Twentyfiveish, Best Dramedy Nominee, a Must-See Entry at the Vancouver Web Fest April 19-21, 2018

Brendan Robinson (Pretty Little Liars) leads an award-winning, diverse cast in a fun, modern take on #adulting

 

VANCOUVER, BC – The 5th annual Vancouver Web Festival (VWF) running April 19-21, 2018 will present a web series by rising talent and Vancouver native, Katie Micay titled Twentyfiveish.

Twentyfiveish follows five characters who grew up together but parted ways after high school. Rosie (Katelyn Tarver), Griffin (Ben Welch), Tucker (Brendan Robinson) and Stella (Valerie Lucas) are all at very different points in their lives and facing their own challenges. Now approaching twenty-five, they meet up for a long weekend at a beach house. They are forced to navigate their complicated history and examine old feelings and wounds. The arrival of an unexpected guest, Ben (Ritesh Rajan), upends the group’s normal dynamic and forces them to face their regrets, fears and the realization that, in the 7 years since high school, maybe they haven’t changed quite as much as they thought.

Katie Micay co-wrote Twentyfiveish with Kyle Bown and Jacquelyn Ryan. Bown has worked in television for the better part of a decade.  He’s spent time on many shows, including Fringe, The Mentalist, Dark Blue and Moonlight before landing at Pretty Little Liars where he co-wrote two episodes as well as series of PLL webisodes. Over the past couple of years, Jacquelyn Ryan has worked as Production Supervisor on Freeform TV shows Pretty Little Liars and Famous In Love and as Production Coordinator on the John Wells’ production American Woman. Ryan recently produced the web series Slave 4U and Hers and History. She is the founder of the nonprofit Wide Angle Film Center, supporting a more sustainable and diverse media industry. Ryan joined the Producers Guild of America in 2017.

After completing a very successful crowd funding campaign and gathering a large social media following, Twentyfiveish premiered as a finalist in Seed & Spark’s New Voice Rally at Seriesfest in 2017. After screening at many festivals, including ITVFest, Orlando Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, amongst others, Twentyfiveish is making its Canadian Premiere in Katie Micay’s hometown Vancouver.

“From the start, we knew casting would be crucial,” notes Co-Writer/Producer Kyle Bown. “We brought on Brendan Robinson (Pretty Little Liars) very early. He was excited about the project and eager to both act and produce. We were very lucky to get Katelyn Tarver (Big Time Rush) and Ritesh Rajan (Stitchers), both of them really related to the subject matter. From there we did casting sessions and were so grateful to find Valerie Lucas and Benjamin Welch, who both did amazing auditions.”

Brendan Robinson (Tucker) is an American actor known for playing Lucas Gottesman on the Freeform series Pretty Little Liars. In addition, he has also worked on Cold Case, Miss Behave, Review with Forrest MacNeil, How I Met Your Mother, Weeds and Bones. Twentyfiveish is Brendan’s first foray into producing.

Ritesh Rajan (Vikram) played Linus Ahluwalia on the Freeform series Stitchers. He also played Mowgli’s father in Disney’s 2016 Oscar winning film The Jungle Book.

Katelyn Tarver (Rosie) is an American actress and singer. She is known for her recurring roles as Jo Taylor on the Nickelodeon series Big Time Rush, Natalie on the ABC Series No Ordinary Family, Mercedes on the ABC Family series The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and on Marlene King’s new series Famous In Love. Katelyn released an EP of music, titled Tired Eyes, last year. Her music video “You Don’t Know” has 23 million hits on YouTube.

Valerie Lucas (Stella) is an actress and producer, known for iCarly, DriverX and Twelve.

Benjamin Welch (Griffin) is known for his work in Homicide Hunter, Good Girls and Torn.

Twentyfiveish evolved as we were writing it.” notes Katie Micay. “Turning 25 puts a new perspective on things. It’s when suddenly your decisions hold a lot more weight. You’re expected to have answers, not questions. And your choices open up new paths and close others. But I also think people grow apart sometimes as they grow older and that can really hurt. That’s a part that I didn’t expect. I had just gone through a massive, devastating breakup with my best friend and I was blindsided. So we started writing from there because friendship breakups are complex and aren’t often talked about. Then we built out the world and all the other characters.”

About Director Katie Micay

Katie Micay graduated from Loyola Marymount University’s film production program. Her first short film, For Love, created at New York Film Academy’s summer program at age 14, is nearing 4,000 hits on YouTube. Her short film Limited Engagement was an Official Selection for the Los Angeles Women’s International Film Festival and received an Award of Merit at Women’s Independent Film Festival. Micay also received a nomination for Film Outside The Frame, LMU’s annual student awards and film festival, for her writing. Her short film My So Called Family was an Official Selection for Bel Air Film Festival. Her short film Flirt was an Official Selection for the Reality Bytes Film Festival, and she is currently developing it as a feature.

Micay’s latest short film The Firefly Girls, starring Savannah Paige Rae (Parenthood), just finished an impressive run of 10 film festivals, including Mill Valley Film Festival, San Diego International Film Festival and Omaha Film Festival.

Micay loves to draw from personal experience when creating a story. My So Called Family was a loose, comedic account of her great aunt’s passing away the week of her grandson’s Bar Mitzvah. Don’t worry, this aunt was a stand up comedian and would have enjoyed the film! Flirt was inspired by Micay’s experiences in college. The Firefly Girls started out as a cute, whimsical story but quickly developed into something very personal. It helped her process the sudden passing of her aunt.

Twentyfiveish was created while Micay was dealing with her own quarter-life crisis.

 

For press interviews and photos please contact:

Lesley Diana | Lesley@thepromotionpeople.ca | 604-726-5575

Social Media Handles:

Website: www.twentyfiveish.com

Facebook: @twentyfiveish

Twitter: @Twentyfiveish

Instagram: @Twentyfiveish