Before he threw his lot in with the thespians, Ian had a rather unrelated career path. He wanted to be an astrophysicist. When asked at his fifth grade graduation where he saw himself in ten years he answered, casually, with “exploring faster than light travel.” Despite his scientific ambitions, he did not end up inventing the Alcubierre drive (look it up, it's really cool) he did however go to USC and spent 4(5) years learning how to make animal noises, and “be present in the space.” His parents are very proud of him.

In all seriousness, Ian’s artistic practice is thoroughly informed by his love of science and passion for being meticulous. He delights in finding details that others might dismiss as irrelevant, and blows them up into universes all their own. His feature film Serov was born of one such minute detail. While reading a biography of Joseph Stalin (for another project not for fun) he came across a footnote that read, “in some versions of the story Nikolai Yezhov was killed by I.V. Serov.” A year later (and half a million views on YouTube) Ian and his friends at Some Dude Productions made an entire feature film about I.V. (really I.A.) Serov, which, according to his friend Vladimir, “captured the spirit of the time.” Someone should get Vladimir to review for the New Yorker.

Ian is also greatly inspired by his sister, Sascha. At a young age she became fascinated with Russian history and culture (Ian and Sascha are Russian on their Dad’s side), and the interest soon spread to Ian. Her passion for authenticity led to a nearly decade long dialogue between the siblings as they discussed Bulgakov, Godless Utopia, and their favorite, the 1991 animated short film Hen, His Wife, by Igor Kovalyov.

Another hallmark of Ian’s art is the omnipresence of music. Ian is a classically trained cellist who studied under David Krieger, a pupil of the legendary cellist Janos Starker. Ian incorporates music into every narrative piece he works on, whether by performing himself, composing, or leading a rag tag band of American college students in the singing of Russian folk songs for a production of The Seagull.

In his spare time, Ian has no spare time. If he isn’t filming leaves drifting through a river for an hour, he’s writing an essay on the virtues of Finnish museums, or practicing the Bach cello suites, or painting Warhammer figurines, or playing Dungeons and Dragons with a zeal that startles the lay folk. Ian is always in motion, living his life with the whimsy of a house cat, and the seriousness of a children’s game.