CREW

Richard Knight, Jr., Co-Writer, Co-Director and Co-Producer

Knight has a 30-year history of working on a variety of creative endeavors based in Chicago. Between 2007-2009 he created, co-hosted, co-directed and co-edited Movie Queens, an online web TV show dedicated to exploring film from a queer perspective. Since May of 2004 Knight has been film critic for Windy City Times, Chicago’s premiere LGBT publication. He has written on a variety of subjects for the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Reader and other publications beginning in 1986. Knight’s alter ego Dick O’Day hosts “Camp Midnight,” a seasonal movie series at Chicago’s historic Music Box Theatre. In addition, Dick O'Day spent six years as a correspondent with Chicago's PBS station WTTW from 1996-2002 on the irreverent, magazine format show “Wild Chicago” for which he won two Midwest Emmys. Knight, who terms himself a “freelance creative,” has worked in a variety of creative fields dating back to 1982. He is a member of the Chicago Film Critic’s Association and the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association.

Peter Neville, Co-Director, Editor and Co-Producer

Neville is a producer, director and editor as well as a graphic designer for his company Image Control Unit. He has produced and directed more than 40 television commercials, dozens of music videos and directed his first feature-length documentary IdleWild which is to be released in the summer of 2023. In 1999 Neville was the director for R. Rated , a comedy anthology series that aired on the Fox Network consisting of film and video shorts by Chicago area artists and comedians. Neville has worked with the nationally renowned Annoyance Theatre, along with the theatrical parody troupe Hell in a Handbag Productions including the video “ Mad at the Dirt ”, which he directed for David Cerda’s band The Joans was a staple of the GLBT film festival circuit and prominently featured on the LOGO network becoming #5 on their annual “Click List.”. Neville’s video “Guns” for the experimental music band Negativland was included in their internationally known DVD anthology, “Our Favorite Things.”

Tracy Baim, Producer

Baim was executive producer of the award-winning and critically acclaimed lesbian feature film Hannah Free starring Sharon Gless. She was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1994 and was named a Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 leader in 1995. Baim is publisher and executive editor at Windy City Media Group, which produces Windy City Times, Nightspots, and other gay media in Chicago. She co-founded Windy City Times in 1985. She has won numerous gay community and journalism honors, including the Community Media Workshop’s Studs Terkel Award in 2005. Baim is the author of Obama and the Gays: A Political Marriage. She is also the co- author and editor of Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City’s Gay Community and author of Where the World Meets, a book about Gay Games VII in Chicago. Her recent books are The Half Life of Sgt. Jen Hunter, about lesbians in the military prior to Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and the biographies Leatherman: The Legend of Chuck Renslow and Jim Flint: The Boy From Peoria.

David Strzepek, Producer

Strzepek has been in the promotions industry for more than 23 years. He has a passion for people and their projects. Often credited as the “behind the scenes” strength to many organizations, including Community and Economic Development Association (CEDA), The Walter and Connie Payton Foundation, Ripe Fruit Films ( Hannah Free ), and the Michael Rolfe Pancreatic Cancer Foundation to name a few. Total Promotions, Inc. has allowed him to expand and continue to grow his business in unique ways. In 2008, he started connecting with the film industry, and has been involved with movies such as Hannah Free (2009) and Jamie and Jessie Are Not Together (2011). Both are award-winning, independent, full feature films. After 15 webisodes, as Producer of Foodgasm ( www.afoodgasm.com ), he is a key figure behind this new venture. He hopes to land a major television network and ultimately share healthy eating lifestyles, one foodgasm at a time.

Ellen Stoneking, Co-Writer and Co-Producer

As an actress, writer and improviser, Ellen Stoneking has been involved in many creative endeavors. She is a founding member of The Annoyance Theatre in Chicago. Her association with the Annoyance is a source of continual creation. She has been a featured actress and co-writer of more than 20 twenty original plays and musicals as well as Annoyance’s film, Fatty the Bus , distributed by Troma. She is the author of the screen adaptation of Annoyance’s long running hit musical, CoEd Prison Sluts . Stoneking has another script currently in pre- production.

Lisa McQueen, Music Score and Original Songs

As an Ensemble Member and Musical Director at Annoyance Theater for 21 years, McQueen has composed music for Tippi: Portrait of a Virgin, President Bush is a Great Man, The Invention Show, Kink, 40 Whacks, Swear Jar and most recently, Tiny Fascists , a musical about the Boy Scouts of America. Second City Musical Director credits include three years with The Second City National Touring Company and revues in Atlanta ( Alliance Theater ), Denver (Denver Center for the Performing Arts) , Rochester (GEVA Theater), Barbados (Holder's Festival) and Amsterdam (Boom Chicago). Regional credits include Chicago Shakespeare Theatre’s How Can You Run with a Shell on Your Back?, Hamlet! The Musical and People vs. Friar Tuck, Romeo & Juliet, the Musical; Victory Gardens and Off-Broadway productions of Wild Men! (both starring George Wendt), Metropolis Performing Arts Center's Rod Blagojevich: Superstar! and Improv Olympic's Christmas Smackdown .