MICHAEL CICETTI
(Creator/Director)
Penning and playing 5A5B’s Kevin Ruskin –a character who Cicetti calls “the monkey-brained version of myself”– has proven to be the most significant challenge of his acting career. A self identified clown, Cicetti’s writing and filmmaking practice magnifies his own eccentricities, quirks and neuroses, through a distinctively ridiculous brand of farce. Known for his animated reactions in everyday life, Cicetti’s work has been noted for its integration and juxtaposition of truthful behavior with heightened theatricality. (www.michaelcicetti.com) @michaelcicetti
GALAXY MAN PRODUCTIONS
(Producers)
Galaxy Man is a creative partnership between lifelong friends Austin Bening, Alix Korda and Sam Korda. Current projects include narrative film, digital series, documentary and commercial content management. The team joined the 5A5B team to produce the initial 20K Kickstarter campaign in 2017 and have infused the series with their unique fabulous flare, mad line-budget skills, and outsider edge ever since. (www.galaxymanproductions.com)
ALIX KORDA
(Producer/Co-Director/Editor)
Before pivoting to filmmaking and more curated branding with GalaxyMan, Alix Korda’s background was in the ad agency world where she produced content for global brands at Mindshare and Omnicom. True to Galaxy’s mission of creating content with purpose, Korda’s directorial and production talent is best exhibited in works such as Galaxy’s Breaking The Grade (an educational doc which follows a group of students over the course of one month in Columbus, Ohio); Funny People Making Food (a non-scripted cooking show hosted by chef, actor, and comedian Erica Wildes); and Life After Fat (a comedy series examining a young woman in the aftermath of significant physical changes).
AUSTIN BENING
(Producer/Co-Director/Editor)
Austin Bening is a digital media veteran and seasoned YouTubeman. He started his career at MakerStudio, working with such talent as Mishka the Talking Husky, The Gregory Borthers and Camila Coelho. Having shed his corporate shackles, he now wears many hats as a producer, director, writer and editor.He has worked creatively on webseries such as: Triplets of Kings County, Life After Fat and most notably, My Gay Roommate, which was featured in The Huffington Post, The New York Times and Vanity Fair as “the next Will&Grace.”
BILL KOLB
(Executive Producer)
A Detroit native, community leader -and avid cineaste!- Bill Kolb is a global brands executive with more than 25 years of experience marketing both large and entrepreneurial companies. Kolb is currently Global President of Diversified Agencies at McCann Worldgroup, where he has dedicated himself for 16 years towards promoting the overall growth across all of McCann’s agencies and geographies. Bill’s enthusiastic energy —and infinite Rolodex of filmic references—- have supported the team towards bold creative choices, at every significant phase of growth.
STEVE ELLIOTT
(Executive Producer)
As someone who seeks out novel and complex challenges, Steve’s passion lies in dynamic problem-solving and realizing new possibilities. He has an accomplished background in real estate private equity with a focus on resort and placemaking. As an executive leader, strategist, and overall Renaissance man (i.e. he loves street photography) his diverse interests are driven by the possibilities of human nature, experience, and ingenuity. In addition to managing 5A5B’s enterprise on both a strategic and creative level, he is currently an advisor and seed investor in a digital experience venture focused on meaningful connection and social discourse. Constantly merging the imaginative and the analytical, its easiest to just call him a Possiblist.
ELLA R. HARRIS
(Executive Producer)
An rapidly rising filmmaker and current student at USC School of Cinematic arts, Harris’s senior thesis, Spit it Out, Margot!, was one of four projects greenlighted by SCA's faculty in a class of 480. And for the first time in the 90-year history of USC's School of Cinematic Arts, Harris’s senior thesis is the very first to produced by an all women and gender non-conforming crew — (read the article in The Hollywood Reporter). Additionally, Harris has experience in the entertainment area as an interning at Verve Talent & Literary Agency and Sony Pictures, where she worked as a video editor for the Sony Creative Center. Ella first discovered 5A5B as a curator for the Queer Bits Film Festival, an extension of Pride Films and Plays, in Chicago.
JASON HARRIS
(Executive Producer)
Jason Harris wears many cool hats. His primary hard hat –as an entrepreneur— is acting CEO of CartoFront, a distribution platform addressing the massive societal problem of flood insurance, “We want to help all homeowners get the protection that they need, at an affordable price,” shares Harris, who is also Co-Founder of Chicago Surge, a consultancy for fast growing companies. Always seeking new creative opportunities, Jason met Creator Michael Cicetti at the Queer Bits Film Festival in Chicago, where he introduced himself as a Connector. Indeed, within a matter of days it was evident how much Jason enjoys wearing the Connector cap, facilitating relationships between creatives and resources in the community. But of course Jason’s coolest hat –one which he never takes off— is that of Super Proud Father… of Four!