Andrew Gernhard

Having grown up with a love for creative, genre bending television and films, such as Doctor Who and Ghostbusters, Andrew Gernhard took his love for fantastical, out-of-the-box storytelling, and turned it into a successful producing career spanning nearly two decades, creating dozens of high concept, yet mainstream accessible films of all genres. Upon graduating from Southern Connecticut State University with a Communication degree, Andrew immediately began working in the video production field, while also producing his first feature film, Trees. A tongue-in-cheek, loving homage to Steven Spielberg's seminal thriller, Jaws, Trees quickly gained a cult following for its irreverent humor amongst B-movie fans. He followed Trees up with a more ambitious, effects driven sequel, The Root of all Evil, which led to him forming the production company, Synthetic Cinema International, the following year. Taking advantage of the then burgeoning straight-to-video DVD market, Synthetic Cinema produced a series of economical horror films. During a time when the horror genre was saturated with Eastern inspired ghost films, and bleak torture movies, Synthetic Cinema's brand of fast paced and fun creature features stood out in the crowd, and quickly gained the attention of NBCUniversal's then brand new horror network, Chiller Network. Sensing the waning interest in the home video market, Andrew began producing original films for Chiller Network through Synthetic Cinema. Partnering with popular comic book writer Steve Niles, best known for 30 Days of Night, he produced an adaptation of Niles' zombie graphic novel, Remains, for the network. Starring Grant Bowler and Lance Reddick, Remains was the flagship film for Chiller, and instant ratings hit. The success led to Synthetic Cinema producing half a dozen original films for the network, including Animal, a co-production with Drew Barrymore's Flower Films starring Joey Lauren Adams and rapper Eve. In 2014, Andrew reached out to a former teacher from his high school, turned New York Times Best Selling Author, Wally Lamb, to produce a feature film adaptation of his popular novel Wishin' and Hopin' for the Lifetime Network. The project quickly gained momentum as an all-star cast signed on, including Molly Ringwald, Cheri Oteri , Meatloaf, and Chevy Chase amongst others. The film, a nostalgic coming of age Christmas film, was praised by critics and audiences alike, and has become a yearly holiday tradition for many families. Synthetic Cinema International has continued to grow and thrive, producing numerous feature films a year in Andrew's home state of Connecticut, often employing local crew members and aiding in creating a close-knit film community. Every movie has gone on to secure distribution in numerous territories across the world, making Synthetic Cinema a go-to production house for high quality, universally enjoyable feature films. Over the recent years, Synthetic Cinema has expanded production to international projects and has created strong working relationships with many prolific executive producers, major studios and networks such as Netflix, NBCUniversal, SyFy, Telemundo, Lifetime, Hallmark, BET and others.