Other People's Children Press Release

Lion and Mouse Productions
Contact: opctheseries@gmail.com      

NEW COMEDY SERIES TAKES ON THE WORST PARENT/TEACHER CONFERENCES EVER!
Other People’s Children (OPC) looks into the minds of crazy parents and the frustrated teachers who educate them — and their kids.

CHICAGO, IL — The new comedy series, Other People’s Children, takes a hard look at social issues such as bullying, feminism, creationism, the common core, suburban social castes, and...suggestive pastries. Set in the fictional world of Hopkins Elementary, the young and idealistic Margot Antler fills in for a second grade teacher who has gone on maternity leave… but she's never coming back.

Margot wonders why...until she meets the parents.

The show stars up-and-coming comedic powerhouse Atra Asdou as the beleaguered Ms. Antler, who faces a different and disastrous parent/teacher conference in every single episode. The Other People’s Children parents are played by talent from hit Chicago television shows and the city's best improv and theatrical stages: Brooke Breit, Michael Tepeli, Scott Morehead, Sara Sevigny, Jeff Garretson, Ryan Kitley, Victor Holstein, Karisa Bruin, Ronald L. Conner, Mary Cross, Lorena Diaz, Meg Elliot, and Minita Gandhi.

OPC is the brainchild of DePaul University screenwriting professors Anna Maria Hozian and Brad Riddell. Describing the inspiration for the show, Riddell says, "As parents of children who attend school in the same district, we began to notice how eccentric and volatile parents can be when it comes to the education of their children." It also became clear to them that the school as an institution can become a political instrument for some parents. Other People's Children captures all of that crazy and frames it in a funny, satirical way that allows parents to see themselves (or people they know) in its characters. "We really, really love teachers," says Hozian," and we wanted to give them a good laugh at the expense of parents!" They note the series could have been made without the support of grants from DePaul, and the hard work of the faculty, staff, and students who served as show's crew.

Riddell is the creative mind behind American Pie: Band Camp – one of the highest-grossing live-action DVD releases in history, now syndicated on TBS.  Additionally, Riddell has written three other produced feature films for Hollywood studios including Paramount, MTV, and Universal. His most recent film, Crooked Arrows, was released nationally in theaters in 2012. His directorial debut, Ten More (2016), stars David Pasquesi (Veep) and Ellie Reed (Girl Boss), and is currently playing on the festival circuit. Brad earned an MFA in Screenwriting from the University of Southern California, where he taught for six years before joining the School of Cinematic Arts at DePaul. He currently chairs the school's screenwriting program.

Hozian was one of twelve women chosen for the inaugural New York Women in Film & Television’s Writers Lab, funded by Meryl Streep. Her screenplays have placed in the Semifinals and Quarterfinals of the Academy's Nicholl Fellowship and won the Gold Award for Drama in the Page International Screenwriting Awards. She was a semifinalist in 2015 for the Samuel Goldwyn Award from the University of California system and holds her MFA from the University of California. Her short film, The Guitar Lesson, was a selection for the Illinois International Film Festival in 2012. Currently, her screenplay, Anchor Baby, is with Lynmar Entertainment; and she is also developing a feature for Kickstart Entertainment. Anna is in her second year teaching at DePaul University's School of Cinematic Arts.

Other People’s Children features nine bingeable episodes that are less than five minutes each, and it has been nominated for numerous awards in film and web festivals around the world. The series recently won Best Original Screenplay at the 2017 International Online Webfest in London and Best Comedy Series at the South Florida Webfest in Miami. Hozian and Riddell  hope to eventually take the series to cable, streaming, or prime time, and let the world continue to laugh at Hopkins Elementary and themselves.

Synopsis: Margot Antler dreams of becoming a renowned novelist with a three-book deal and a summerhouse in Ghent. Reality check: she's a rookie second-grade teacher about to experience the insanity of parent/teacher conferences for the first time! In each episode, Ms. Antler finds herself across the table from adults behaving like children, and slowly comes to realize it's not her students who have problems, it's their parents.

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