Carly Usdin

Carly Usdin (born 1982) is an American director, writer, and producer. Usdin is best known for directing the 2016 film Suicide Kale and co-creating the comic book series Heavy Vinyl with Nina Vakueva. In 2019, she received the Jury Prize for Best Director for the short film Misdirection at the Los Angeles Diversity Film Festival.

Usdin was raised in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Their feature film directorial debut, Suicide Kale, was released in 2016. Written by and starring Brittani Nichols, it also starred Jasika Nicole, Brianna Baker, and Lindsay Hicks. Usdin received the Audience Award for Best First Dramatic Feature at 2016 Outfest.

In 2017, Usdin was the showrunner and director for a digital web series called Threads, which was distributed through Verizon's Go90 platform. The show was an anthology series that dramatized stories "inspired by real events." It was hosted by Milana Vayntrub and ran for 20 episodes.

Comic books
Usdin co-created and wrote the comic book series Hi-Fi Fight Club in August 2017, published by Boom! Studios and illustrated by Nina Vakueva. The series centers on a queer teenage girl who begins working at a record store where the employees have a clandestine, all-female vigilante fight club. In November 2017, it was announced that the series' name had been changed to Heavy Vinyl. Thrillist named it one of the 25 best comic books of 2018; SyfyWire selected Usdin as one of the 30 best writers for comics in September 2017 for their work on Heavy Vinyl. The series was nominated for a 2018 Prism Award. A follow-up called Heavy Vinyl:Y-2KO was released in March 2020.

The first issue of Usdin's second comic book series, The Avant-Guards, was released in January 2019. The series had 12 issues in total. Written by Usdin and illustrated by Noah Hayes, it tells the story of a transfer student at an all-girls performing arts college who joins the school's fledgling basketball team.

Quotes
"I love being queer. I love being non-binary, to be everything and nothing at the same time. I love that some days I feel like a dyke and others I feel like a fag and then there are days that I feel like a little robot. I love how expansive the word “queer” feels. I love that I’ve been surprised by my own identity over the years and how it’s changed and evolved. I love that I’m in my late 30s and I’m still learning new things about myself and I hope that process of discovery never ends. I love queer people and queer community and all the intersections therein. I love how complicated and confusing and messy it can all be. We are magic and infinite and I would honestly be really bummed to be anyone other than exactly who I am."