Carly Usdin is a highly accomplished American writer and filmmaker, best known for her work in young adult, LGBT, and comic book genres. Hailing from Los Angeles, Usdin has made a significant mark in the industry with her award-winning films and comic book series.
Usdin's directorial debut, Suicide Kale, won the Audience Award for Best First Feature at Outfest 2016. The film, which was screened at over 30 film festivals worldwide, is now available on Amazon Prime and iTunes. In 2017, Usdin served as the showrunner and director for the scripted series Threads, produced by New Form for Verizon’s go90 platform. This horror and comedy anthology series brought to life outrageous stories from internet forums like Reddit, showcasing Usdin's unique storytelling abilities.
In addition to her film work, Usdin is also an accomplished comic book writer. She has written two popular comic book series for BOOM! Studios, Heavy Vinyl and The Avant-Guards. Heavy Vinyl, which is currently in stores, was nominated for a 2018 Prism award, honoring the best in LGBTQAI+ comics. The Avant-Guards, which was released in January 2019, further solidified Usdin's reputation as a talented writer in the comic book genre.
Before her success in film and comics, Usdin 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. She has also directed the third season of Awkwafina’s digital series Tawk and created promotional campaigns for RuPaul’s Drag Race, which have won One Show Awards and Promax BDA Awards.
Usdin 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. She currently owns a production company, Scheme Machine Studios, with her wife, photographer and producer Robin Roemer, where they are developing several projects.