, starring Julia-Louis Dreyfus, and in the mini series Tiny Beautiful Things, opposite Kathryn Hahn, and The Dropout, starring Amanda Seyfried. She famously played the lead role in Hulu’s Casual and her other TV credits include The Unicorn, Catastrophe, Search Party, Get Shorty, Wet Hot American Summer, Transparent, Veep, Enlightened, Modern Family, Children&#8217;s Hospital, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Key and Peele, The Kroll Show and Drunk History. Her indie film credits include Lake Bell&#8217;s In a World; Joey Soloway’s Afternoon Delight; Brigsby Bear, opposite Kyle Mooney and Greg Kinnear; Brittany Runs a Marathon with Jillian Bell; The Way Back, opposite Ben Affleck; and Wanderlust, opposite Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd. (Photo by Catie Laffoon.)

Michaela Watkins

Three Great Things: Michaela Watkins

Tzvi is a writer director from NYC. His debut feature film, Killer of Men, made on a $10,000 budget, premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival, which Eric Kohn hailed as &#8220;one of the best debuts of 2024&#8221; and Oscar-nominated director Ramin Bahrani said &#8220;Tzvi has created the definition of low-budget auteur cinema.&#8221; Filmmaker magazine called it &#8220;an eerily austere serial killer drama, with a (possible) science fiction twist.&#8221; In his free time, Tzvi writes short fiction, essays on cinema, and runs the monthly screening series Film Underground, focused on democratizing cinema. He can be found on Instagram <a href="http://instagram.com/tzvi_shadowplayfilms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@tzvi_shadowplayfilms</a>.

Tzvi

Time Stop

Julia Marchese is a filmmaker, actor, podcaster, cinephile and film programmer living in Hollywood, California. Her first film was the award-winning documentary Out of Print, about the importance of revival cinema and 35 mm exhibition to culture, and she is currently the co-host of the popular horror podcast Horror Movie Survival Guide. She recently crowdfunded on <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/i-know-what-you-need-a-stephen-king-adaptation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IndieGoGo</a> for her forthcoming Dollar Baby short film I Know What You Need, based on Stephen King&#8217;s story of the same name from Night Shift. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @juliacmarchese.

Julia Marchese

My Semester at Shermer High School

Gabby Kono-Abdy produced and costars in the romantic drama <a href="https://www.lionsgate.com/movies/wish-you-were-here" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wish You Were Here</a>, the directorial debut of Julia Stiles starring Mena Massoud, Isabelle Fuhrman and Kelsey Grammer, which is out now through Lionsgate. She is a bicoastal actress who has appeared in series such as Law &amp; Order: SVU, iCarly and Big Time Rush and has roles in such movies as Nighthawks, opposite Chace Crawford, and Agent Game, starring Mel Gibson and Dermot Mulroney. Gabby was the star and lead producer of Baker’s Dozen, a romantic comedic mini-series that premiered on Amazon Prime, and currently is working on several other producing projects with Universal, Lionsgate, and several independent production companies. Gabby recently publicly launched her production company, Little Fishy Films, which has optioned the rights to several bestselling novels and scripts, where various projects are currently in development. Gabby’s mission is to unearth the amazing books and authors who are currently flying under the radar. (Photo by Emma Silke.)

Gabby Kono-Abdy

From New Girl to Bookworm: How High School Loneliness Sparked My Love for Storytelling

Justin Martell and Matt Manjourides were producers on Fangoria&#8217;s Castle Freak with Seager Dixon serving as Unit Production Manager. Their company Not the Funeral Home produced <a href="https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/frontpage/products/street-trash-2024" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Street Trash</a> in South Africa, which is now available on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome, and produces The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs, which is currently in its seventh season on Shudder. The latest Not the Funeral Home film, Black Eyed Susan, is available for pre-order from Vinegar Syndrome <a href="https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/black-eyed-susan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Justin Martell, Matt Manjourides and Seager Dixon

How A Group of “Dumb Americans” Made One of the First Ever Horror Movies Shot in Albania

