In the Can

Cast & Crew

Crew:

Alicia Arinella: Producer/Director - Company credits include: Fine Line Features, New Line Cinema, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Noggin, Granada Kids, Little Airplane Productions, Playhouse Disney, and New York Stage and Film. Alicia is the founder of On the Leesh Productions. With OTL, Alicia has produced a number of theater projects including: the Naked Angels Issues Project: Democracy, Help Me Help Myself, Our Time Theatre Company’s 3rd Annual Benefit, SIN: A New Fashioned Spectacle of Legendary Vice, and most recently, Masquerade: calypso and home with terraNOVA Collective. She's produced eight short films which have screened at over 25 film festivals world wide. She is the lead producer of the widely popular web series The In-Betweens of Holly Malone, and recently produced and directed the feature film, For Belly.

Diana Whitten: Co-Directed and Production Design (Season 1), Director of Photography (Season 2) - Diana Whitten comes to On the Leesh Productions with a background in photography and sculpture/installation work. In addition to the several films she designed with On the Leesh, she has done design work for Nowhere But Up Productions, Pterodactyl Films, and Analyle Films, the latter for which she also wrote and directed. Theater design credits include work with Manhattan Children’s Theater, the Naked Angels, the Rattlestick Theater, First Night Boston, Our Time Theater, and Midtown International Theater Festival. Her television credits include work with the Little Airplane Production Company for Disney Children’s Programming, Nickelodeon, and the Noggin Channel. She recently designed a video and a series of staged productions for Mike Myers, for his film in development, “The Love Guru.” Her own sculpture and installation artwork has been exhibited in New York, Boston, Worcester, MA, Portland, OR, across the country in The Space Between Project, and in Bali, Indonesia where she lived and studied the Javanese and Balinese Shadow Theater on a Fulbright Fellowship. She is currently seeking a masters degree in Media and Conflict Resolution and developing her thesis work, a documentary on international reproductive rights.

Julie Tortorici: Writer - Julie's writing credits include the short film, "Table for Three," the play "Committed," the one-woman show "Belly" and the feature film adaptation called, "For Belly." Julie is also looking for financing for her romantic comedy screenplay "Waltzing Emily" which was a finalist in a couple of screenplay contests. She's currently working on her first novel.

Ben Jurin: Director of Photography (Season 1) - Ben Jurin is a Brooklyn-based digital film maker and freelance editor and Director of Photography. His short movies, including "Guy In A Gorilla Suit" and "Why Must I Be A Zombie In Love?" have screened at festivals around the country (and, for some reason, aboard Virgin Airlines flights...). Clients include On The Leesh Productions, Amalgamated Advertising, BigThink.com, ByteCaster, and Thought & Expression. He has just completed his latest horror short, "Even". He is a founding member of ReelSweetBetty Filmgroup. For more information, please visit www.spectaclegrinder.com

Joe Amon: Sound Operator - Joe graduated in 2005, from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. While attending School, Joe worked professionally as a production assistant for the feature Mama’s Boy, and as an extras coordinator for the feature Johnny Slade’s Greatest Hits. After leaving school, Joe stayed in Boston to work for the Feature film The Departed as a property coordinator, during the film’s exterior shooting. Recently, Joe spent the first half of 2006 working as a management assistant for the up and coming Sarasota Film Festival. Most recently, Joe was the Prop Master of the short film Trio and was the Location Manager of the short film Money Game directed by Tom Cavanaugh. With OTL he’s worked on Belly, The Things We Know, Denim, Claire, For Belly, The In-Betweens of Holly Malone, In the Can and A Yorkshire Fairie Tale.

Cast Bios

Phillipa Phillips.... Marina Kotovnikov: Marina is delighted to be working with the On the Leesh team again! She played Claire in their production of HELP ME HELP MYSELF in NYC and Boston. NY Stage Credits include: Jo in A TASTE OF HONEY directed by John Gould Rubin (Playwrights Horizons Studio Theatre), Carol in UNPUBLISHED LETTERS (Circle in the Square Downtown), Betty in ON ROUTE (Theater for the New City), Pepsi in HOT BUTTERED BOURBON (Ensemble Studio Theatre and Neighborhood Playhouse), Rita in UNCOMMON WOMEN & OTHERS (Greenwich Street Theatre), Olivia in HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA (Kraine Theatre). FILM/TV: SEX AND THE CITY, LAW & ORDER:CRIMINAL INTENT, THIRD WATCH, GHOST STORIES, & numerous Indies. Abundant love and thanks to my family.

Cyrus Borg.... Christopher Borg: Actor & director, devoted husband, struggling writer, and occasional dialect coach, improv artist, back-up vocalist and stand-up comic. Borg played Paul in On the Leesh's, WHAT ARE THE ODDS? and Borg in IN THE CAN. Trained at the Shakespeare Theatre (DC) and the University of Utah, he's been hogging the stage for 20 years in NYC and elsewhere. Borg is a member of three NY companies including the Award-winning New York Neo-Futurists and has garnered 2 OOBR Awards, and nominations for a GLAAD Media Award, an HX Award and an IT Award. He originated the role of Eddie in the 2008 Off-Broadway hit THE PLAY ABOUT THE NAKED GUY.

Bernice.... Julie Tortorici: Julie has been seen in a number of shows throughout NYC. Among them, she appeared in the 2003 Int'l Fringe Festival with her one-woman show, BELLY, HELP ME HELP MYSELF (in NY and Boston), COMMITTED and BALM IN GILEAD. Some of Julie's films/webseries credits include: THE IN-BETWEENS OF HOLLY MALONE, THE SEXUALLY, IN THE CAN, TABLE FOR THREE, FOR BELLY AND I'M SORRY MELISSA. Julie was also the lead voice in the yet to be released animated pilot, PEARL'S WORLD.

