KAREN ODYNIEC
W R I T E R  I  D I R E C T O R

After launching Reel Siren Films in 1998, Karen's first cinematic effort, Watermelon, sponsored by Women Make Movies, won a special commendation at the CIAFF and showcased at the NY Women’s Film Festival among others. She directed workshop productions for Zoetrope Live Story, The Actors' Playground and Tiny Mythic Theatre at Here. She stage managed plays and festivals for NY Theatre Workshop, The Actors’ Studio, Naked Angels, Jim Henson Productions and The Public Theatre working with playwrights and directors such as Christopher Ashley, Jonathan Larson, Kenneth Lonergan and Rebecca Miller. Karen has made many short narrative and documentary films, including The Valise (2005), which premiered at the Lincoln Center Toons, Tunes & Trikfilms, and The Face of Family Homelessness/Compass (2007), a documentary that raised money and awareness for the cause in San Francisco. Her script, Charm School for Primates, won a 2008 Sloan Foundation Feature Screenplay Award and was a 2009 Hamptons International Film Festival and screenwriters lab selection. America, Let's Go!, her music video based on characters and music from her short, Deadline (2008), premiered at SXSW Film Festival (2009) and won best music video at NYU Fusion Film Festival (2010). She studied directing with Lee Grant, and acting with Uta Hagen and Elaine Aiken. MFA, Film, NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Karen resides in New York City.