Richard Stark

Richard Stark is a writer and director, born and raised in Toronto, Canada. He earned his M.F.A. in film production at the prestigious USC film school in Los Angeles. Stark's had a passion for filmmaking since childhood, creating his first movie at age 11. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology at the University of Toronto. Stark has written and directed several award-winning shorts that have premiered in prestigious film festivals. He wrote and directed 30-Love, a short tennis comedy which won Best Short Film at the Montreal World Film Festival in 2013 and made its US premiere at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival. He's also the writer of the short drama Shamed (2013), starring Rekha Sharma (Battle Star Galactica, Smallville) and Beatrice King (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, 50/50) which premiered at the Athens International Film + Video Festival. Stark wrote the short film Afternoon Tea which made its world premiere at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, and for which he was nominated in 2012 for the Leo Award for Best Screenwriting in a Short Drama. Stark wrote and directed the short comedy An Innocent Family, for which he won Best Director at the Nevada International Film Festival (2012) and earned a nomination for Best Short Film at the Milan International Film Festival Awards in Italy (2012). Stark brings an extensive background in cinematography and editing to his work as a director. While at USC he won an unprecedented four independent cinematography scholarships for his work in the program. Stark was the director of photography on The Legend of Neil, an episodic web and TV series that aired on Comedy Central's Atom TV as well as MTV2, and for which he was nominated for the Streamy Award in Best Cinematography by The International Academy of Web Television. His editing work includes Adventures in Geocaching, which won Best Documentary at the Real to Reel film festival. He has cut numerous music videos including the Everybody music video, which featured Grammy award-winning hip hop artists Kanye West and Andre 3000, and was voted "Video of the Week" by iTunes. Stark is represented by The Characters.