Blue Means Pregnant Team
Joe Black - Founder
Joe Black is an award winning filmmaker with over a dozen feature film credits to his name as writer/ director/editor. Graduating from D.A.S.O.T.A. in 2006 with an Arts Seal in Film and Television Production, Joe has worked in both documentary and narrative film, along with production work in live television and music videos. In 2013, his feature length film, The Yellow Bellies, was a Prize Winner of the Pollygrind Film Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2017, based on the merits of his extensive body of independent work, Joe was hand-selected to direct Academy Award-winning screen legend, Gena Rowlands in her final on-screen performance in the short film, Pulling Strings. As a prolific filmmaker with an ever-growing list of ties to many industry veterans, Joe has turned his company Blue Means Pregnant Films into the spearhead of the new independent Hollywood movement.
Joe O’Neil - Co-Founder
Joe O’Neil is an award winning Art Director and Production Designer with experience in live television such as America’s Got Talent and The American Country Music Awards, as well as short and feature- length narrative films including The Yellow Bellies in 2013 and Hate Horses in 2014. He graduated from Carnegie Melon University with a BFA in Scenic Design.
Christina Myers Hepburn - Producer
Christina Myers Hepburn is a producer, comedienne/actress, and content creator. She graduated from Columbia University in NY, where she also directed a fully funded production of The Vagina Monologues, raising $20,000 in proceeds for women’s shelters. In addition to producing four feature length films for Blue Means Pregnant Films, Christina also produced/created the popular internet series AutocorrectFU (featured on Funny or Die & Elizabeth Banks’ Whohaha) and T&A Talk Sex — a podcast with over 50,000 monthly subscribers that was featured on MTV & NBC. IN 2017, her original script, Woman Up, was a Sundance Labs semi-finalist. As an actress, Hepburn has acted for and with many industry veterans (including the producers of Before Midnight and Cannes- winning The Lobster). Most recently she co-starred with Stephen Tobolowsky in the sitcom pilot Asleep At the Wheel, and as the title character in the sci-fi pilot Violet’s New Life directed by Lady Gaga documentarian Kim Ray.
Frequent Collaborators
Jimmy Arteaga
Jimmy Arteaga is a Los Angeles based cinematographer with a degree from Columbia College Chicago and over half a dozen feature length films to his credit. Jimmy has also applied his knowledge and expertise to post production, acting as a free-lance editor and colorist.
Jason Black
Jason Black graduated from the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts film program in 2013, and has worked on almost every BMP project from the beginning, filling positions such as Actor, PA, VFX artist, Camera Operator, Costume Coordinator etc. In 2016 Jason founded the production company Fan-Go Media LLC and has since worked primarily in the realm of cosplay photography and other fandom related media.
Cat Chengery
Cat Chengery is a theatre based artist originally from Thornton, Colorado, currently creating in Los Angeles. She is a proud member of Theatre of NOTE, and is currently Chair of the Artistic Management team there. Cat is one part to a neutral mask dance duo- Imaginauts, and also sings jazz and blues as The Riverboat Chanteuse. She graduated from the University of Denver with a BA in Theatre. Recent work includes; THEATRE: Cleo Theo and Wu (NOTE/Edinburgh Fringe), Marian, or The True Tale of Robin Hood (NOTE). FILM: Yellow Bellies (Blue Means Pregnant Films) Full Moon (Melanie Alexander).
Josh Chiara
Joshua Chiara has been a professional cinematographer for over 10 years. He started with shooting corporate work for companies such as Macy’s, Proctor and Gamble, and Sugar Creek. He used this experience to move into more creatively fulfilling work in feature films, short films, TV, and music videos. Classic cinema and love for the visuals of the past have contributed to his visual aesthetic and his love for practical visuals and effects.
Laura Danowski
Laura Danowski is a Canadian born actress/comedienne. She graduated from Toronto's School of Comedy and Writing Performance. She moved to Los Angeles in 2013 and has been featured in numerous independent films and online sketch comedy series. Her multi-episode run on season 10 of Trailer Park Boys lead to her own sketch comedy series produced by the Trailer Park Boys.
Jessica Edmonds
Jessica Edmonds is a film and television actress based in Los Angeles. She has appeared in television series such as S.W.A.T. and Glee as well as numerous independent film projects. Jessica has worked on multiple films behind camera in technical areas such as sound mixing/recording as well as script supervising and assistant directing. She graduated from College of Sequoias in 2009 with and associate’s degree in Construction Technology and Liberal Arts.
