Biography

In retrospect, it was a crazy decision for Richard Burgin to make movies. Richard's bizarre, eclectic, and hard to believe life experiences gave him a lot of inspiration for his work, turning his own personal madness into cinematic madness. In 2022, Richard hosted the premiere of his first feature film, Fang (2022), at the Davis Theater in Chicago. Fang (2022) stunned audiences and critics with the intense body horror of a man turning into a rat (Dylan LaRay) and the tragic decline of his mother with Parkinson's dementia, played by Lynn Lowry. Following the release of Fang (2022), Richard is directing the experimental sci-fi horror movie Mal Somnia, about a man who gets brought back to life in a Frankenstein-style experiment, only to be driven insane by traumatic memories from his past life. Richard is also working on the surreal horror comedy The Slaughter Brothers Dime Circus, starring Lynne Griffin and Sean Sullivan in a fantastical descent into clown mayhem, with a team of executive producers including Paul Feig.

Richard is a prolific painter, video artist, soundtrack composer, and podcaster, having done over 50 interviews since 2020. Richard is attached to direct the Greek Island romantic drama Miro's Knot, and his experimental videos include Hi (2011), Box (2013), Dark Texture (2020), Blood Waters (2023), Garden Sequence (2023), Scartography (2023), Painting with Isa (2023), Pale Circus (2024), Northerly Island (2024), and Lost Agora (2024). Since September 2023, Richard has hosted a podcast, The Cinesin Show (2023), with Isabela Rangel.

Richard has contributed as a producer to feature films including Project Skyquake (2022), starring Laura Ellen Wilson, Tom Sizemore, and Robert LaSardo; The Forest Hills Festival Cut (2023), starring Shelley Duvall, Chiko Mendez, and Edward Furlong; and Crust (2024), starring Sean Whalen, Alan Ruck, Daniel Roebuck, and Felissa Rose. Richard has acted in Tears of the Damned, directed by his frequent collaborator John Joseph Dunn, and had a brief masked appearance as Dr. Rat in Fang (2022).

Richard's advertising work includes the concert commercials Stage Fright: The Pipeline Benefit Concert at Carol's Pub (2025) and Stage Fright: Fall Music Fest and Booth Battle of the Bands (2025), the digital marketing commercials Fiverr: Help Is a Few Clicks Away (2023) and Fiverr: Lost in a World (2023), and the short PSA Autism Awareness: Think Before You Label (2023). Wildlife Nightmare (2023) and Boynya (2023) were made to help support the fight against animal cruelty and Ukraine's victory against the Russian invasion. Richard has also worked as a marketing coordinator for the documentary Best Served Cold: How a Revenge Film was Buried for Decades (2026), featuring interviews with Paul Schrader, Steve Railsback, and Gary Conway. In 2024, Richard served as the Co-Festival Director of the Mental Health Warrior Film Festival in Madison, Wisconsin.

Richard has over a decade of filmmaking experience, starting with the video editing class he took in middle school. Richard made the comedy sketch The Eagle Program (2015) during his freshman year of college. Working with his father, Richard W. Burgin, Richard made two short films based on his short stories, All Ears (2016) and The Identity Club (2018). After his father's death in 2020, Richard dedicated Fang (2022) to him and pushed himself harder than ever before to be the best filmmaker he could be, like his dad would have wanted. Richard is a passionate, dedicated filmmaker with an obsessive work ethic and a wild imagination.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous

He stayed at the Chicago-Read Mental Health Center from June 16 to July 6, 2023 after checking himself in to Thorek Memorial Hospital to get treatment for his mental breakdown. Richard has since served on the planning committee of the Mental Health Warrior Film Festival to help spread mental health awareness, support services, and to encourage people to get the help they need without feeling ashamed.

He plans to start a charity, the Art Healing Project, to help artists with disabilities and mental illness.

He was inspired to make Fang (2022) after living through a brown recluse infestation at his dad's house.