FILMMAKER BIOS

Rafael Monserrate- Director

Rafael Monserrate was born in Puerto Rico and studied Acting and Directing at Framingham State College before winning a scholarship to study theatre at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC. He directed a series of plays in NYC before moving to LA to work as an acting and dialogue coach, productions include Miss Miami (NBC), Chasing Pap(20th Century Fox), and The Rundown(Universal Pictures). In 2004 he was hired to voice direct the first all Latin cast animated feature SIAN KAAN and then went on to voice direct A Cat’s Tale starring Michelle Rodriguez, Troy Garity, Jeremy Piven, and Troy Hall. This past December, Rafael directed a television pilot, IMAGINE THIS that is already buzzing all around the networks. Poundcake is his directorial debut.

Troy Hall – Producer/ Screenwriter/Actor

Troy is a good ol’ Georgia boy but has been living in the New York City area for the last fourteen years. He is a graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and has been working as an actor for the last eight years. Some of Troy’s film and television credits include THE FAMILY MAN, THE WAR WITHIN, TWO AGAINST TIME, and as “Tito” on ANOTHER WORLD. His theatre credits include DANNY BOY (Official Selection of The New York Fringe Festival), LONESTAR, TRACERS, THE MELVILLE BOYS, AWAKENING, and WRONG FOR EACH OTHER. Troy has made a living doing voice-overs for commercials as well as acting in several on-camera campaigns. He starred in comic genius Marty Granger’s 2005 Miller Lite campaign, which was voted one of 2005’s Funniest Commercials. He also kicked off Cingular Wireless’ “More Bars in More Places” campaign in a commercial called “Road Trip”, directed by world-renowned cinematographer Lance Acord and slated as the most recognizable commercial of 2005 & 2006. Troy has been the voice of a number of national campaigns, including Verizon, Oral-B, H&R Block, Garnier, Dunkin Donuts, and Ralph Lauren. Troy met writing partner Kevin Logie while doing improv at New York City’s well-known Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, and shortly thereafter, Poundcake was born. Poundcake is Troy’s first feature length screenplay, which he also stars in and produced.

Kevin Logie– Producer/ Screenwriter/Actor

Actor Kevin was born and raised in Buffalo, NY. He was a disc jockey working nights and weekends for 103.3 WEDG-FM and then auditioned to be an emcee for the New York Lottery. Competing with over 400 people, Kevin was chosen as the Western New York representative of the New York Lottery Draw Team. He took classes at Studio Arena Theatre School and soon after, moved to NYC to be an actor. Eventually, he ended up doing improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, where he met writing partner Troy Hall, and started writing Poundcake. Poundcake is Kevin’s first feature length screenplay, which he also stars in and produced.

Mridu Chandra-Producer

Mridu Chandra has been producing social issue documentaries and narrative films for the past decade. In addition to co-producing Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin (Sundance 2003, P.O.V. 2003), she produced the documentary film Let the Church Say Amen (AFI/ Silverdocs 2003, Sundance 2004, Independent Lens 2005). Her Indie feature projects include line producing “Love, Ludlow” (Sundance 2005), associate producing Tanuj Chopra’s “Punching at the Sun” (Sundance 2006) and most recently producing “Poundcake.” She currently teaches documentary classes at The New School in their Graduate Department of Media Studies and at New York University in their School of Continuing and Professional Studies. She is a fellow at American University’s Center for Social Media focusing on ethical practice in documentary filmmaking. Mridu was born in India, grew up in Virginia, and lives in New York City.

Gene Miller -Producer

Gene Raphael Miller studied acting with Mr. Hall and Mr. Monserrate at the American Academy Of Dramatic Arts. He furthered the collaboration with the two in numerous theatrical productions in the late 90's. Gene co-produced "The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me" in 2000, and in 2004, Gene lead produced the recently released at Blockbuster film "Crazy For Love" starring David Krumholtz, Natasha Lyonne, and Tim Blake Nelson. "Poundcake" came next, and most recently Gene has produced a television pilot called "Imagine This!."

David Vacarri -Producer

David Vaccari is currently a casting director at Telsey & Company where his most recent film credits include Jonathan Demme’s, “Rachel Getting Married”, Gus Van Sant’s “Paranoid Park”, Peter Hedges’ “Dan in Real Life”, Helen Hunt’s “Then She Found Me” and Julie Taymor’s “Across the Universe.” Past film projects include “Rent”, “Pieces of April” , “The Bone Collector”, “Keane,” “The Grey Zone” & “Finding Forrester.” In television he has worked on “Whoopi” for NBC, and for HBO he worked with John Leguizamo on his film “Undefeated” as well as the JJ Abrams pilot, “Hope Against Hope.” One of the original casting directors of the stage musical “Rent”, his career in theater casting includes working with Woody Allen, David Mamet, Martin Short, Edward Albee. and Eric Bogosian on premiers of their work. Current commercials include work by Chris Guest, Todd Field, Tom Schiller, Frank Todaro, Noam Murro, Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris and Jared Hess. “Poundcake” marks his first feature as a producer, having produced the short film, “Right Foot, Left Foot”, which appeared on IFC last year.

Anthony Ripoli – Editor

Anthony Ripoli is a graduate of NYU’s Film School and “Poundcake” is his first feature editing credit. Previously, he served as assistant editor on “A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints,” “El Cantante,” and “Fighting” (due out this Spring). Most recently, he edited with David Tedeschi on the Martin Scorsese featurette “Shine A Light: The Making Of” (the Rolling Stones Concert Film).

Josh Silfen – Director of Photography

Josh Silfen has been shooting films since graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2001. In that time he has shot shorts, music videos, commercials, and several feature films including THE BIG BAD SWIM (Tribeca ‘06) and GOODBYE BABY (Slamdance ‘08). POUNDCAKE marks Josh’s first collaboration with director Rafael Monserrate, and his first film in Buffalo.