Rikki Todd Kearsley, is a American Director, actor, and singer-songwriter, and recording artist whose media encompasses both the visual and the auditory. As a singer-songwriter and producer Rikki Todd's vision of traditional American music has been formed by his upbringing in a Native American/African American family and has evolved in the light of Country, Blues, Tradional R&B, Jazz, and Rock music influences. As a director his roots as an aerial photographer, videographer, and broadcast engineer in the worlds of sports and live news broadcasting give an enhanced realism to his imagery. Having worked for NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, and the BBC in New York, Washington, DC as an Aerial Photographer before and after 9-11, and Austin, Texas Rikki has a hard edge to his imagery with a softer more subtle side to his storytelling. His favorite director is Stanley Kubrick and he styles himself in that vein. However, he directs more organically, preferring to allow his subjects to manifest themselves naturally with a higher level of improvisational freedom so as to not force the outcome of a scene, but to let it draw to it's natural conclusion in the context of the story being told. "Let great actors "ACT"! Don't force them...guide them to the conclusion of a scene." He produces his records in the same manner, allowing the artists to play what they feel is appropriate for the song. Hence, the Director's/Producer's choice of the artist is pivotal weather it be for a role in a film or the piano player in a traditional style Country recording session. These things remain the same.

After attending the State University of New York's College at New Paltz for Electrical Engineering, R.T. went back to Austin, Texas to be with his girlfriend who was attending the University of Texas. Being in Austin and having been only two dozen miles from Woodstock R.T. was heavily impacted by the Hippie counter cultural influences still present in these progressive Meccas. This coupled with his early penchant for films such as Dr. Strangelove, Apocolypse Now, and Blazing Saddles, and musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and the Grateful Dead these influences made storytelling a central theme and primary thrust of his music videos and other productions. Having cut his teeth working on music videos for Aerosmith, Fleetwood Mac, and shows like Dick Clark's Live at the Palace in L.A. during the mid to late 80's and early 90's, RT has a more traditional approach to directing and production. He believes in having a smaller cross trained crew like Kubrick. Not a sprawling cattle call of one trick ponies prancing around the set performing only one task.

R.T. Kearsley lives in Austin, Texas and works independently on both his video and music related projects with his elite team of hand picked professionals. For more on R.T.Kearsley and his production projects, please go to rikkitodd.com or his Rikki Todd YouTube channel. You can also look him up on Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, or one of over two dozen digital music platforms under the moniker "Rikki Todd". Thank you.