Biography
Rich Guay is a New York based producer, screenwriter, consultant and teacher. He has produced fifteen feature length films and documentaries beginning his career as a production auditor for such filmmakers as John Sayles, Mike Nichols and Jonathan Demme.
His first producing effort, which he also co-wrote, was "True Love". The film was the Grand Jury Prize Winner at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award as Best Picture. Guay produced "Dogfight" starring River Phoenix and Lili Taylor for Warner Bros. and followed that up by co-writing and producing "Household Saints" starring Tracey Ullman and Lili Taylor. Ms Taylor won the Spirit Award for Best Actress and Guay was nominated, as co-writer, for Best Screenplay.
Guay produced the HBO film "Subway Stories", a feature length anthology of short films by various directors including Jonathan Demme, Ted Demme, Abel Ferrara and Alison MacLean. His next film, "The 24 Hour Woman", an original comedy he co-wrote and produced premiered at the Sundance Festival. The film stars Academy Award nominees Rosie Perez and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.
Next was "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai", written and directed by Jim Jarmusch and starring Forest Whitaker. The film was an official selection to the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Picture.
In 2001 Guay produced the movie version of the hit one-woman show, "Reno: Rebel Without A Pause", winner of The Prize for Peace & Liberty from the City of Florence. He followed that up with "Dirt", an original feature that he co-wrote with Savoca. The film won Best Director at the Los Angeles Latino Film Festival and Best Actress at La Cinema Fe in New York. DIRT also won the top prize at El Cojo Festival in Madrid and the script was nominated for a Writer's Guild Award for Best Original Long Form Teleplay.
Guay was the co-producer of "Kinsey", written and directed by Bill Condon and starring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney. The film received four Independent Spirit Award Nominations including Best Picture and Ms. Linney was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Recently he was the Associate Producer of "Shutter" shot entirely on location in Tokyo for New Regency.
Guay has worked as a production executive for Orion Pictures, Film Finances, United Artists and New Regency. He has also served as a production accountant, first assistant director, production manager and post production supervisor.
As a teacher, he has given master classes in producing at schools around the world. He has taught in Colombia, Brazil and Argentina for the Motion Picture Association of America as well as at The University of Amsterdam's Binger Institute, in Mumbai at Whistling Woods Film School, in Jordan for the Royal Film Commission and at The Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts, at the Escuela Internacional del Cine y Television in Cuba and at Universidad Veritas in Costa Rica.
While working as a Vice President at Entertainment Partners, Guay wrote the Academic Curriculum for both Movie Magic Budgeting and Scheduling which has been implemented in film schools across the United States
Guay has been an Artist-in-Residence at the MFA program at City College of New York where he teaches a production class and spent several semesters at New York University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies.
He produced "Union Square" starring Oscar winner Mira Sorvino, Emmy winner Tammy Blanchard and Tony winner Patti Lupone premiered at the Toronto Film Festival as well as "Clover" starring Chazz Palminteri, Jon Abrahams and Mark Webber.
He is working on two independent features - "The Secret Magdalene", an adaptation of the Ki Longfellow novel and "Sanctuary" a film about immigration that he co-wrote.
