About Riley Buchanan

Riley Buchanan is a junior in USC’s School of Cinematic Arts earning a B.F.A. in Film and Television Production and a minor in Business Finance from the Marshall School of Business. He currently works as a creative development intern for Thunder Road Films and has been the lead singer, guitarist, co-writer, and manager in

alternative-rock band Visit Neptune since 2017.

An avid consumer of film as much as he is a producer of it, Riley has been honing his filmmaking skills since childhood. From creating comedic Youtube skits in his youth to writing and directing dramatic shorts in recent months, Riley has been a filmmaker for over a decade. Although he attended an all-boys Catholic high school with low-calorie creative resources, he founded his own clubs and initiated his own projects to enrich and foster an artistic community that continues to flourish in his hometown of Tampa, FL. He earned Valedictorian and persists in his passion for academics.

If prompted, Riley’s mom would gladly share home-videos of his four-year-old escapades as a rockstar, dancing pant-less on table tops and shredding the air guitar. She would say the creativity resides in his blood. Riley, though, believes the proof is in the pudding. His work ethic is relentless, and though he appreciates accolades such as Best Director at the 2020 Gasparilla International Film Festival , his hunger to learn and produce greater and greater material is insatiable.