Raised in Wheeling, West Virginia, Preston once thought a career in the film and television industry was out of reach. But he connected with an active film community while at Case Western Reserve University and decided to pursue an MFA in Film Production at the University of Southern California. There he wrote and directed numerous short films, including his award-winning thesis film, "The Big Production." He is currently the assistant to the President of Miniseries at HBO, where he participates in projects such as "John Adams" and "The Pacific." Preston also teaches a course in the Fundamentals of Cinematic Sound at USC. He continues to focus on writing and directing comedies and is represented by Mikhail Nayfeld, Markus Goerg, and Dick Hillenbrand at Heroes and Villains Entertainment and Mike Esola at William Morris Endeavor.
Aaron Galligan-Stierle is an actor, director and producer who has collaborated on over 50 new works, from film to stage to dance. He has been seen on Broadway as Henry Ford in "Ragtime" and Papa Who in "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas." He received his BFA in Musical Theater from Shenandoah University and his MFA in Acting from Penn State. He has been teaming on projects with Preston since high school, starting with their state championship-winning speech team partnership and continuing with "The Big Production," their fourth film together.
Trysta A. Bissett is originally from Hamilton, Ohio. After graduating from the Honors Tutorial College at Ohio University, she moved to Los Angeles to attend the Graduate Screenwriting Program at the USC. Her screenplay "Pony at Large" was a semi-finalist in the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship competition. She currently works as a freelance video editor and teaches a course in video production at the Los Angeles Job Corps Center. Trysta writes feature length family and animation scripts on her own and writes comedies with her writing parter, Preston DeFrancis. She is represented by Mikhail Nayfeld, Markus Goerg, and Dick Hillenbrand of Heroes and Villains Entertainment and Mike Esola of William Morris Endeavor.
Elizabeth Santoro started out by making video term papers in high school in Connecticut. Years later, she earned an MFA in film production from the University of Southern California and trained on films with top directors and DPs including Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Robert Richardson, ASC, and Guillermo Navarro, ASC. She has shot a number of award-winning shorts and features, including the short drama 'Shelter' which can be seen on IFC, and features 'Eve of Understanding' and 'Ready? OK!'. In addition to narrative work, Elizabeth has also worked as a DP for the Travel Channel, Food Network, and the Tennis Channel.
Mark Marion, Ali Gordon-Goldstein, and Grace K. Lee.