Ry Russo-Young:
Ry Russo-Young grew up in downtown Manhattan. She attended Saint Ann's School where she studied photography and made her first 16mm film. Before graduating from Oberlin College in 2003, her 35mm short, BABES IN TOYLAND, was shown at the Torino Film Festival. Ry also studied drama at Yale and HB Studios as well as film production at New York University Tisch School of the Arts. In 2004, Ry was featured on the cover of The New York Times Magazine in an article about growing up with lesbian mothers. She and her family also appeared in OUR HOUSE, an award-winning PBS documentary about gay families.

Ry's short film, MARION, an homage to PSYCHO, won the Jury Award for Best Experimental Short at the 2006 SXSW Film Festival and at the 2005 Chicago International Film Festival. MARION recently won 1st prize at the Potenza Film Festival for Best Emerging Vision. The film has played at many festivals in 2006 including the Tribeca Film Festival.

In 2006, Ry produced and directed a series of short films about neighborhoods and landmarks in New York City for the Discovery Channel and www.Turnhere.com. RY appeared as Rocco in Joe Swanberg's new feature film, HANNAH TAKES THE STAIRS. Ry's first feature film, ORPHANS, won the special jury prize for narrative feature film at SXSW in 2007.