Riley Rheyan is an award-winning UK-based writer & director with a taste for emotionally grounded stories that occasionally punch you in the heart (but nicely). Originally from Canada, she trained at the award-winning Vancouver Film School in 2011, armed with an arts bursary and unreasonable ambition. After graduating, she founded her first production company, where her indie shorts and scripts picked up numerous laurels on the festival circuit.

In 2015, Riley was selected for the Fulfilling Young Artist Mentorship Program, working under Kyra Zagorsky (Continuum). She later joined the Crazy8s film No Reservations as Production Manager—her first real dive into controlled chaos (turns out she thrived in it). Over the years, Riley has worked across departments in narrative film and TV, but gravitated toward roles as a producer, writer or director’s assistant. She has been lucky to work with and receive guidance from industry mentors including Andrew Singer (Documentary Now), Bill Johnson (I Love You, Man), and Cinco Paul (Despicable Me).

Riley's directorial debut, Cherry Blossoms in March, a dark and personal story about her sister's life with cystic fibrosis, earned over a dozen awards and international selections. Her script Bleed won the Raindance 3-2-1 worldwide screenwriting competition in 2020 and premiered in London the following year.

After relocating to the UK in 2023, Riley produced Oddizzi’s educational series, filming everywhere from the River Thames to the Amazon Rainforest and the Dunes of Namibia—earning stamps in her passport and a generous collection of bug bites. Her latest narrative work includes Edge of the Forest (slated for festivals in 2026), Happy and Glorious (currently in post, featuring an Olivier Award-winning cast), and Sunny, a psychological short in development.

She’s currently writing her debut feature, Good Mourning, a dark rom-com about Death (the man himself) and a grief avoidant woman—equal parts love story and existential crisis, with some snogging in between.