{"id":16,"date":"2020-09-16T07:05:37","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T07:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/128.199.210.97\/?page_id=16"},"modified":"2021-12-16T22:12:51","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T11:12:51","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/meganriakos.com\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row full_height=”yes” el_id=”page-hero” el_class=”background-row fixed-background” css=”.vc_custom_1601598609205{background-image: url(\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Megan-Riakos-Crushed-Film-Director-Michael-Steel-Joel-Froome.jpg?id=143) !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

About<\/h1>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row el_class=”padded-row padding-bottom” el_id=”about”][vc_column][vc_column_text]\"\"Megan Riakos is a dynamic filmmaker bringing a distinctive female lens to the world of genre filmmaking. Her debut feature as writer\/director\/producer of the thriller Crushed<\/em><\/a> received strong reviews with The Australian calling it \u201ca tense, bloody mystery thriller\u201d, and The Hollywood Reporter labelling it \u201cA solid debut.\u201d Crushed completed a successful festival run before a strong limited theatrical release in Australia and acquisitions by channel 10 and Qantas. Megan\u2019s next project is Australia\u2019s first horror anthology feature film Dark Whispers – Volume 1<\/em><\/a>. Megan combined forces with ten other Australian women horror directors as creator and producer while also writing and directing the wrap around segment that unified each segment into the anthology. Dark Whispers was selected for festivals across the world including at Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival in Silicon Valley, Seattle International Film Festival, Berlin Final Girls Film Festival, Cinefest Oz Film Festival in Western Australia and MonsterFest. Bringing with it a formidable feminine vibe to the horror anthology genre, it has been hailed by Killer Horror Critic<\/a> as \u201cA shining example of horror anthology film done right\u2026\u201d and Screen Hub<\/a> calling it \u201cbursting with ideas and energetic visual approaches\u201d. In 2021,\u00a0Megan was nominated for an Australian Directors’ Guild Award for her episode on the Shudder Original series\u00a0Deadhouse Dark<\/em><\/a>\u00a0which premiered at Canneseries and is currently streaming on Shudder.<\/p>\n

Megan\u2019s screenplays have also garnered acclaim. Her mystery period feature The Last Reprieve was awarded the Grand Prize in the Greater Philadelphia SIP Screenplay competition. Her political drama Victory and Defeat made the semi-finals in the Final Draft Big Break Competition and was shortlisted for the Nate Wilson Award at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).<\/p>\n

Megan earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Media Arts & Production) at University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), has a Graduate Diploma in Directing at the prestigious Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) and has also completed the Professional Screenwriters Program at UCLA. She compliments her filmmaking with her role as co-founder of the Not-For-Profit organisation Women in Film & Television (WIFT) Australia and merges these two fields of creativity and advocacy via her company Hemlock & Cedar Films, which focuses on amplifying female voices.<\/p>\n

Megan is an innovative, collaborative and driven filmmaker with a strong visual style and a particular strength in delivering authentic performances from her actors. She is a high energy, confident speaker, mentor, teacher and advocate with an infectious enthusiasm for the art and craft of filmmaking.[\/vc_column_text][vc_btn title=”Director\u2019s showreel” style=”flat” shape=”square” link=”url:%2Fshowreel%2F|title:Watch%20Director%E2%80%99s%20showreel||” el_class=”btn-yellow”][vc_btn title=”Hemlock & Cedar Films” style=”flat” shape=”square” link=”url:%2Fhemlock-and-cedar-films%2F|title:Hemlock%20%26%20Cedar%20Films||” el_class=”btn-yellow”][vc_btn title=”IMDB” style=”flat” shape=”square” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Fname%2Fnm1376257%2F%3Fref_%3Dfn_al_nm_1|title:IMDB|target:%20_blank|” el_class=”btn-yellow”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row full_height=”yes” el_id=”page-hero” el_class=”background-row fixed-background” css=”.vc_custom_1601598609205{background-image: url(\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Megan-Riakos-Crushed-Film-Director-Michael-Steel-Joel-Froome.jpg?id=143) !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text] About [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row el_class=”padded-row padding-bottom” el_id=”about”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Megan Riakos is a dynamic filmmaker bringing a distinctive female lens to the world of genre filmmaking. Her debut feature as writer\/director\/producer of the thriller Crushed received strong reviews with The Australian calling it \u201ca tense, bloody mystery thriller\u201d, and The Hollywood Reporter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15860,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAbout – Megan Riakos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Megan Riakos is a dynamic filmmaker bringing a distinctive female lens to the world of genre filmmaking.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/meganriakos.com\/about\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"About – Megan Riakos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Megan Riakos is a dynamic filmmaker bringing a distinctive female lens to the world of genre filmmaking.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/meganriakos.com\/about\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Megan Riakos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/megan.riakos\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-16T11:12:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/meganriakos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/megan-riakos-social.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@meganriakos\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meganriakos.com\/about\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/meganriakos.com\/about\/\",\"name\":\"About – Megan Riakos\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meganriakos.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-16T07:05:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-16T11:12:51+00:00\",\"description\":\"Megan Riakos is a dynamic filmmaker bringing a distinctive female lens to the world of genre filmmaking.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meganriakos.com\/about\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/meganriakos.com\/about\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meganriakos.com\/about\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/meganriakos.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"About\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meganriakos.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/meganriakos.com\/\",\"name\":\"Megan Riakos\",\"description\":\"Director. 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