Biography

Dusty Austen is a transgender woman and award-winning filmmaker who has been involved in the independent film world for over 20 years. Her interest in filmmaking and her genre of choice, horror, began when she was only 3 years old. She began making her own films at age 12 and played her first film festival by the age of 18. She soon began a consistent career in the independent world working for companies across Ohio & Pennsylvania and eventually expanding to create content for creatives in Ireland, England & Canada.

After working on numerous features, and projects, Austen created a name for herself in the found footage community and founded the GG13 Collective, the creative team behind the award-winning web series GG13: The Haunted World of CW on which she served as show-runner, director, and editor from 2013 to 2019.

She was also the co-host of the Found Footage Files Podcast and Executive Editor for the distribution company POV Horror during its formative years.

Austen and her wife Athena Murzda sought to create a low-budget high concept independent film company that celebrated diversity & creative freedom and soon formed Street Rat Studios, under which their first feature produced was "The Beast of Walton St."

She resides in Ohio with her wife, 2 daughters, and their army of pets.
- IMDb mini biography by: From Dustin Austen's Personal Bio

Dusty Austen is a multi-award-winning writer/director, VFX artist, editor, and animator working in horror, sci-fi, and animation. She specializes in kitbash world-building through curated genre maximalism, making high-concept, genre-busting films on small budgets by leveraging new technologies.

Austen fell in love with filmmaking at 3, was making her own films by 12, and screened at her first festival by 18. She carved out a career in the independent world across Ohio and Pennsylvania before expanding internationally, creating with collaborators in Ireland, England, and Canada. She founded the GG13 Collective, the team behind the award-winning web series GG13: The Haunted World of CW, which she showran, directed, and edited from 2013 to 2019. She co-hosted the Found Footage Files Podcast and served as Executive Editor for the distribution company POV Horror during its formative years. Alongside her wife Athena Murzda, she co-founded Street Rat Studios-a low-budget, high-concept indie company built on diversity and creative freedom, debuting with their first feature, The Beast of Walton St. Most recently, she teamed up with creative partner and fellow filmmaker Spooky Madison to form Grimwire Pictures and Post Co. She lives in Ohio with her wife, two daughters, and an army of pets.
- IMDb mini biography by: Dusty Austen

Dusty Austen is a multi-award-winning writer/director, VFX artist, editor, and animator working in horror, sci-fi, and animation. She specializes in kitbash world-building through curated genre maximalism, making high-concept, genre-busting films on small budgets by leveraging new technologies.

Austen fell in love with filmmaking at 3, was making her own films by 12, and screened at her first festival by 18. She carved out a career in the independent world across Ohio and Pennsylvania before expanding internationally, creating with collaborators in Ireland, England, and Canada. She founded the GG13 Collective, the team behind the award-winning web series GG13: The Haunted World of CW, which she showran, directed, and edited from 2013 to 2019. She co-hosted the Found Footage Files Podcast and served as Executive Editor for the distribution company POV Horror during its formative years. Alongside her wife Athena Murzda, she co-founded Street Rat Studios, a low-budget, high-concept indie company built on diversity and creative freedom, debuting with their first feature, The Beast of Walton St. Most recently, she teamed up with creative partner and fellow filmmaker Spooky Madison to form Grimwire Pictures and Post Co. She is also a 2025 recipient of the TransFilm Center & Netflix Fellowship. She lives in Ohio with her wife, two daughters, and an army of pets.
- IMDb mini biography by: Dusty Austen

The first film Dusty remembers seeing as a child was American Werewolf in London.

Dusty's Australian Cattle Dog is named Bullseye after the Marvel Comics character who is one of the primary villains of Dusty's favorite comic character, Daredevil. Dusty has a Daredevil DD symbol tattooed on her chest.

Dusty's often used pseudonyms are El Hefe Noodleman or John C. Anson. The latter a combination of director John Carpenter and Amityville Horror author Jay Anson. Of whom Dusty is a fan of both. John C. Anson is used primarily for musical contributions while El Hefe Noodleman is used for the director's cameos in her own pictures.