Rodman Flender

Rodman Flender (born June 9, 1962) is an American filmmaker and actor. Born and raised in a Jewish family in New York City, Flender's early experiences in the arts included roles on Broadway and PBS series. He developed his acting skills at New York's High School of Performing Arts and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London, before pursuing higher education at Harvard University. At Harvard, he contributed to The Harvard Lampoon and studied documentary filmmaking, which laid the foundation for his career in entertainment. Starting his career in the advertising department of Roger Corman's Concorde-New Horizons Films, Flender transitioned into production and direction, making his debut with the thriller The Unborn (1991). His directing credits include the feature films Leprechaun 2 (1994) and Idle Hands (1999), as well as television episodes for series such as The Office, Ugly Betty and Gilmore Girls. Flender's documentary work includes Let Them Eat Rock (2004), a musical portrait of the band The Upper Crust, and Conan O'Brien Can't Stop (2011), which documents Conan O'Brien's comedy tour following the 2010 Tonight Show conflict. The latter was recognized by Roger Ebert as one of the best documentaries of 2011. In recent years, Flender has returned to character-based drama and ventured into romantic comedy and horror, as seen in his feature film Eat, Brains, Love, which premiered at the FrightFest film festival in London to positive reviews and won Best Picture at the 2019 Screamfest Horror Film Festival.