Our Crew
Stephanie Bencin, Director
Stephanie Bencin got her start doing sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Her writing has been featured in Vulture and McSweeneys. She was an Official Artist at the New York Television Festival for her pilots Sliding Dorks and Age Appropriate, and was a semifinalist for the Nicholl Fellowship with her screenplay Safe Space.
She has been the archival producer on several documentaries and series, including Black Art: In the Absence of Light and ESPN’s The Captain. She lives in Brooklyn with her daughter and husband.
(Photo credit: Joshua Leeman / @jhl88)
Tony Akio Cohen, Producer
Tony is a comedy screenwriter / director and a graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU with a BFA in Film and Television. He has worked with brands such as but not limited to Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, The Paramount Network, TVLand, Dole and Liberty Mutual Insurance. His personal comedic work has appeared in the Huffington Post, Vulture, Funny or Die, and Just For Laughs. His screenplays have placed in the Nicholl Fellowship, The Tracking B TV Pilot contest, the Page Screenwriting Awards and the Austin Film Festival. He loves coffee and doughnuts, has been frightened many times by raccoons and told repeatedly that his eating habits will result in an early death.
Matt Antonucci, Director of Photography
Matt Antonucci, is a freelance, digital artist based out of Brooklyn, NY. He started his career in advertising and product management. In my early 20’s, he started performing sketch and improv comedy at the Magnet Theater, and through those interests discovered shooting comedy videos. In 2017, he pivoted to being a full-time videographer/filmmaker and have since worked with brands such as GE, TikTok, Casper, OkCupid, and Reductress. Past acting credits include an episode of Slime Time Live (Nickelodeon) from 1999.
Mary Marxen, Production Designer
Mary is a production designer for film and commercials. Clients include TikTok, ESPN,and Mastercard. Brownsville Bred, a short film Mary production designed will be debuting at SXSW 2022. She is also an experimental filmmaker--combining her love of visual arts, music, dance, and performing. Her short film, “Mirrors,” was featured in seven film festivals. Her most recent film, “YEN,” premiered at the Sydney Square Dance Festival and will be released later this year.
Lawrence Kim, Composer
Lawrence Kim is a musician and sound artist who lives in New York. He is the guitarist and principal songwriter in Scam Avenue, who released their critically-acclaimed debut album, Scam Avenue, last year. He started out as a member of seminal Scottish indie popsters BMX Bandits (Kurt Cobain: “If I could be in any other band in the world, it would be BMX Bandits”) and appears on their album Theme Park, produced by legendary industry psycho Kim Fowley. He has also played with pop threat Ryn Weaver, experimental musician Lia Mice, and indie stalwarts Easy Lover. Recently, Lawrence has been focusing on his own synth-tinged instrumental music. His latest EP, Santee, will be released this spring.
Courtney DeStefano, Editor
Courtney grew up in a small town where she spent hours devouring old movies. She got her BFA in film from NYU and went on to have a 12-year career as an editor. She’s spent the last several years dividing her time between chasing after her three young sons and hiding in her home office to write. She is especially interested in highlighting the voices of female and queer characters.
Lauren Harms, Greeting Card Designer
Lauren is a graphic designer and art director with 10 years of experience in book publishing. Having worked with self-published authors, independent presses, and in-house at the Big 5. Born and raised in Kansas, she migrated east to attend Syracuse University where she earned a BFA in Communications Design and a minor from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. She then moved to NYC, beginning her career at Macmillan, and has been at Little, Brown and Co. since 2013. After spending nearly a decade in NYC, Lauren migrated back west, this time to the stunning landscapes of New Mexico where she is currently based as a freelance designer and art director.
She is the co-founder of Next Chapter Studio, a design and print shop that specializes in Risograph printing, creating greeting cards and art prints.