Jo Garrity is a writer, filmmaker, and improviser from the San Francisco Bay Area, now based between Barcelona and Los Angeles. He partners with artists and agencies to create innovative and award-winning projects across film, television, music, theatre, and branded content.
While studying genetics at UC Berkeley, Jo pivoted into filmmaking during a semester at NYU’s Spring at Tisch program, learning 16mm film production and assisting writers and cast as a research intern at Saturday Night Live. He went on to work with the Pacific Film Archive, Telluride Film Festival, and Pixar Animation Studios, working as an assistant editor on the films THE GOOD DINOSAUR, INSIDE OUT, and FINDING DORY.
Jo is the writer/director of the narrative short film TWINSBURG, a tragicomic ode to identical twinship, which screened internationally at 50 film festivals and won 10 top awards, including Taos Shortz, Napa Valley, and Dances With Films. He was lead editor and assistant director of the A&E/History Channel documentary WATERGATE, a six-part miniseries by Academy Award-winning director Charles Ferguson that played theatrically at Telluride, NYFF, and Berlinale.
He has directed music videos and promos for artists including Alvvays, Hank May, and Crumb, with his video for Alvvays - “In Undertow” earning 4M views. Using a custom analogue video synthesizer, his audiovisual design has been commissioned for Alvvays’ Antisocialites tour and Crumb’s Jinx tour in Europe and North America. As a creative director, copywriter, and editor he has created branded content for clients like Bushmills, Tiffany & Co, Netflix, and PepsiCo.
Jo received his M.F.A. in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts from UC Riverside, and has trained and performed as an improviser at Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, and BATS Improv. Through the Creativity Lab, he teaches writing through improv, character, and sketch.
Currently he is in development on the independent feature film THE PEPSI-COLA ADDICT, based on the lost novel by June-Alison Gibbons.