Randall Thorne, better known by his pseudonyms RT! and R.T. Thorne, is a Canadian writer, producer and director. He began his career as a music video director for

Sean Paul Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques (born 9 January 1973) is a Jamaican dancehall musician. Paul's first album, ''Stage One'', was released in 2000. He gained international fame with his second album, ''Dutty Rock'', in 2002. Its single "Get Busy ...

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and

Shawn Desman Shawn Bosco Fernandes (born January 12, 1982), known by his stage name Shawn Desman, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, dancer, and choreographer. Early life Shawn Desman attended St. Francis of Assisi Elementary School in Toronto. After disco ...

, before directing episodes of television series include '' Degrassi: The Next Generation'', ''

Make It Pop ''Make It Pop'' is a Canadian musical comedy series created by Thomas W. Lynch and Nick Cannon that aired on Nickelodeon from March 26, 2015 to August 20, 2016. The series stars Megan Lee, Louriza Tronco, Erika Tham, and Dale Whibley. ...

'', ''

Backstage Backstage may refer to: * Backstage (theatre), the areas of a theatre that are not part of the house or stage Film and television * ''Back Stage'' (1917 film), a silent film starring Oliver Hardy * ''Back Stage'' (1919 film), a silent film starri ...

'' and ''

Find Me in Paris ''Find Me in Paris'' is an English-language teen science-fantasy dramedy series that premiered on April 14, 2018, on Hulu and Netflix (only for season 1), produced by ZDF Enterprises and Cottonwood Media. The series is filmed on location in Paris ...

''. He received three

iHeartRadio MMVAs The iHeartRadio Much Music Video Awards were an annual awards show broadcast annually on Much from 1990 to 2018, and Fuse from 2010 to 2013 that honoured the year's best music videos. Originally debuting in 1990 as the Canadian Music Video Aw ...

for directing. In 2020, Thorne created and produced science fiction series '' Utopia Falls'' for

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. In 2022, he directed and executive produced the

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

period drama '' The Porter'', for which he received

Canadian Screen Awards The Canadian Screen Awards () are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media ( web series) productions. Given annually by the Academy ...

Life and career

Thorne was born in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada. After winning 17 International

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

awards, and working with international music artists like

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and

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, R.T. moved into long-form filmmaking in 2012. As of May 2012, Thorne serves on the

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

of The Remix Project, a non-profit cultural incubator that aims to increase access to the "creative industries" for underprivileged and marginalized youth. In the Fall of 2009, the Remix Project partnered with Team Seven Productions and

Temple Street Productions Temple Street Productions was a Toronto-based Canadian television & digital media production studio. Formed in 1996 by Patrick Whitley and Sheila Hockin, it was sold to Ivan Schneeberg and David Fortier—who had led the studio's drama unit since ...

to create CITYLIFE, a new educational initiative that aimed to create

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

s from the voices of inner city youth. RT! is the Director of Programs for CITYLIFE which included running workshops as well as serving as a directing mentor to the participants. In 2015, R.T. wrote, directed and co-produced ''The Time Traveler'', which won best short film at the Canadian Film Festival. In 2018, R.T. was accepted to the prestigious

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's Talent Lab to develop his debut feature. In 2020, R.T. created '' Utopia Falls'', a Afrofuturistic science fiction series that premiered as a HULU Original. His debut feature film, '' 40 Acres'', went into production in 2023 in

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, with its premiere planned for 2024.Taimur Sikander Mirza
"R.T. Thorne’s feature debut 40 Acres underway in Sudbury"
'' Playback'', October 11, 2023.

Credits

Film

*'' 40 Acres'' (director and writer, 2024)

Television

*''Alive'' (2013) *'' Degrassi: The Next Generation'' (4 episodes, 2014) *''

'' (2 episodes, 2016) *'' Degrassi: Next Class'' (4 episodes, 2016) *''

Dino Dana ''Dino Dana'' is a Canadian comedy-drama science fiction television series created and directed by J. J. Johnson. The series was developed as a follow-up to '' Dino Dan: Trek's Adventures'' and premiered on Amazon Prime Video on May 27, 2017. ' ...

'' (1 episode, 2017) *''

'' (13 episodes, 2016—2017) *''

'' (13 episodes, 2018) *'' Blindspot'' (1 episode, 2019) *'' Utopia Falls'' (10 episodes, also creator, 2020) *''

Frankie Drake Mysteries ''Frankie Drake Mysteries'' is a Canadian drama that ran on CBC Television from November 6, 2017 to March 8, 2021. The series stars Lauren Lee Smith and Chantel Riley as Frankie Drake and her partner Trudy Clarke who run an all-female privat ...

'' (2 episodes, 2021) *''

Kung Fu Chinese martial arts, commonly referred to with umbrella terms Kung fu (term), kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (sport), wushu (), are Styles of Chinese martial arts, multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater Ch ...

'' (2 episodes, 2021—2022) *'' The Porter'' (8 episodes, 2022) *'' The Lake'' (2 episodes, 2023)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thorne, R.T. Black Canadian filmmakers Canadian music video directors Canadian people of Barbadian descent Canadian people of Trinidad and Tobago descent Film directors from Calgary Living people Canadian television directors Year of birth missing (living people) Black Canadian screenwriters