Richard “Ricky” Bates, Jr. is a 2007 graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He was the writer/director of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival cult hit EXCISION, 2014 Fantasia International Film Festival breakout, SUBURBAN GOTHIC and the 2016 Sundance Film Festival shocker, TRASH FIRE – for which he was championed as, “one of the truest voices in American cult cinema”.