Biography

David Riker is an American screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his award-winning film The City (La Ciudad), a neo-realist film about the plight of Latin American immigrants living in New York City. Riker is also the writer and director of The Girl (2012), and the co-writer of the films Sleep Dealer (2008) and Dirty Wars (2013).

Born in Boston, Riker moved to Brussels, Belgium, at the age of five, where he attended a French-speaking school. In 1973 his family moved to London, where he studied at The American School.Riker is a graduate of New York University's Graduate Film School where, in 1992, he made his first fictional film, The City (which became "The Puppeteer" story in the feature The City (La Ciudad) (1998)). The short received critical acclaim and, among other accolades, won the Gold Medal for Dramatic Film at the Student Academy Awards and the Student Film Award from the Directors Guild of America.