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Hey, I'm Carly!
Los Angeles, California
Carly Usdin is an award-winning filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Her first feature, Suicide Kale, won the Audience Award for Best First Feature at Outfest 2016. After playing over 30 festivals worldwide the film is now available on iTunes, Vimeo, Amazon Prime & right here on Seed&Spark! In 2017 Carly served as showrunner and director for the scripted series Threads, produced by New Form for Verizon’s go90 platform. The 20-episode horror and comedy anthology series brought to life outrageous stories from internet forums like Reddit.
Carly is also the creator and writer of two comic book series for BOOM! Studios: Heavy Vinyl and The Avant-Guards. Heavy Vinyl was nominated for a 2018 Prism award, honoring the best in LGBTQAI+ comics.
Carly has spent years making short-form narrative and branded content for clients like Funny or Die, CollegeHumor, Amy Poehler's Smart Girls, World of Wonder, CBS, Fullscreen, Astronauts Wanted, Portal A, TruTV, Viacom and YouTube. Most notably, she directed the third season of Awkwafina’s digital series Tawk. Her promo campaigns for RuPaul’s Drag Race have won One Show Awards and Promax BDA Awards.
Carly has recently completed post-production on her short film Misdirection, created as part of the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women, class of 2019. Currently she is developing several projects through her production company Scheme Machine Studios, which she owns with her wife, photographer and producer Robin Roemer.
My Projects
Projects I'm Supporting

Incurable
New York City, New York• Film Short
Drama, Romantic Comedy
Incurable: a journey of love, rejection, and an overactive imagination.
This project got the green light!

Oniphron
Portland, Oregon• Film Feature
Drama, Fantasy
A tale about a homeless immortal woman taken in by a Portlander.
This project got the green light!

White Crow
Los Angeles, California• Film Feature
Mystery, Thriller
A sickly young woman's life unravels when she receives a heart transplant and begins to take on her donor's personality traits.
This project got the green light!

Endless Light
Fairbanks, Alaska• Film Feature
Drama, Sci-Fi
Returning home, a bipolar woman attempts to decipher her brother's suicide through occult intervention with Alaska's wilderness.
This project got the green light!

Brown With Blue
Atlanta, Georgia• Film Short
Drama, Romance
A handyman & his girlfriend struggle with substance abuse to cope with their problems.
This project got the green light!

Passion & Progress
Lakeland, Florida• Series
Documentary
When people of color set out an ambitious goal to reach their highest potential, only to be faced with societal barriers.
This project got the green light!
The Vth Column
Los Angeles, California• Series
Horror, Sci-Fi
Horror/Scifi series. Episode 1. A couple flees from a stranger, who refused to let them out of his car, after hitching a ride.
This project got the green light!
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STiGMA
Atlanta, Georgia• Series
Drama
As Senator Ingram stares down an easy reelection, things become unstable when he is diagnosed with a mental illness.
This project got the green light!

I Friggin Love you
Los Angeles, California• Series
Drama, Romantic Comedy
Love can make you or break you.
This project got the green light!
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MISGUIDED - The Series
Los Angeles, California• Series
Drama, LGBTQ
All Paul wanted to be was an actor on Guiding Light, but when the 72-year-old soap opera was canceled, his life got a little misguided.
This project got the green light!

PURE
Los Angeles, California• Series
Adventure, Sci-Fi
A warrior and her unlikely ally journey to the Annex, escape the Dissension and face sacrifice in a genetically divided future.
This project got the green light!

End of Summer
Los Angeles, California• Film Short
Family, LGBTQ
En route to their daughter’s College Move-In Day, a family’s car ride takes an unexpected turn when the father is struck by a heart attack.
This project got the green light!

Deserters
New York City, New York• Film Short
Drama
At an engagement celebration, an ex-nihilo woman confronts the boundaries of loyalty when her affluent in-laws' secrets come to light.
This project got the green light!

Sinked Up
Los Angeles, California• Film Short
Comedy, LGBTQ
Two women started as roommates. Then they fell in love. A story told from behind the bathroom door.
This project got the green light!

Shedding - a feature film
Los Angeles, California• Film Feature
Drama, Fantasy
A cat who longs to explore the outside world transforms into a human and helps heal a broken family.
This project got the green light!

Displaced
New York City, New York• Film Feature
Horror
A young black man in Brooklyn must prove his new white neighbors are emissaries from the Satanic cult they both survived as children.
This project got the green light!

SPIN - a short film
Los Angeles, California• Film Short
Action, Drama
When a once-optimistic college color guard captain must work as a sign spinner to make ends meet, she's forced to reconsider her life plan.
This project got the green light!

Rendezvous in Chicago: Three Tales of Love in the Windy City
Chicago, Illinois• Film Feature
Drama, Romantic Comedy
RENDEZVOUS IN CHICAGO is a short comedic feature comprised of three vignettes, each corresponding to the different phases of a relationship.
This project got the green light!

Ring is now STALLED
Los Angeles, California• Film Short
Comedy, Romantic Comedy
Two strangers on dates from hell bond in the women's bathroom over their issues with love.
This project got the green light!

Skater
Los Angeles, California• Film Short
Drama, Shorts Program
A 13 year old competitive figure skater who suffers from severe anxiety is possessed by the spirit of her skating idol.
This project got the green light!

Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema
New York City, New York• Film Festival
Film-related Business, Shorts Program
Show us your film. We'll show you success.
This project got the green light!

Pozole
Los Angeles, California• Film Short
Comedy, Drama
Maia prolly killed her Nana.
This project got the green light!

Straight Up
Los Angeles, California• Film Feature
LGBTQ, Romantic Comedy
A romantic comedy-drama about intellectual soul mates. He might be gay. She might not care.
This project got the green light!

Nun Habits Series
New York City, New York• Series
Comedy, LGBTQ
A weed-smoking nun befriends a gay high school senior. Together, they reconcile their personal beliefs with the teachings of the Church.
This project got the green light!

Choke
Los Angeles, California• Film Short
Drama, Action
A rising MMA star hides her refugee status from her small American town, and the world.
This project got the green light!

2 WEEKS
New York City, New York• Film Short
Drama, Horror
2 WEEKS accompanies Tanya as she explores what it means to be asexual in a committed relationship and an actor in a “sex sells” world.
This project got the green light!

Misdirection: a short film
Los Angeles, California• Film Short
LGBTQ, Comedy
A college freshman falls in love with close-up magic as an escape from her unrequited crush on her roommate and her undiagnosed OCD.
This project got the green light!
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Pretty Dudes - Season Two
Los Angeles, California• Series
Comedy, LGBTQ
The "pretty boy curse" may be over, but is their luck changing for the better? The Dudes make new friends and face new challenges.
This project got the green light!

Aloha
Los Angeles, California• Film Short
Drama, Family
Aloha follows one new mom's quest to find the perfect birth announcement after the delivery of her baby doesn't go quite as planned.
This project got the green light!

Her-POW! New Adventures of Vintage Comic Book Heroines!
Los Angeles, California• Series
Action, Other
All new live-action adventures from 3 heroines from the Golden Age of comic books: The Woman in Red, The Veiled Avenger, and Ghost Woman!
This project got the green light!

Biophilia
Petaluma, California• Film Short
Thriller, Shorts Program
When an animal dies under her watch, an isolated new farmer is pushed to prove her worth.
This project got the green light!

Girl Trip
Sacramento, California• Series
Comedy, Horror
A fun road trip ends in murder and mayhem when hidden resentments between best friends surface and everyone learns the hard way never to get
This project got the green light!