Photo by Robin Roemer
Carly Usdin is an award-winning director, writer, producer and editor. She began her career in New York at Viacom Media Networks, where she created award-winning promo campaigns for RuPaul’s Drag Race and produced an on-air music series called NewNowNext, interviewing nearly 200 artists.
Primarily crafting short-form content, her freelance clients include Funny or Die, CollegeHumor, Amy Poehler's Smart Girls, World of Wonder, CBS, Fullscreen, Portal A, Astronauts Wanted, New Form, TruTV, Viacom and YouTube. She spent most of 2014 producing and directing YouTube Nation (the official daily show of YouTube), a joint venture from Google and DreamWorks Animation. In 2015 she and her best friend/co-producer Cesar Hawas produced a live event series with the Theatre at Ace Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles called Le Bal.
In 2016 Carly’s first feature, the no-budget indie Suicide Kale, won the Audience Award for Best First Feature at Outfest and is now available on iTunes, Vimeo, Seed&Spark and Amazon Prime.
Carly has done branded work for clients including Absolut Vodka, Buick, Cadillac, Chase, Garnier, Hershey’s, Lionsgate, L’Oreal, Microsoft, Orbitz, Smashbox, Southwest Airlines, Stride and Verizon. Awards and honors include a One Show Entertainment Award, several Promax BDA Awards, a CTAM Mark Award, a few Creativity Media and Interactive Awards, and a spot in the 53rd Communication Arts Awards Design Annual.
2017 saw the release of Carly’s first comic book series, Heavy Vinyl, from Boom! Studios. She also served as showrunner and director of the digital anthology series Threads, now streaming on Verizon’s go90 platform. Currently she is developing several projects through her production company Scheme Machine Studios, which she owns with her wife, photographer and producer Robin Roemer. She's also been selected for the prestigious AFI Directing Workshop for Women, class of 2019. Carly is based in Los Angeles and is a proud member of Film Fatales and the Academy of Magical Arts.