Julia Stiles’ feature directorial debut, <a href="https://www.lionsgate.com/movies/wish-you-were-here" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wish You Were Here</a>, is out now in theaters through Lionsgate. Called “one of the most fearless and talented actresses in Hollywood” by the Los Angeles Times, SAG, Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Stiles starred in the 2019 film Hustlers alongside Jennifer Lopez, Lili Reinhart, Constance Wu and Cardi B. In 2011, Stiles received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her work on Dexter, opposite Michael C. Hall. She has played iconic roles in films such 10 Things I Hate About You, Save the Last Dance, Mona Lisa Smile and the Bourne franchise alongside Matt Damon. Additional credits include Silver Linings Playbook, State &amp; Main, Hamlet and O. Stiles starred in the Hulu web series Blue for the WIGS network, with whom she teamed to create the web series Paloma, which she wrote and directed for two seasons. Stiles also wrote and directed the short film Raving, starring Zooey Deschanel, for Elle magazine’s film series, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and on the Sundance Channel. She is a graduate of Columbia University. (Photo courtesy Lionsgate.)

Julia Stiles

Best of 2024: Julia Stiles (Wish You Were Here) on Nightbitch

Sasha Rainbow is an award-winning New Zealand-born director whose new body horror Grafted is now streaming on Shudder. Her documentary Kamali, about a seven-year-old Indian girl skateboarder, was long listed for an Oscar, nominated for a BAFTA and was distributed through RYOT films. Sasha has been a mentee of the British Film Institute X British Academy of Film and Television mentorship since 2018 and attended the renowned Yaddo artists residency in 2019. In 2021, Sasha was selected as one of eight women for the Women in Film multi-hyphenate mentorship scheme in Los Angeles. Sasha is developing several feature-length scripted films, including BETA, a female lead sci-fi set in the Bay Area.

Sasha Rainbow

How I Lost My Face

Summer Shelton was the recipient of the 2018 Independent Spirit Producers Award. Her directorial debut,<a href="https://www.summershelton.com/films/project-one-youandithemovie" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> You &amp; I</a>, which she also wrote, produced and co-starred in opposite Clayne Crawford, is now available on digital. She produced the acclaimed films Maine, Keep the Change, People Places Things and Little Accidents, and is a frequent collaborator of Ramin Bahrani, including working as associate producer on his features Goodbye Solo and At Any Price. She was the recipient of the inaugural Bingham Ray Creative Producing Fellowship, awarded by the Sundance Institute (2012), a Rotterdam Producing Fellowship (2013), Film Independent Sloan Producing Fellowship (2014) and Cannes Producing Fellowship (2021) awarded by the Gotham.

Summer Shelton

On Losing It All and Gaining Back My Voice

Jim McKay is a filmmaker and co-founder, along with Michael Stipe, of C-Hundred Film Corp. McKay broke through with his debut feature, Girls Town (1996), the landmark Sundance-winning drama which is now in theaters in a <a href="https://www.filmmovement.com/girls-town" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new 4K restoration</a>. His other directorial features include Our Song (2000), Everyday People (2004), Angel Rodriguez (2005) and En El Septimo Dia (2017). He has produced and directed a full-length documentary, Lighthearted Nation; a feature-length concert film, R.E.M.’s Tourfilm; numerous music videos; and an award-winning series of public service announcements called Direct Effect. McKay has also directed numerous TV shows, including The Wire, Big Love, Law and Order, In Treatment, Treme, Mr Robot, The Americans, The Good Wife, Breaking Bad, Rectify and Better Call Saul. Visit <a href="https://jimmckayfilm.com/">jimmckayfilm.com</a> for more info.
Anna Grace is an actor, writer, and environmental lawyer. She is known for her work on Girls Town and has received grants and awards for her writing, including a New York Foundation for the Arts Award in Fiction. She was a trial attorney in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice enforcing federal environmental laws from 2014 to 2021. More recently, she served as senior counsel and legal strategist for an environmental response trustee responsible for remediating and revitalizing contaminated sites across the United States.