Congratulations to Director/ Casting Director Risa Bramon Garcia one of the Lady Filmmakers Extaordinary Women of 2014! She will receive the Illumination Award highlighting her amazing career!
Risa Bramon Garcia For the past 35 years, Risa has worked consistently as a director, producer, casting director, writer, and teacher. She HAS had the great fortune to have collaborated with some of the most talented, passionate and groundbreaking artists in the world. She’s been able to move from one arena to another – from theatre to film to television and back – and is actively exploring new media.
With two feature films in her directorial body of work – the cult classic, 200 Cigarettes, and most recently,The Con Artist, made in Canada and released in 2011, Risa’s also directed for television, including multiple episodes of The Twilight Zone for New Line/UPN, and shows for HBO, Lifetime and Comedy Central.
She’s directed dozens of plays in New York (THE ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE, THE SECOND STAGE, MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB) and in Los Angeles. She calls THE ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE her artistic home, where she’s been a member for over 30 years, producing and directing six years of the flagship festival MARATHON OF ONE-ACT PLAYS. In L.A. Risa founded and produced ACT ONE, a successful two-year festival of one-acts, in collaboration with Showtime Networks. And as a founding Artistic Director of ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE’S L.A. PROJECT – now E.S.T. LA – Risa worked with HBO, producing and directing a series of acclaimed one-acts for THE ASPEN COMEDY ARTS FESTIVAL. In her long association with HBO, starting in 1981 as a talent scout for comedians, Risa co-produced two years of THE YOUNG COMEDIANS shows for the network. She was also a producer with THE CARSEY WERNER COMPANY.
Risa started casting in the NY as part of her extensive theatre life. From there Risa and her partner, Billy Hopkins, took their first step into feature film casting with Desperately Seeking Susan. They worked as a team for 11 years. During and after their successful partnership, Risa cast some of the most memorable films of the past 25 years.
Risa’s résumé includes more than 65 feature films, classics such as Something Wild, At Close Range, Angel Heart, Fatal Attraction, Wall Street, Talk Radio, Jacob’s Ladder, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, The Doors, Sneakers, The Joy Luck Club, True Romance,Speed, How To Make An American Quilt, Dead Presidents, Twister, Benny and Joon, andFlirting With Disaster.
She’s cast numerous television shows and pilots, including Roseanne and CSI:NY. She is currently casting the Showtime series, Masters of Sex.
Risa served as a Producer on Oliver Stone’s films Heaven and Earth and Natural Born Killers, movies she also cast.
In the past few years Risa’s passion for teaching and coaching has become a serious concentration and she’s had great success in her work with actors and directors around the world. She’s partnered with Steve Braun in The BGB Studio, dedicated to revolutionary acting training.
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CLIFF DORFMAN
Award Presenter at Gatsby Awards & Gala Cliff Dorfman is an American screenwriter, producer best known for his work on HBO's Entourage, the 2011 Academy Award Nominated feature film Warrior, and the upcoming film, The Crow, starring Luke Evans set to start lensing in early 2015 as well as returning as a teacher for season two of the show Dream School, Executive Produced by Curtis 50 Cent Jackson, premiering on Sundance Channel Wednesday, October 1st. As a screenwriter for Entourage, Dorfman was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for the 2005 episode "My Maserati Does 185" and was named one of the Ten Writers To Watch by The Hollywood Reporter. An earlier script written by Dorfman, Five Towns, became the basis for Johnny Drama's fictional TV show of the same name. In 2007, Dorfman co-wrote a comic for DC Comics called The Watchdogs and the Sega video game Full Auto 2: Battlelines. In addition, he consulted on EA Games' Dead Space and wrote a column for Los Angeles Confidential magazine, "Cliff's Notes." He also served as an instructor with the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. He currently has a first look deal at Relativity Studios, is writing a new film for Screen Gems, a pilot for Universal that he’s partnered with Gale Ann Hurd (Valhalla Entertainment) on as well as producing a mini series on Harriet Tubman .. |
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Speaker on the Script to Screen TV
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