CREATIVE TEAM
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Caleb Reese Paul
WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER/EDITOR. Caleb Reese Paul is a 16-year-old award-winning Filmmaker and Actor. His last short film, The Lake in the Sky, has screened at a dozen festivals (including Cleveland), winning the Audience Choice Award at Indy Shorts (Oscar-qualifying) and Grand Jury Prizes at Flickers' Rhode Island (Oscar-qualifying) and the Tallgrass Film Festival. It also won the top prize for Best Short Film at the Chelsea Film Festival. For the past 6 seasons, Caleb has played Jeremy Sisto's son on the Dick Wolf CBS Primetime TV series, FBI. Pulpitum is his sixth short film.
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Robert W. Bevis
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY. Robert Bevis grew up in rural south Georgia surrounded by decaying tobacco barns, freshwater bass ponds, and his mother’s watercolor paintings. He shot his first movies on glorious mini DV before attending film school and moving to New York. As a DP his approach is simple and emotional.
Rob’s work has screened at the Sundance Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival, Miami Film Festival, and many more. He is based in New York City.
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Mona Mekkawi
PRODUCTION DESIGNER. Mona Mekkawi is a NYC based Set and Production Designer, Events designer, and Filmmaker.
She has over 15 years of experience in the film industry in the MENA and the States, her work gained recognition internationally, being featured in renowned film festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, and the Berlin International Film Festival. Notably, one of Mona’s recent documentaries, “Oversight,” which she designed, received three Emmy Awards, solidifying her position as one of the first Egyptian women to achieve such recognition.
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Lara Paul
PRODUCER. Lara Paul is a professional singer, actor, and film producer. The daughter of a Metropolitan Opera Singer and Grammy Award-winning Composer and Conductor, Lara is also proud graduate of The University of Michigan Musical Theatre Program. She has co-produced all Eye Pictures productions to date.
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David Paul
PRODUCER. David Paul is a musician, lawyer, and film enthusiast. He has co-produced all Eye Pictures productions to date. is favorite movie is Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
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Dean McGinnes
COMPOSER. Dean McGinnes, a highly skilled Scottish music composer based in London, boasts a diverse portfolio spanning films, web series, commercials, albums, documentaries, and trailers. Renowned for capturing the essence of stories, Dean collaborates with award-winning directors and music publishers globally. Notable works include scores for award-winning films like "The Last Great Climb" and "Brit Rock" with Posing Productions. His recent acclaimed work on "The Gardener," distributed by Lionsgate, is available on streaming platforms such as Apple TV and Amazon. Dean's music is featured in Hollywood hits like "Bros" and on popular shows like Panorama, Sky Sports, MasterChef, X Factor, BBC News, and Netflix's Love Is Blind. He has also composed for major brands like Apple, Dodge, Nescafé, and Northrop Grumman.
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Kathryn Bailey
COSTUME DESIGNER. Kathryn Bailey is a NYC based costume designer and artist. Some of her select tv and film credits include working on design teams for TV shows Etoile (Amazon, Season 1 2025), American Horror Story (Season 11), Fallout (Amazon Season 1), and City on a Hill (Showtime, Season 3). She has also worked on Broadway design teams for Hamilton: An American Musical, Frozen, Days of Wine and Roses, Pictures from Home, Diana the Broadway Musical, Tootsie, and the National Broadway Tour of Newsies.
Kathryn most recently designed Dylan Mulvaney's 365 Girlhood performance at the Rainbow Room in NYC. She also designed feature film titled American Insurrection, streaming on Showtime and Paramount Plus, Foreign Nationals, SC7NARIO (BroadwayHD).
Her unique background and experience in both Broadway and film/tv gives her a unique perspective in artistic exploration, using the art elements to tell a story in a meaningful and special way.
ig @kbailey4595 | kathrynbaileydesigns.com -
Cyrus Gainer
ART DIRECTOR. As a black and queer filmmaker and production designer, Cyrus enjoys telling stories that challenge our understanding of our realities. Their art work has been featured in Sundance & Tribeca as well as Nowness and Outfest.
Beginning their artistic career as an actor, Cyrus has always been surrounded by the arts and storytelling. Five years ago they moved to New York to study Drama and Film at NYU Tisch School of the Arts where their desire to tell deeper abrasive queer stories brought them to directing.
Design has always been important to their work by creating a dynamic visual pallet that furthers the themes of the stories they tell. In the past year they have had the opportunity to design for Rodney Chrome, Sabrina Song and The Wonder Years, and work in the art department for iD Magazine, Converse and Showtime. Cyrus loves to explore essences of our humanity through exciting genres like sci-fi, horror and experimental filmmaking techniques. It's their goal as a director to tell surreal, diverse and queer stories which push and provoke audiences' perspectives.
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Dan Brennan
POST PRODUCTION SOUND MIXER. With 2 Emmy nominations and over 15 years of experience working in audio post-production in New York City, Dan has filled many roles on various projects including sound supervisor, re-recording mixer, dialogue editor, sound designer, and foley editor. His credits encompass popular projects such as Dr. Death, Genius: Aretha, Righteous Gemstones, Sorry to Bother You, Dragged Across Concrete, and Brawl in Cell Block 99.
