The Absence is
JASON CHARNICK
WRITER / DIRECTOR
Jason Charnick is a native of the Bronx, New York and a 25+ year veteran of the entertainment industry. Moving to Los Angeles in 1999, he cut his teeth in the post department on the early James Franco film, At Any Cost. In 2002, he partnered up with writer/director Peter Sullivan (Secret Obsession, Fatal Affair) to produce the wildly successful short film, Night Surf, one in a long line of Stephen King’s Dollar Baby film projects.
In 2004, he was responsible for creating stop-motion post workflows for the popular TV show Robot Chicken. Working in branding and promotions since 2006, he’s been involved with such recent blockbusters as The Batman, Top Gun: Maverick, Nope and Bullet Train as well as highly-rated TV shows such as The Voice and The Problem with Jon Stewart. Jason has also post supervised main title sequences for multiple films with Happy Madison Productions including Grown Ups 1 & 2, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan and Click.
Never to stray far from his indie roots, he spent time during these blockbusters to write and direct his own shorts, as well as his debut feature, Getting Over, which had its World Premiere at SXSW 2018. It also won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at that year’s Indigo Moon Film Festival in Fayetteville, NC and is in the top one-percent of independent films released in the last five years to make a profit.
More recently, Jason has already had multiple successful web3 film projects including The 29 Palms Collection and Long Beach Lifted, an unofficial, yet fully-licensed collab with the legendary hip-hop artist and Long Beach native, Snoop Dogg. Jason is committed to helping create sustainable careers for filmmakers and every project he develops, especially The Absence is Always Present, is dedicated to the memory of his daughter Shelby.
LAUREN IUNGERICH
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Lauren Iungerich’s journey to Netflix showrunner began as an assistant to producer Arnold Kopelson on U.S. Marshals and A Perfect Murder. She was eventually hired to the writing staff of ABC Family’s 10 Things I Hate About You. In 2011, she created and helmed the MTV sitcom, Awkward. It ran for five full seasons and The New York Times called it “the smartest, freshest, most moving sitcom of 2011” and it won the 2013 People’s Choice Award for Favorite Cable Comedy.
From 2018-2021, she was the showrunner, director, producer, and writer for the wildly popular Netflix show, On My Block. In 2018, the show was announced to be Netflix’s most binge-watched series and Google’s tenth most top-trended search in all of television. The show also won the Teen Choice Award for the best “Breakout Show” of 2018. In 2020, Time Magazine called it one of TV’s Ten Best Teen Dramas of All Time.
Lauren recently directed the pilot of the Netflix limited series Boo, Bitch that she co-created and executive produced. In 2023, she also executive produced, co-created and was showrunner for the Netflix series Freeridge, an On My Block spin-off, directing the pilot episode as well.
CHARLIE TYRELL
ANIMATOR
Charlie Tyrell is a Canadian filmmaker whose work has screened at major international festivals including the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, and the Toronto International Film Festival. His films have been featured by The New York Times, The Atlantic, Vimeo Staff Picks, and the CBC.
His debut feature, The Al Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, premiered at Sundance in 2026 and received a nationwide theatrical release from Focus Features.
Previously, Tyrell directed the Academy Award-shortlisted My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes, winner of both a Canadian Screen Awards and a Cinema Eye Honors award. His follow-up film, Broken Orchestra, also premiered at Sundance. He later served as Director of Visual Segments on Amanda Mustard’s HBO documentary Great Photo, Lovely Life.
He lives in Toronto with his wife and son and has taken an oath not to eat another hot dog until the Toronto Blue Jays win the World Series.