Rich Murray(I)

Rich Murray made his feature film directing debut with Snipes (2001), which premiered at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. Snipes was released commercially in 2002 through his company RuffNation Films in association with Columbia/Tri-Star. Prior to "Snipes", Murray directed over 125 music videos for such star artists as Kris Kross, Spin Doctors, Fugees, Arrested Development, Monica, Jeff Healy and Billy Ray Cyrus. With such a diverse list of credits, Murray is perhaps the only director who has had a #1 video in four different genres of music.

Murray was raised in Philadelphia in the gritty, working-class neighborhood depicted in the film "Rocky." His intense interest in movie making began at an early age and after graduating from Temple University with a B.A. in Communications in 1984, Murray began his professional career by directing some of the earliest rap videos for hip hop legends Schoolly D and Roxanne Shante. A short time later he began his apprenticeship as a line-producer an assistant director on a long list of low budget independent film projects.

In 1988 Murray joined The Director's Guild of America as an assistant director and he his list of credits include Cadillac Man (1990), Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989) and She-Devil (1989). In the 90s Murray focused exclusively on directing music videos and has been nominated for numerous awards for his work.

In 1999 Murray launched RuffNation Films with his long time friend, RuffHouse Records Chairman Chris Schwartz. The two partners envision RuffNation Films as a music-film hybrid; that will take full advantage of the expertise that both have gathered during 18 years in the music and film industry.