Adam Ripp

Adam Ripp is an award-winning filmmaker; in 1991 Adam produced his first feature film, Public Access, and was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival. Adam's professional entry into the entertainment business came in 1984 during his senior year of high school when he was hired as a production assistant on a Harold Ramis executive produced TV show called The Top starring Andy Kaufman, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Rodney Dangerfield and Cyndi Lauper; The Top was Andy Kaufman's final television appearance. That same year Adam took a stab at acting and appeared in an episode of the HBO TV series Not Necessarily the News. After graduating from NewBridge high school in 1985 Adam was hired by legendary filmmaker Walter Shenson, producer of A Hard Day's Night and Help, to serve as the assistant to the director on the horror film Death Spa. That same summer Adam also worked as an assistant director on Image Entertainment's Night of Terror aka Escape from the Insane Asylum. From 1985 to 1989 Adam attended Columbia College Hollywood and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Cinema; Adam also attended UCLA Extension's writer's program and audited classes at the American Film Institute. During this same time Adam interned at CommuniCom Cable where he mixed sound, programed Chyron, operated camera and directed numerous public access TV shows including Skip E. Lowe Looks at Hollywood. Martin Short cited Skip E. Lowe as the inspiration for his character Jiminy Glick. In 1990 Adam produced and directed the music video You'll Be On It for Motown Records rap group, the Throw Down Twins featuring DJ Epic. He also worked as the assistant prop master on Mario Van Peebles CBS TV movie Malcolm Takes a Shot starring Tony Lo Bianco, Susan Rattan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Vince Vaughn. In 1991 Adam co-founded FSI a full service post-production sound company located in Studio City featuring Pro-Tools editing suites, Foley stage and a THX certified mixing theater. During the early 1990s Adam oversaw post-production sound on numerous films and TV shows as well as the company's expansion into picture editing with a facility in Burbank featuring a dozen Avid editing rooms and a Smoke based creative finishing suite. In 1993 Adam and the Oscar winning writer of The Usual Suspects, Chris McQuarrie, began developing Beat Cop, a character driven script about a young Black journalist who defies his friends and family and becomes a police officer. Unbeknownst to those closest to him, he's on a mission to expose police corruption from inside the department. In order to capture the true essence of this world Adam decided to fulfill a childhood dream to become a police officer; he graduated the LAPD's police academy in January of 1995 at the top of his class. From 1995 to 2000 Adam worked patrol, narcotics, vice, gangs and other specialized units and drew from these experiences as research for his script; Adam distinguished himself as a decorated police officer with numerous medals and commendations. Vega Baby Productions is packaging Beat Cop with Adam attached to direct and Stanley Tucci attached to co-star. In 1994 Adam served as post-production supervisor on New Line Pictures Toll Booth starring Fairuza Balk, Will Patton, Oscar nominee Seymour Cassel and Oscar winning actress Louise Fletcher. That same year Adam produced Heidi Van Lier's first film, Small Town Recollections. In 1995 Adam and Heidi developed the script Writing Home which was invited to the Sundance Writer's Lab. And in 1996 Adam worked as a sound advisor on Paramount Home Video's Flipping starring Keith David, Mike Starr and David Proval. Adam's childhood experience with desegregation busing inspired him to write, produce and direct the award-winning feature film Gang Tapes, a coming of age story about a 13 year-old-boy chronicling his descent into gang life with a stolen video camera. Gang Tapes was financed and distributed by Lionsgate in 2001. The film premiered at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, drew critical praise from Variety, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Adam won Best Director at the DVD Exclusive Awards and was honored with the Melvin Van Peebles Award at the San Francisco Black Film Festival. Gang Tapes won Best Ensemble Cast at the New York Underground Film Festival. In 2004 Adam created Hollywood Vice for Fox Television which he wrote, executive produced and directed; he also created, developed and wrote SWAT for TNT. Adam wrote Scavenger for Beacon Pictures in 2005 and in 2006 he created and wrote the pilot script for an MTV horror/thriller scripted series called Darius. He also executive produced the animated movie review series The Cowboy Critic for Lionsgate's CinemaNow.com From 2007 to 2009 Adam produced Inside American Jail for