David Sonkin(I)

Born and raised in Queens, New York, David Sonkin (also credited as David Lowell or David Lowell Sonkin) loitered around creative endeavors since grade school. David acted, wrote and directed his way to his first feature film, Friends, First and Foremost (winner, Best Feature, Long Island International Film Expo, 1989). True to his passion for teaching and the entertainment business, it was fitting David also spent nearly a decade as a teacher for hundreds of kids who were taught on set, while away from a traditional school environment. He continued to direct, write and produce features, web series and music videos. His second feature film, The Empath stars Dan Lauria (The Wonder Years), John Shea (Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman), Susan Blommaert (The Blacklist), Paige Turco (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Ronnie Farer (Donnie Brasco), Chris Lemmon (Just the Ticket) and a young Sarah Hyland (Modern Family). David's third feature, Why George? was the first he did not write. Through a contest, he sourced a "simply beautiful" script written by a friend, Shari Umansky. Why George was produced by Joe Cacaci (The Education of Max Bickford), with cinematography by Dick Fisher (The Brothers McMullen). David points out, "last I checked, the trailer for Why George? had over 6,000,000 views on YouTube". In 2024, David launched his long-time passion project, a new streaming site, "213 TV" (found at 2-13.tv) to support the work of emerging filmmakers, helping them lay the foundation for a successful, professional career as a filmmaker. "There are so many extraordinarily talented filmmakers out there. Most of them are creating work, we'll never get to see. I'm going to change that. 213 TV is committed to an AI-free, safe space, where storytellers can be creatively and uniquely human."