Ryan Mekenian is an award-winning Armenian-American filmmaker, photographer, and musician with an MFA in Film & TV Production from USC. His work focuses on crafting authentic and nuanced stories about the human experience, drawing inspiration from his diverse background and the world around him.

Ryan directed Spokespeople, a short documentary highlighting Los Angeles’ vibrant cycling communities. The film has garnered acclaim, winning Best Documentary Short at the Rhode Island International Film Festival & the Annapolis Film Festival and screening at Oscar-qualifying festivals such as the Santa Fe International Film Festival, Edmonton International Film Festival, Bogotá Short Film Festival, and the Cannes Film Festival. Ryan’s feature script, The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair, won the 2021 Screenwriting Discovery Award Grand Prize at the Rhode Island International Film Festival and was named a quarterfinalist by the Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. ShortsTV and Kanopy have distributed his work.

At a young age, Ryan’s creative journey began with his mom’s Minolta XG7 camera. It was further nurtured at the Orange County School of the Arts, where a guest visit from Francis Ford Coppola inspired his directing ambitions. He later honed his craft at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He worked alongside legendary artists like Des McAnuff and Aaron Sorkin on Broadway productions and Jennifer Aniston, Sam Rockwell, Liev Schreiber, and Chris Rock in The 24 Hour Plays. After earning his MFA from USC, Ryan continues to explore themes of identity, family, and dreams in his storytelling.

He is an Associate Producer on the long-running game show Family Feud.