Director’s Statement:

In April 2024, I owed money to the United States government for my taxes. An almost, kind-of, what-you'd-call struggling independent filmmaker in New York City owed even more money. Great. So, what did I do? I wrote about it... and then spent even more (after paying the IRS, of course) to make a movie about the absurdity of hustling for work in the creative world.

So, we shot the short in August 2024, finished it at the beginning of 2025, and then toured the film festival trail, starting at Academy Award-Qualifying Indy Shorts in July 2025 and ending our run in June 2026 at the Academy Award-Qualifying deadCenter Film Festival, where the film was also highlighted in a filmmaker panel I spoke on about personal storytelling.

During all that time, we continued to spread the word about the short while I wrote, re-wrote, and then re-wrote again the feature screenplay that follows Anne as she continues to lie and lie as she gets closer to achieving her dreams.

In September of 2026, we launched the film on the short film streaming service PREVO, where the initial push for 'The Actor' really picked up some steam on their socials.

With PREVO's posts about the short reaching 110K+ views across socials, a festival circuit that helped us reach audiences from New York to Serbia, and unwavering dedication to get this story's message out to fellow creatives and those who work 9-to-5s, we've been humbled by the reception.

Throughout the making of this short, I kept telling the crew: ‘The Actor’ is dedicated to us, the hustlers, freelancers, actors, writers, and job-to-job creatives. While that message seemed to stick with us on set, it's meant a lot that it also struck a chord with those who took the time to watch ‘The Actor,’ whether at a film festival or online.

While I hope 'The Actor' makes you laugh, know that its comedy, situations, and characters come from a very real place.