Backyard welcomes director Lara Everly for US representation

California's Backyard Productions welcomes acclaimed director Lara Everly to their roster for US representation. 

Everly joins the creative production studio with a diverse portfolio, having worked  with high-profile brands including many family centric brands like Fisher Price, Little Tikes and Walmart and a myriad of advocacy brands including ACLU, Supermajority, Swing Left to name a few.

Hailing from a comedy background and a graduate of Upright Citizens Brigade, Everly honed her ability to inject humour into unexpected topics, which is demonstrated in her reel of work. Her early career as an actress on hit US sitcoms, (That 70’s Show, Silicon Valley, Rules of Engagement and 2 Broke Girls, to name a few), saw her arrival into the sketch comedy space where she went on to write and direct comedic and youth-centric spots for a range of platforms including FunnyorDie, College Humor, Refinery29, Disney, Netflix Family, Scary Mommy, Oprah, Awestruck, Swing Left, Acronym, Babycenter, amongst others.

Everly’s passion for directing both short and long form content, combined with her sharp wit and clever comedy sensibility have won her a lot of recognition. Her narrative films and documentaries have garnered numerous accolades playing the film festival circuit, including winning awards and procuring distribution through Amazon, ShortsHD and New Wave Entertainment. Everly’s comedic docu-series, Wags to Riches, recently won an impressive nine Telly awards, including two for directing.

A highlight of her career was directing actress and activist Geena Davis (Beetlejuice, A League of Their Own and Thelma and Louise) in a comedy pilot presentation entitled I Can By Friday, Not only inspired by her iconic films, whilst growing up, but also admiring the actress’ continuous efforts in championing gender equality in media, this collaboration played a particularly memorable part in Lara’s career. The premise of the series I Can By Friday’is to show Geena mastering a new skill in five days, the actress learned how to play the marching drums for the pilot.

Staying true to her love of creating female-driven content, Everly has directed a Netflix comedic docu-series, entitled Like a Mother, which shines a light on all working moms in male dominated careers. The series profiles a mom astronaut, firefighter, captain and a doctor. Continuing her streak of working with the streaming platform, Everly also directed a spot for Netflix called Motherhood in Focus that was an anthemic love letter to moms in the entertainment industry which garnered an impressive 17 million views online.

Everly is about to release her latest film project which she wrote and directed called Heritage Day, starring Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and Vivien Lyra Blair (Obi Wan Kenobi). Based on her own childhood experiences, the film demonstrates Lara’s ability to use comedy as a driving tool when portraying hard hitting subjects on screen. She is also in the current class for NBCU Launch Directors Programme and is about to direct TV sitcom American Auto.