Who We Are:
Over the last 20 years, Rich Schlansker has amassed a resume as a Director and Producer of unique music, comedy and entertainment-based content for some of the world’s top artists, record labels and television networks. To date, he has directed and produced over 40 nationally broadcast multi-cam music productions and 22 comedy specials including the Netflix / Comedy Central special “Kevin Hart Presents Lil Rel Howery: RELevent”, Centric Comedy All-Stars 2013-2015, Centric’s Next Comedy All-Star, and Stand Up For Family 2010-2013.
He co-directed and produced The Original Netflix Comedy Special “Plastic Cup Boyz: Laughing My Mask Off.” The 3 episode series was Executive Produced by comedians Kevin Hart and Royale Watkins.
Rich co-directed the Covid-19 Livestream Benefit for Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam entitled “Healing Through Laughter.” The special hosted by Cedric The Entertainer garnered over one million views and featured such talent as Usher, Tiffany Haddish, Anthony Anderson, DJ Kid Capri, Mike Epps, Deon Cole and Marlon Wayans.
He directed/produced a one-hour performance/documentary broadcast special for the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) called “Iyanla: Back In Brooklyn”. The show stars Fix My LIfe’s Iyanla Vanzant and was filmed with ten cameras at The Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, NY. The special was produced by Mills Presents/Mills Entertainment.
Rich directed Nick DiPaolo’s controversial one-hour comedy special “A Breath Of Fresh Air”.
He directed the 8.5 hour Daytime Stage concert performance at the iHeartRADIO Music Festival in Las Vegas. Performers included Logic, Dua Lipa, 5 Seconds of Summer, Lil Uzi Vert, Dustin Lynch, Bazzi, Belly, Greta Van Fleet, Bad Bunny, Grandson and Leon Bridges.
Rich directed/produced “Kevin Hart’s Halftime House Party” for Facebook Live. The special featured Kevin Hart, Ice-T, Cedric The Entertainer, Judah Friedlander, Doug E. Fresh, Tony Roberts, and Chloe Flower.
He has directed and produced branded content and entertainment-based projects for entities such as Salesforce, Slack, The US Department of State, The US Department of Defense, BMW, LG, Citi, Nikon, Chevrolet, Stella Artois, Microsoft Windows / HP, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Novo Nordisk, Pepsico, Gatorade, Samsung, American Family Insurance, and Sports Illustrated.
Other projects include the 26-part “Katie Brown Workshop” for PBS and multiple culinary series for AOL’s KitchenDaily.com featuring Top Chef host Gail Simmons.
Rich directed/produced the multi-cam live performance video for John Legend’s holiday release “Under The Stars”. He directed the reunion concert for Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music including special guests Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, Bette Midler, Scissor Sisters, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, and Mark Ronson; Yaz / Yazoo’s Reconnected Tour at New York’s Terminal 5; Loreena McKennitt’s “A Moveable Musical Feast” (live performance / tour documentary DVD and American Public Television special, Quinlan Road), Erasure “On The Road To Nashville” (live performance DVD / CD release, Mute Records), music videos with Jimmy Buffett for Discovery Network's Planet Green Channel, Ledisi “It’s Christmas” (EPK, Verve Records Group), and Loreena McKennitt’s “A Midwinter Night’s Dream” (EPK, Verve Records Group).
He served as Senior Producer on Paul McCartney’s “Back In The US” DVD and ABC prime time network special. He also produced Elton John’s “One Night Only” television special for the BBC. Rich has worked with other artists such as U2, Peter Gabriel, Bush, The Who, Stereophonics, Jamiroquai, Limp Bizkit, Filter, Run DMC, Mariah Carey, Garbage, The Black Crowes, Great Big Sea, Joshua Redman, and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.
Prior to that Rich spent three years at VH1, producing the “Rock Across America Series”, and the network’s artist profile features. He also produced the VH1 music special with George Harrison and Ravi Shankar that was featured in Martin Scorsese’s HBO documentary “George Harrison: Living in the Material World”.
He is a graduate of The Albany Academy and Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where he founded the 1st annual HWS “Reggae and Ska Festival”.
Rich lives in Saratoga Springs, NY and NYC with his wife Angie, daughter Bowe (14 yrs), son Meyer (8 yrs) and mini golden aussiedoodles Maud and Winnie.
He grew up in Schenectady, NY - “The Electric City.”