Rena Hundert
Rena Hundert studied acting at Dawson college and Concordia University (BFA) in Montreal. She moved to LA and quickly rose in the ranks of the Roast Battle at The Comedy Store, and performed weekly with her Improv team Nuisance at The Pack Theater. Rena is in the advanced program at UCB and performs frequently at The Hollywood Improv. Rena also has a music album, a podcast called Two Little Ditties, creates a new comedy video every week with Jonald Comedy, produces Don’t Say Anything at The Pack Theater, has written and produced full length plays, and 3 one woman shows, and has starred in a 3 feature films including My Non-Wife and Tellers. Her new comedy album, Gimmick, is slated for release in 2021.
Stephen Olmos
Stephen Olmos is a digital effects artist and dedicated member of the Visual Effects Society. He graduated from the University of Texas with a major in Film and has worked in the industry for over six years on high profile films such as the Academy Award-winning Anomelisa, critically acclaimed television series, Westworld, and action blockbuster franchises like The Hunger Games and The Fast and the Furious.
Gladys Ramirez
Gladys Ramirez received her cosmetology license in 2013 and proceeded to attend Make-Up Designory in order to receive her Makeup Artist Certificate in 2015. Since then she has worked in film, music videos and commercials for companies like Toyota, Nissan, Google, Leapfrog, and more. Her experiences in hairstyling, beauty makeup and special effects makeup has also led her to travel for work around the US and Nigeria.
Chris Rummel
Chris Rummel has been sound mixing Blue Means Pregnant Films since Hate Horses and hasn't looked back. Just between you and him - Low Town is his favorite BMP movie (don't tell anyone). By day he is a Music Editor on television projects like The Walking Dead: World Beyond and Everything's Gonna Be Okay.
Austin Schmidt
Austin (AJ) Schmidt grew up in Nebraska and Iowa where his passion for movies began at a young age. He made the move to Los Angeles after receiving his B.A. in Cinema at The University of Iowa in 2011. Since then, he’s pursued a career in writing and directing while working in post-production on various television series such as Luke Cage, Dear White People, and The Moodys Christmas. His relationship with Blue Means Pregnant Films began as 1st AD on the production of Hate Horses which has led to many contributions since.
Ron Thompson
Ron Thompson is an award winning actor with a career that spans over 6 decades. After many successful stage roles in plays such as the Pulitzer Prize winning No Place To Be Somebody as well as the 1972 Henry Fonda revival The Time of Your Life and his 1973 award winning portrayal of Bickham in Does a Tiger Wear A Necktie, Thompson found further success in many television appearances including Barretta where he played the recurring character Nopke.
In 1981, Thompson starred in Ralph Bakshi’s cult classic American Pop as the dual father/son roles of Tony and Pete.
For years, Thompson has appeared in numerous films including Edward James Olmos’ American Me and more recently Cargo from director James Dylan. His first Blue Means Pregnant Films performance was as the villainous bounty hunter Napier in 2014’s Hate Horses. Since then, Thompson has appeared in over half a dozen Blue Means Pregnant films to much acclaim.
Per-Ingvar Tomren & Raymond Volle
Per-Ingvar Tomren and Raymond Volle are a filmmaking duo based in Norway. Together they have written/directed/produced 2 feature length horror comedies - 2013’s Christmas Cruelty and 2019’s Headless Entanglement. In 2019 they starred in and co-produced the Hollywood mockumentary Tarantino’s Basterds: The Homeless Filmmakers of Hollywood (directed by Bumdog Torres). They are currently producing a documentary in Norway while simultaneously producing multiple Blue Means Pregnant Films projects (including Hate Horses and Tellers). Headless Entanglement is slated for an English-dubbed, US release in 2021.
Chris Wilkey
Chris Wilkey is a producer and composer for film and media. He graduated from the Commercial Music program at Florida State University School of Music in 2010. In addition to film scoring, Chris records for artists, creates music videos and records original solo material. He worked with Chris Thile, Kristin Chenoweth, Brad Oberhofer and others as a performer, mixer and engineer.
Vincent Zahedi
Vincent Kim-Zahedi began his training as an actor at the Lee Strasburg Theater Institute under the tutelage of Bill Balzac and Yvette Mercedes, where he acted in several youth productions including Our Town and Moliere’s Scapino. For his undergraduate degree, he pivoted to Film Production, and earned his B.F.A. from the Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film & Television at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has worked as a film critic and journalist, most notably for Ain’t It Cool News, and currently resides in Los Angeles.