Richard Zelniker

A Montreal native based in Los Angeles, Richard Zelniker is an award-winning director, writer and producer who first became inspired by the movies when working at a neighborhood cinema as a teen. In the 90's, Zelniker lived in Toronto before moving to Los Angeles, where he began developing his own projects to direct. His acclaimed short, A Test Of Will, which he directed, produced and wrote, led to his award winning feature directorial debut, Fix, (aka, Menage A Trois), starring James Patrick Stuart and actor turned director, Burr Steers. Following his debut feature, Zelniker stepped away from the camera and spent the next several years working as a "script doctor". After seeing several of those scripts achieve success, he decided it was time to jump back into creating his own material with the goal to direct again. Richard's second feature as a director, As Night Comes, (starring Luke Baines and Myko Olivier and featuring Martin Kove of Cobra Kai) gained wide exposure and glowing reviews beginning with a limited theatrical release (played Laemmle's), followed by a wide VOD release, (Gravitas Ventures) and then the DVD release via Revolver Entertainment Group. Other Zelniker feature scripts ready for Richard to direct is the dark psycho thriller "Bright Midnight", and the teen high school thriller "BFF". Currently, Zelniker is preparing to direct the psychological horror/thriller "Don't Look There", being produced by horror filmmaker, Lucky McKee. Among the cast is Natalie Alyn Lind, Kenny Johnson and Kirk Acevedo. In recent news, Richard's romcom, Following Brendan, co-written with his wife, Callie was the Grand Prize winner in Stage 32's inaugural RomCom screenplay contest, April, 2022. Plus, you can see his recent music video, Gotta Go, released May, 2022 on YouTube. Meanwhile, over the past four years, Richard has directed and produced four award winning shorts, among them: Beckoned, a horror story, starring Ciara Hanna and David Mudge, Green Banana a quirky comedy and the drama/thriller, Unspoken, starring Michael Beach, Jamie McShane and Jeante Godlock. The films have garnered, to date, 27 awards and nominated 12 times.