Dark Word #023: Polymath Josh Ruben

The Dark Word

Josh Ruben is an award-winning actor, writer, and director whose feature film SCARE ME—which he wrote, directed and starred in alongside Aya Cash and Chris Redd—debuted at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. For television, Josh directed sketches for "The Late Late Show" with James Corden and episodes of TruTV's "Adam Ruins Everything." As one of the founding members of CollegeHumor's "Originals" department, Ruben has directed and/or starred in thousands of comedic shorts, amassing views well into the billions.

He directed and cameos in all 10 episodes of Funny or Die & Spotify's narrative podcast, THE LAST DEGREE OF KEVIN BACON opposite Rob Reiner, Lamorne Morris, Kyra Sedgwick, and Bacon himself. His second feature, WEREWOLVES WITHIN, premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival and is distributed by IFC Films and won a Hollywood Critics Association Midseason award for "Best Indie." Ruben recently produced BLOOD RELATIVES, a genre road trip dramedy, and currently stars in Travis Stevens' feature film A WOUNDED FAWN, which premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival. Both films are streaming exclusively on Shudder.

We've interviewed him before and this lively conversation goes into even greater depth about his career in comedy and horror.