Hi, I'm Sydney!

Sydney is an award-winning director, writer, producer, and film composer from Naperville, IL, based in Los Angeles.

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Hey hi hello! I’m Sydney Relihan, and an eight-year-old boy once looked me dead in the eye and told me gay people don’t exist. I laughed a little, since the kid was telling me, the queer person standing literally right in front of him, that queer people only exist on-screen, but he whole-heartedly believed they could be found only in GLEE which his parents allowed him to watch a few episodes of that weekend. I suppose I never saw queer characters in media until, ironically, I also watched GLEE at fourteen. I believe so strongly that film and television can change people’s understanding and perspective of the world because that show changed mine.

 

Since “coming out” as a filmmaker, it’s been my mission to create more diverse LGBTQIA+, mental illness, and disability representation while curating a respectful, encouraging on-set environment. I rarely see my asexual aromantic or neurodivergent identities accurately and authentically depicted and strive to both in front of and behind the camera. Approaching every story, heart open and on my sleeve, I believe the best projects do the same. With my work, I allow these ideas to shine while drawing from my own personal experiences. I find so many of my projects hyper-focus on an experience of mine, and the character becomes just myself in another hat.  

 

I tell stories about queer characters in complicated relationships with their family, friends, and themselves. Recently, I wrote/directed/produced the award-winning independent TV pilot SEX SHOP, featuring the wacky adventures of two asexual BFFs stuck running a mob-front sex store. I befriended Jimmy the Rat in Government Rat and threw a time-loop birthday party in Gopher Day 2, each in 48 hours. I worked as a writer, director, and producer to spearhead "The Ace Files Project" with the nonprofit Sheauxtime Collective Inc., a series of (short and full feature) films and concept videos that highlight and explore the intentional existence of Asexuality in our world. Currently, I'm writing a psychological thriller inspired by my time in a Midwestern volleyball cult-cough-club and a coming-of-age ode to my younger sister and a previous family RV trip out West. 

 

By day, I am a producer's assistant, production coordinator, director's assistant, and script reader (plus a nanny - I've been working with kids for nearly a decade!). By night, I'm co-hosting a podcast called The PAWlywood PAWdcast where my friend Shannon and I chat animal movies; sitting in my garage with my hand on a 100 ft. rope to try to trap-neuter-release or (foster-to-adopt) my beloved community cats; and diving into anything and everything creative that I can think of -- from DM-ing a historical-figure-time-travel DnD campaign for my best friends, to massive DIY decor projects to cover every inch of my apartment walls, to freelance outing photography. Even with all that bouncing around, I'm always still  looking looking for my next gig.

 

I graduated from Summa Cum Laude from Cornell University in 2022 with a B.A. in Performing & Media Arts and minors in Creative Writing and Psychology.

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