Sally.... Jessica Arinella: Selected NY Credits: Tape (Naked Angels, dir. Geoffrey Nauffts), The Naked Angels Lab (Premiere), The Democracy Project (Naked Angels, With Mark Margolis), Sin (On the Leesh Productions), Antigone (Pilot House).) Harper Lee’s Husband ( Samuel French) Regional Theatre: Rough Crossing ( Northern Stage D. Nancy Robillard) New York Stage & Film: Break (OTLP & Naked Angels, w/ Frank Wood). Film & Television Credits: ”Rescue Me” , “Six Degrees”, “Love Monkey,” “Law & Order” ,“What are the Odds?” (OTLP) “The Pink House” (Cineblast! and Asset Pictures), “Cupidity” (D. John Gallagher) “For Belly” (OTLP) “The In betweens of Holly Malone” ( Blip.tv) “In the Can” ( Blip.tv)

Jonathon.... Matt Rashid - NY Theatre: Fear Project (Naked Angels, dir. Rob Morrow), Naked Angels Lab (Premiere), Democracy Project (Naked Angels, dir. Pippin Parker), Sin (On the Leesh Productions), Syria, America (Emerging Artists Theatre). New York Stage & Film: Break: Surviving the Recovery (OTLP & Naked Angels, w/ Tony award winner Frank Wood). NY Stand-up Comedy: Caroline’s Comedy Club, Gotham Comedy Club, Don’t Tell Mama’s, Nuyorican Poet’s Café. Film & Television Credits include: Law & Order (NBC), Mad About You (NBC), Table for Three (OTLP), Soap Scum (OTLP). Currently in the Nano-series The In-Betweens of Holly Malone (blip.tv). MFA, Actor’s Studio Drama Program, The New School.

Millie.... Ellen Reilly - Ellen has been playing sketchy characters since 1986, when she graduated from the 2-Year Junior College Accelerated Thursday Night Adults Program with a (framed) Certificate in Sketchiness, College of New Rochelle… and that's the only part of this bio that isn't true. Ellen's other credits include many, many comedies, a few dramas, fewer commercials than she would like, some audio books she wishes other people would like, some budget costuming, an unfinished independent film here and there, lots of corporate videos, a little producing, improv improv improv, you know… She's a serial theater company joiner-upper. Get a load of this -- Company Member: Emerging Artists Theatre; Courthouse Theatre Company; TOSOS II; The Improvoholics. Her latest roles on stage have been satisfying to her, and often to the audience as well. If you care to know what they were, here you go: Mrs. Anderson in "The Play About the Naked Guy," Carolina in "Sister Cities," Miss Havasnort and Mr. Bunting in "Penny Penniworth," Leslie J. McMahon in "Bernadette and The Butcher of Broadway" and "Tonylust"… oh there were lots of them. Thank you for reading this.

DeeDuu.... Desmond Dutcher - Desmond has performed in many Off-Off-Broadway productions in New York with a variety of different theatre companies. As a member of Emerging Artists Theatre he was seen in Undercurrents; Is That A Gun In Your Pocket…?; Markie 7722; Morons, and the hit The Gay Naked Play. Also a company member of TOSOS II, Desmond played in Bernadette & The Butcher of Broadway; F**k Off!; and Doric Wilson's Street Theatre. At Wings Theatre he played the title character in the mystery Murder Uncensored and the role of "X" in Better Now for the evening of one-acts called Beyond Christopher Street. Before that he was part of an Evening of Grand Guignol Horror portraying the unfortunate man in the piece Vagina Dentata with Nosedive Productions, for whom he also acted the role of Nephew Fred in their version of A Christmas Carol. In D.C., Desmond played "Bosie" in Gross Indecency at Studio Theatre, "Pandor" in Pericles at the Washington Shakespeare Company and "Mikey" in Sheer Madness at The Kennedy Center. In camera Desmond plays the role of JD in the upcoming indie film Whirlwind and with On The Leesh Productions Desmond can be seen playing a painter in What Are the Odds?; an ambassador in Belly, and the errant DeeDu in the series In The Can.

CHARACTER BIOS


Cyrus Borg: Cyrus happily heads up the In the Can Productions Team. He comes to this baby bird of a production company with a Masters in heartfelt gratitude and can’t wait to give his Oscars speech at the Independent Spirit Awards. As Mr. A’s (In the Can’s fearless leader and CEO) go-to-guy, Borg has had the opportunity to work in various large-scale industrial projects including forging new territory in the making of license plates, large-scale laundry projects and the honing of the fastest way to peel potatoes.

Bernice Williams: Office Manager and Resident Computer Expert - Bernice has been awarded the title of Post-It Brand Post-It Queen three years running. Since graduating from University, Bernice has had the absolute pleasure of working with Cyrus Borg in his various professional endeavors and she looks forward to continuing her work with him in the days to come. As the office manager, Bernice enjoys the smell of a newly opened ream of paper and the power of a staple.

Sally: Director of Acquisitions – Sally is an actor. Sally would like to thank her creator, Stephanie from the MAC counter at Macy’s Herald Square. Sally would also like to say that as Director of Acquisitions, she thinks that writers should focus more on stories about women. Who are 27. And blonde. And a size 0. Semi-nudity is okay. Her heroes are: Meryl Streep, Jessica Alba, the often under-rated Paris Hilton and herself.

Jonathon: Intern – This bio is currently being translated from Shyriiwook.

Millie: Resident Production Designer – “All things I do are in every woman. Every woman is Medea. Every woman is Jocasta. There comes a time when a woman is a mother to her husband. Clytemnestra is every woman when she kills.” – Martha Graham