Ryan Henry Mekenian

Ryan Mekenian (he/him) is an Armenian-American writer/director based in Tongva territory, his hometown, Los Angeles. Ryan was a Mary Pickford-endowed scholar at the renowned U.S.C. School of Cinematic Arts, where he completed his M.F.A. in Film & T.V. Production. His thesis, Spokespeople, a short documentary about L.A.'s bicycling communities, won Best Film for Change at the BAFTA-qualifying Bolton International Film Festival & Best Doc Short at the Rhode Island International Film Festival in addition to screening at 40 other festivals worldwide, including the Oscar-qualifying Edmonton International Film Festival, Bogotá Short Film Festival, and the American Pavilion's Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival.

Ryan's screenplay, The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair, was a 2022 Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting quarterfinalist and won the 2021 Screenwriting Discovery Award Grand Prize at the Oscar-qualifying Rhode Island International Film Festival. He is a 2023 California Arts Council Arts Fellow.