Tanya Ryno

Tanya Ryno is an American film & television producer, director and writer. In 2010, Tanya became a Platinum Member of New York Women in Film & Television.

Early life
Ryno was born in Fort Lee (Virginia), at the Kenner Army Health Clinic, and is the daughter of Stephen Wayne Grondin and Donna Ruth Kitchen. She was raised in Maine, where she attended Hampden Academy. She later studied film and photography in New York City at the School of Visual Arts.

Career
Most notably, Tanya worked as the Producer/Head of Production in Saturday Night Live's Film Unit working on Robert Smigel's TV Funhouse animation (including the award winning Ambiguously Gay Duo - voiced by Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert -, The X-Presidents, and Fun with Real Audio ), the GoLords Puppet series written by Andrew Steele and the Filmed Shorts & popular SNL Commercial Parody segments. Tanya was also a Producer for both The Best of Chris Farley compilation and The Best of Phil Hartman. Both memorial shows of previous SNL alumni with unfortunate deaths.

In 2004 Ryno was a producer on New York at the Movies for A&E. A documentary hosted by Meryl Streep that included over 14 film legends (including: Martin Scorsese, Sidney Lumet, Spike Lee, Nora Ephron, Edward Burns, and John Turturro) giving their real life experiences of making movies in New York City. ... the Tagline: "You can't fake New York".

Ryno also produced Coney Island Baby, an award winning romantic comedy that takes place in Sligo, Ireland and made its premiere television broadcast on the Sundance Channel.

Throughout the years, she has also worked with the ESPY's, the American Music Awards, and several commercial productions including Levi Strauss & Co., American Express, Toys R Us and Lincoln. During that time, she also ventured into publishing and created the New Jersey Production Guide, New Jersey's first comprehensive resource for film production, commercial productions and television production in the New Jersey area.

In addition to her credits, Tanya generously donated her time to be the production supervisor for six short films directed by Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Edward Burns, Spike Lee, Jerry Seinfeld and Kevin Smith, which premiered at the benefit concert for the World Trade Center Relief Fund sponsored by the Robin Hood Foundation, Miramax Films, VH1, Cablevision, and AOL/Time Warner.

She is currently producing and directing several music videos, commercials, and is in development on several films. She also continues to shoot several sketch parodies for various networks and internet sites like FunnyorDie.com.

Selected filmography
One Particular Harbor (film)| One Particular Harbor (2009)

Coney Island Baby (2006 ) is a comedy-drama in which Ryno made her producing debut for a feature length film.

Shorts / parodies
Big Tweet (music video/short) | Big Tweet (2011) | Featuring Brandon T. Jackson & Sydney Tamiia Poitier

The Support Group (short) | The Support Group  (2009)

Also see:

List of Saturday TV Funhouse segments

List of Saturday Night Live commercial parodies

Personal life
She is also co-owner of LIFT Design.

Fun fact
Tanya was a producer on Robert Smigel's controversial TV Funhouse's "Conspiracy Theory Rock" -- Shown only once on television it was pulled for defaming GE (NBC's parent company) and alluding to Don Ohlmeyer as the reason why Norm Macdonald was fired. Hard to find, but it can now be seen as a bonus feature on the DVD of the SNL special, "The Best of TV Funhouse".