DIRECTORS

Tired of waiting for permission to do what she always dreamed of--direct her own feature film--Laura Somers raised funds on Seed & Spark and went back to her hometown of Houston, TX to make her feature directorial debut, Rich Kids. After winning 16 festival awards, she struck a deal with Premiere Entertainment for worldwide sales. Her domestic distributor, ITN, licensed the film to Netflix where it premiered in February 2020--almost unheard of these days for a no-budget drama with unknown actors. Laura is a determined, compassionate, and vibrant director whose strengths lie within her solid storytelling skills, powerful use of imagery, and ability to inspire earnest performances from actors. Her work is primarily youth and character-driven, social-issue films inspired by her life growing up in the South. She is particularly strong with young talent. She began her career directing theater in the small black box venues in New York City and Austin, running a nationally recognized theater company, the dirigo group, before moving to direct short films and digital sketch comedy in Los Angeles. Her work has been highlighted in many publications including American Theater Magazine, New York Magazine, Remezcla, Vanity Fair, The W Hotels, UCLA Medical Center. For eight years her day job was as a reality television editor for networks including Lifetime, Spike TV, CMT, FOX, Style, Sportsman Channel, A&E, and more.