Alyssa Rallo Bennett

Short Biography

Alyssa Rallo Bennett is a director/producer and the co-founder of Stonestreet Studios, an incubator for new content and talent. The studio has been prolific and diverse in its work; claiming awards for features, shorts, pilots and since 2014, their newly branded MicroMovies. In 1991, Alyssa developed the Stonestreet Screen Acting & Production Conservatory as an immersive program within Stonestreet's independent film studio walls and exclusively trains NYU Tisch Drama actors for the screen from audition to production. Many wonderful actor, director, writer, producer hyphenates have developed themselves at Stonestreet including Miles Teller (Whiplash, Divergent), Camila Mendes (Riverdale), Gil Zabarsky & Chris Modoono (Tenured, Teacher of the Year), Ashley Skidmore (Younger), Connor Hines (Local Attraction), Idina Menzel, Michaela Conlin (Bones), Renee Felice Smith (NCIC), Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Nik Walker (Hamilton), Holly Curran (Ms. Maisel), et al.She has developed and produced high-concept features like; Rain Without Thunder starring Jeff Daniels, Linda Hunt, Frederic Forrest, Pack, which she co-wrote and directed, starring Lucie Arnaz, Elisabeth Moss, Zach Galligan, and just completed directing the feature ReRUN, a modern day twist on "It's A Wonderful Life" starring Christopher Lloyd. Theatrically released in New York and LA, The Pack was accepted into the Tribeca Film Festival in 2009, the film won Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Rising Star Award at Wildwood Film Festival, and had Best Feature Film: Honorable Mention at Baltimore Women's Film Festival and Bayou Inspirational Film Festival and was featured as an official selection in the Sedona, Hoboken, International Film Manhattan, Big Apple, Northampton, Jersey Shore Film Festival, Festival of Festivals, Connecticut, Sweet Auburn, First Take and Toronto Independent Film Festivals. A new cut of The Pack was released by FilmRise on multiple platforms, including City of Film and Snagfilms as Smoking Non-Smoking.Recently ShortsHD licensed 20 Stonestreet Shorts, including, five festival shorts she directed, Oswald, Uberpool, Trudy Gets Tindered, Mia, and Can't Get Enough.With writer/partner Gary O. Bennett, she recently directed a new pilot "Leading Story", and in LA co-directed with Chris Naoki Lee, the pilot "Nowhere Girl", now in post-production. Pilots "End it all Now", featuring Zach Galligan, Jen McCabe, and "Videola", starring Sean Young, Gil Zabarsky, Michael Pemberton and Janet Zarish, and Paradise by the Dashboard Light, featuring many Stonestreeters are being distributed by HG Distribution.Alyssa directed and produced the docudrama feature, "Sonnets in the City", starring Joe Siravo (The Sopranos, Jersey Boys), and alum Jarrod Spector (Jersey Boys), produced the feature "Revengers Inc". directed by Robert Bella, developed and produced "Cryptogram", starring Angela Pietropinto and "Without Thunder" which continues to be a human rights cult classic. "Rain" was theatrically released and distributed by Orion Classics, featured in over a dozen major international film festivals from the Berlin Film Festival to the Toronto International Film Festival, distributed by Warner Brothers on available now on Amazon Prime.Alyssa hosts the series "Behind the Scenes at Stonestreet Studios". The series focuses on the process and art of screen acting & filmmaking for independent and studio films. Guests have included Bryan Cranston, Aubrey Plaza, Mike Myers, Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco, Kevin Bacon, Peter Gallagher, Michael Imperioli, James Earl Jones, Carrie Preston, Peter Facinelli, Elisabeth Shue, Chaske Spencer, Vincent Pastore, Joey Pantoliano, Harris Yulin, Miles Teller, Rachel Brosnahan, Zoe Lister-Jones, Daryl Wein, Darren Goldberg, Lee Tergesen.Alyssa's first training ground was as an actor working with directors such as Woody Allen, Franco Zeffirelli, Andre Gregory. In New York she has directed plays at Ensemble Studio Theater, the Harold Clurman Theater and was accepted into Sundance Institute's Playwriting Lab here she worked as director, writer and actor. She has an MA from NYU Galligan in Drama & Psychology and a BFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied at Circle in the Square working with Nikos Psacharopoulos, David Margulies, Tom Fontana and others. She also studied with the Group Theater's Robert Lewis as well as the techniques of Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, Uta Hagen and Stella Adler.