TruTV, Busted for MTV, Speeders for TruTV, Jail for MyNetTV and Speeders Fight Back for TruTV. He also directed an episode of the scripted sci-fi TV series Lost Tapes for Animal Planet; Adam's episode, Lost Tapes: Alien, was named scariest of the series by Nightmare on Film Street. Adam went on to develop and executive produce Matched by Design for Style Network and Location Agent for HGTV as well as several pilot presentations including Carnies for Discovery, Due Date for VH1, Animal Instincts for Animal Planet, Detroit Sculpt City for SyFy, and Prince of Design for E! Adam also created and developed Walk The Line with Jamie Kennedy for TruTV and 51 Minds, X-Cops for Fox 21, APB for CBS Paramount Studios, Back in the Game for Reveille, Stripped for Tijuana Entertainment, Runaway Wedding for Hanger 56 Media, In the Bag for RelativityReal, Background Check for Base Productions, Been There Done That for Banca Studios and Ghost Hunters for Good Clean Fun. Additionally Adam served as a creative consultant to Midway Games in the development of Career Criminal, an open world gaming project. In 2010 Adam produced Gambit written by Oscar winners Joel & Ethan Coen and starring Oscar winning actor Colin Firth, Cameron Diaz, Alan Rickman, Oscar nominee Stanley Tucci, and Oscar winning actress Cloris Leachman. As lead producer Adam developed the script, packaged the talent, raised the financing, oversaw pre-production, production and post-production, and negotiated the film's distribution deal with CBS Films. In 2012 Adam developed, packaged and arranged the co-financing and international distribution for No Escape starring Owen Wilson, Pierce Brosnan and Lake Bell. In 2013 Adam produced Everly starring Oscar nominee Salma Hayek. As lead producer Adam developed the script, packaged the talent, raised the financing, oversaw pre-production, production and post-production, and negotiated the film's distribution deal with Radius. In 2015 Adam co-founded the feature film distribution company Vega Baby Releasing where he served as co-president and Chief Creative Officer. From 2015 to 2020 Adam oversaw the acquisition and release of over twenty feature films. Vega Baby won a Saturn Award for Best Independent Film for a feature film Adam discovered and acquired called Encounter starring Luke Hemsworth. In 2016 Adam wrote, produced and directed the award-winning feature film Devil's Whisper which was released through Sony Pictures in 2017. Devil's Whisper was an official selection at Dances with Films and was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best DVD/Blu-Ray Release. In 2017 Adam adapted Risa Saraswati's best selling book series into the Danur Cinematic Universe. As co-writer of Danur 2: Maddah (2018), Asih (2018), Silam (2018), Danur 3: Sunyaruri (2019), Asih 2 (2020) and the upcoming Danur 4: Senjakala, Adam is co-creator of the highest grossing film franchise in Indonesia's box office history. In 2018 Adam co-executive produced and co-edited the award-winning horror film Celebrity Crush; the film was acquired by Random Media and released in May of 2020. In 2019 Adam created a TV series entitled Dirty Harriets and attached Telma Hopkins (Family Matters) and Cindy Williams (Laverne & Shirley) to star; Brillstein Entertainment and Vega Baby Productions will be taking Dirty Harriets to buyers in 2022. While sheltering in place over the first half of 2020 Adam created the YouTube series The Jackie & Irwin Review which he directed, edited and executive produced. During this same time Adam created two reality shows, Food Patrol which he's developing with The Jay & Tony Show and You Write It We Shoot It which he's developing with GRB Studios. In July of 2020 Adam was one of 14 LAPD Reserve Police Officers, out of over 600, selected to interview for a Homicide Investigator position at LAPD's elite Robbery-Homicide Division. Of the 14 Reserves interviewed Adam was one of the six officers chosen to join RHD's Cold Case Homicide Unit. Adam and his five fellow Reserve Police Officers are the first Reserves in the history of the LAPD to be case carrying Homicide Investigators. As a producer Adam's next feature film is based upon the best selling novel Something Happened by Joseph Heller; Tim Roth and Jim Gaffigan are attached to star. Adam is attached to direct the action/thriller Induction which is based upon his original screenplay and he recently signed a deal with Piller/Segan to develop a high-concept scripted law enforcement TV series he created. In March of 2022 Adam closed a deal with Jaigantic Studios to write and direct the scripted feature film Piano Man which tells the origin story of Billy Joel. Pre-production is scheduled to begin in late spring 2022 with a tentative release date of summer 2023. Adam is a member of the WGA and represented as a writer/director by Trevor Engelson at Underground Management.