MARY RISK
WRITER
DIRECTOR
PRODUCER
ABOUT MARY
The girl once voted by her AP English Teacher to be "Most Likely To Give Me An Aneurysm," Mary has written countless features, shorts, pilots, sketches, parody songs, indie series, and video essays, which collectively have more than 625 million views... or roughly 20 times the number of copies of The Great Gatsby that have ever been sold. So. Take that Mr. Coleman.
In all seriousness, I’m a writer, director, and producer with nearly a decade of experience creating every kind of content. I’ve worked on scripted and unscripted projects, including sketch comedy, narrative series and shorts, DIY/culinary, competition shows, documentaries, game shows, unscripted reaction videos, promotional campaigns, live events, celebrity junkets, commercials, gaming content, and of course, indie film. Check out the wall of logos on my home page to see who paid me to write and direct those things, and browse the selection of articles below to see how people reacted.
My latest projects include directing the second season of another show for Noggin/Nick Jr, writing a limited thriller series for a well-known streaming service, directing female-focused gaming and esports content for Dreamhack, and producing an indie short. I'm also gearing up for another round of festival and contest submissions with a new half hour comedy script.
FROM TOP LEFT: On the set of Case Closed with Bailey Sarian; on set for the Don't Look Up episode of Netflix IRL; on set directing my new original streaming series Dance Squad with Ailey; speaking on a VR Scout panel for digital VR content creators at YouTube Space LA; filming an animal fun facts episode for REACT with a capuchin monkey from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
ON THE WEB
Forbes named BEAT SABER VR 180 competition I produced and directed as one of the Top 25 VR videos of 2019. This ground-breaking mixed reality video immersed gamers like never before.
Men's Health positively reviewed the pilot of my nine episode experiment-based series NETFLIX IRL, further breaking down the biology of the experiment - running a head through a breadslicer.
While I was Christy's creative director, Screenrant named us one of the top 10 Nostalgic Channels, highlighting both CKT and Celeb React, two of the many shows I directed and produced.
Entertainment journalist Megan Shahroozi interviewed me on an early episode of her up and coming podcast, Meg in the Morning. We chat about my writing work, creating content in the digital space and more!
Director Trademarks is one of the many video essay series I helped to develop during my time with NETFLIX. I wrote this in-depth breakdown of Ava DuVernay's directing style, and as seen above, Ava DuVernay retweeted it, expressing her appreciation!
WhoHaHa, the female-centric comedy platform cofounded by Elizabeth Banks, highlighted two parody songs I wrote and produced for Infinititty Comedy, featuring them on their home page and as part of their Creator Spotlights.