Rafael Del Toro

Writer/Director, Rafael Del Toro, began his filmmaking career at UC Berkeley, where he received Berkeley's highest award for film, the Eisner Award for his film, Maris. Rafael continued his studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Film Program, as a Dean's Fellow, where he received a regional Student Academy Award (The Playroom), a Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker's Award (Must Be Love), a nomination for the DGA's Best Latino Student Director, and a Sloan Foundation Production Grant. His thesis, a dark comedy film called 6ft. in 7min., was a Wasserman Finalist, screened at 47 film festivals world-wide, and won 14 awards. Rafael spent 3 years at KNBC/Telemundo, producing, directing, and editing promos and commercials. In 2008, Rafael was selected as a Film Independent Project Involve Fellow, and was accepted into Film Independent's Director's Lab, where he workshopped his feature script, Mullet. That same year, the script won the Richard Vague/ Chris Columbus Award, providing pre-production funds for the film. Most recently, after winning Best Film and Best Director at the Comedy Short Cuts Film Festival, Rafael was given a script deal by NBC Studios to write his first comedy TV pilot, Eat Sleep, Gas. Rafael is a WGA member, and his upcoming projects include directing his first feature script, Mullet, and writing his next TV project, Loco News.