Robin Russin is an American playwright, screenwriter, author and educator.
Education
Russin was educated at Harvard, Oxford, the Rhode Island School of Design, and UCLA, where he received his MFA in screenwriting. Russin taught screenwriting at UCLA in their undergraduate and graduate film departments as well as their Professional Program from 1994 to 2002. He is currently Professor of Screenwriting and has served as Director of the MFA for Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts at UC Riverside.
Career
Russin has written for film, theater, television and various national publications, including Scrpt Magazine. Additionally, he co-authored Screenplay: Writing the Picture and Naked Playwriting. Screenplay: Writing the Picture was reviewed by Lew Hunter, co-chair of UCLA's screenwriting department, as the "best book about screenwriting and being a screenwriter ever written." Among Russin's entertainment credits are the #1 box office feature On Deadly Ground, the eco-thriller starring Steven Seagal and Michael Caine, and many of his other feature spec scripts have been either bought or put under option by both studio and independent producers. Russin has been a producer on both independent and TV movies, and in television, he wrote, produced and directed numerous segments and specials for America's Most Wanted and The Prosecutors. He was Senior Producer of the hour-long ABC primetime series, Vital Signs. In 2015 he sold his original pilot and series bible about King David to ABC, which became the basis for the ABC 2016 prime time one-hour series, Of Kings and Prophets, for which Russin was consultant. In 2017 Russin directed the feature film, When I Sing, about independent singer-songwriter Linda Chorney's journey to the Grammy Awards, and co-starring Chris Mulkey. When I Sing won the People's Choice Award at the 2018 Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival, and the Remi Special Jury Award for best low budget feature at the 2018 Worldfest Houston Film Festival, among many other awards. He also co-wrote the screenplay for 2 Hearts, a 2020 feature starring Jacob Elordi and Radha Mitchell, and directed by Lance Hool. Among his plays is Painted Eggs, which was reviewed by The Los Angeles Times as "ambitious, heart-felt and hypnotic," and Dramalogue called "a glorious treat and a wonderful lesson in love." He regularly writes and directs for the Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica, California, which premiered his play "The Face in the Reeds" in 2014. He also has directed numerous theatrical productions, including The Merchant of Venice at the Barbara and Art Culver Center for the Arts, and written extensively about the play in Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies: "The Triumph of the Golden Fleece: Women, Money, Religion, and Power in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice"|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/shofar/v031/31.3.russin.html. He also writes occasionally for the Jewish Women's Theater, a salon ensemble group. While at UCLA, Russin was Story Editor on the campus sitcom Good News, Bad News, and was awarded two Jack Nicholson Awards for excellence in screenwriting. He also directed several short films, was twice a finalist in Chanticleer's "Discovery" program for new directors, and has won or been a finalist in the ScriptPIMP, The Movie Deal, Award Winning Screenwriters, Northwest Film Forum, and other competitions.
Personal life
Born and raised in Wyoming and Italy, Russin currently lives in Los Angeles. He also works as a sculptor, and has taught art, literature and art history.