CAST
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Carly Gold
CLAIRE. Carly Gold (AEA, SAG-E) is a NYC based actress/singer and is thrilled to be a part of Pulpitum! Carly began as a theater actor, performing the role of Small Alison in the National Tour of Fun Home, directed by Sam Gold, and went on to make her Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning play The Ferryman, directed by Sam Mendes. TV roles include playing Heather in an episode of Evil on CBS. She has done a variety of voice-over work and performed and produced several Cabaret benefit events to support local and national charities.
Carly is represented by Victoria Kress at The Osbrink Agency.
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Martin Fisher
PASTOR SHELTON. Martin Fisher recently performed at Lincoln Center with Mario Van Peebles in the multimedia stage play MVP, based on the life of his father, the iconic film director, Melvin Van Peebles and with the New York City Opera in Tosca at Bryant Park in Manhattan. In 2022, Martin joined the Broadway National Tour of My Fair Lady and is the first Black actor in Broadway history to perform the role of Alfred P. Doolittle. He is the Winter 2023 cover artist for Classical Singer Magazine. Off Broadway: The Sporting Life of Icarus Jones (The Drama League). Film/TV roles FBI: Most Wanted, Blue Bloods (CBS), American Rust (Prime Video), Extrapolations (AppleTV+), Lioness (Paramount+) New Amsterdam, The Blacklist (NBC), Wu-Tang: An American Saga, Monsterland (Hulu). Upcoming: American Sports Story:Gladiators (FX), Sinking Spring (AppleTV+), and A Complete Unknown directed by James Mangold.
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Hudson Paul
MICHAEL. Hudson Paul is a 13-year-old American actor. TV: Chicago PD, Blue Bloods, upcoming Apple TV+ limited series, Law & Order: SVU, New Amsterdam, Up Here, Saturday Night Live, and Sesame Street. Film: Regarding Us (upcoming feature film), Vanitas (short), and The Spanish Lesson (short). Nominated for Best Young Actor at the 2023 Young Entertainer Awards for the Off-Broadway Drama Desk and Drama League nominated play Oresteia. Winner of Best Child Actor at the 2024 New York International Film Awards. Hudson can also be seen in many commercials and voice overs including recently alongside Tony Hale in a National Verizon commercial.
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Johanna Putnam
MELISSA. Johanna is an award-winning actor, writer and director based in Brooklyn. She studied Film & Theater at Dartmouth College and can be seen in a range of films, including Project Greenlight's Feast Trilogy and the coming-of-age drama, July Rising. She won myriad performance accolades on the festival circuit, including Best Actress, Breakthrough Performance and Rising Star, for her lead role in the narrative feature film, Shudderbugs, releasing in fall 2024.
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Joe Avellar
JOHN. Joe is an Emmy Award-winning TV reporter returning to his first love of acting. He has had recurring roles on Blue Bloods and Gotham, as well as guest-starring on American Horror Story, The Deuce, and Zero Days. As a voice actor, he has recorded more than 30 audiobooks including best-selling authors' Matthew Reilly's "Lost Two Mountains" and "One Impossible Labyrinth", and Kjell Erickson's "The Deathwatch Beetle," "The Night of the Fire," and "Open Grave." He's thrilled to play a dark role in Pulpitum.
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Brynn Orlowski
ZOE. Brynn Rose Orlowski is a New York based actress. She is so excited to make her professional acting debut in Pulpitum! Brynn got her start at age 6 performing in local theater as Baby Anna in Frozen, Jr. and has continued to enjoy playing a broad range of roles since then including Medda Larkin in Newsies, Jr. and the Sour Kangaroo in Seussical. She also enjoys playing flute and volleyball. Brynn is represented by Edge Entertainment Management.
CREW
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Megan Catalfamo
HAIR & MAKEUP. Megan is a producer, HMU artist and filmmaker from Toronto, Ontario. She has experience in producing and HMU for film, theatre, and commercials. Megan has worked on films such as Minor, Teen Getaway, and Operation: Cavity. Most recently, she was a producer on Trapped, which won the Special Jury Award at SXSW Film Festival. Aside from filmmaking, Megan has made a career in education, with a strong focus on the arts. She works at Silvermine Productions as a producer, HMU artist and in-house creative.
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Greg Vardhami
BOOM OPERATOR. Greg Vardhami is a New York City Production Sound Mixer and Boom Operator who specializes in audio recording for film. He has worked on multiple indie narrative projects and union features as a member of the Sound Department. His love for music, movies and audio engineering all contribute to the way he thinks about sound
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Camila Herrera
2ND ASSISTANT DIRECTOR.
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Rowan Salhi
KEY PRODUCTION ASSISTANT/SET PHOTOGRAPHER. Rowan Salhi is a photographer and filmmaker who has spent his entire life creating. Starting as an actor at the age of 13 he discovered a passion for the art of filmmaking. In college, he transitioned to working behind the camera and studied photography under Kevin Salemme, eventually publishing his first exhibit, Being Merrimack, in the spring of 2023. Rowan is a Communications and Digital Media Production graduate from Merrimack College and is currently working as a 2nd AC and Production Assistant in New York City.
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Erica Matz
SCRIPT SUPERVISOR. Erica Matz is a New York-based Script Supervisor with an MFA in Film and Television from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Drawing on her experiences teaching swimming lessons on the beaches of Long Island and her love for running, Erica navigates the evolving film industry with resilience and purpose. She takes her role as a part-time philosopher seriously, elevating every project she works on.
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Lindsey Trop
HAIR & MAKEUP ASSISTANT. Lindsey is an award-winning makeup artist with over a decade of experience working on film and television, as well as on commercial shoots and runway.
