Sam Ripley is a Los Angeles–based writer and director whose work explores emotional isolation, memory, and identity through intimate, genre-inflected stories. A graduate of Vassar College, where he studied film and screenwriting, Sam began his career as an editor and creative producer before writing and directing his first short film, The Burden of Care, which premiered at Dances With Films. His latest short, TV Dad, grew from his fascination with the ways movies and television shape a child’s inner world. Blending surreal horror with an emotionally grounded coming-of-age story, the film explores loneliness, escapism, and the strange places we search for connection.