Stu Pollard (born January 26, 1967) is an American film producer, writer and director. His credits include Nice Guys Sleep Alone and Keep Your Distance, as well as the 2019 survival thriller Rust Creek.
Early life and education Pollard was born in Louisville, Kentucky and attended Kentucky Country Day School. He graduated from Georgetown University in 1989, then spent three years working for New York's McCann-Erickson before moving to Los Angeles to earn his MFA from the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
Career After graduating from the University of Southern California, Pollard created Lunacy Unlimited, a production company that created a number of award-winning commercials and documentaries before eventually shifting its focus to features.
Pollard made his feature film debut in 1999, producing, writing and directing Nice Guys Sleep Alone, starring Sean O'Bryan and Vanessa Marcil. A romantic comedy about the dating scene in Louisville, the independent production was broadcast in over a dozen countries and carried on cable television's HBO. The film became the first Netflix exclusive,Wu, Tim. "Netflix's War on Mass Culture," The New Republic. December 4, 2013. garnering press coverage from USA Today, Time, and Variety.
In 2005, Pollard delivered his second feature film. He produced, wrote, and directed Keep Your Distance, starring Gil Bellows and Jennifer Westfeldt. The thriller depicts a seemingly perfect marriage, which slowly dissolves at the foot of betrayal.
Pollard received a number of producing credits for independent films from 2006 through 2015, including Ira & Abby and Bass Ackwards. In 2015, Pollard founded his production company in order to break free of the "one at a time" model of independent filmmaking and have multiple projects in development at a time. Lunacy has offices in Louisville, Kentucky, and Los Angeles, California, and focuses on supporting emerging filmmakers while also working on new materials with established talent.
With Lunacy Productions, Pollard produced the critically acclaimed survival thriller Rust Creek, which won the Best Thriller Feature Award at the San Diego International Film Festival. On November 30, 2020, Rust Creek had its Netflix debut. The film spent more than a week on Netflix's top ten movies list. His latest release is the romantic comedy Plus One, starring Jack Quaid and Maya Erskine.
Pollard is also an adjunct professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and teaches at Film Independent. He is a member of both the PGA and DGA.
Filmography YearFilmDirectorProducerWriter Notes 1999 Nice Guys Sleep Alone Directorial debut 2005 Keep Your Distance Breckenridge Festival of Film Best Feature 2006 Ira and Abby 2007 Dirty Country 2009 True Adolescents 2010 Bass Ackwards 2012 Pilgrim Song 2013 Forty Years From Yesterday 2016 Split 2017 And Then I Go New Hampshire Film Festival Best Feature 2017 The Outdoorsman 2018 7 Splinters in Time 2018This Is Home: A Refugee StorySundance Film Festival Audience Award 2019Rust Creek San Diego International Film Festival Best Thriller Feature 2019 Plus One Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award Narrative
References
External links
Lunacy Unlimited website KQEK interview with Stu Pollard