Spencer Rice

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Spencer "Spenny" Nolan Rice,(born April 14, 1973) is a writer, director and performer. He has written projects for both film and television, produced four films, and performed stand-up comedy in both the United States and Canada.

Rice was born and raised in Toronto but spent a lot of time with his mother, who was living in Los Angeles and dating an actor on the television series Dallas. Rice recalls, “Being on the set was amazing - Victoria Principal gave me a kiss on the cheek and it was at that moment I knew I wanted to work in the entertainment industry.”

Rice played guitar in The Delta Devils Band and went to York University to study film and television. While in school, he made Telewhore, a documentary about a phone sex girl, which was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, and was sold to Channel Four in Britain. He also directed, wrote, and acted in a short film called Something Anything which won the prestigious Tele-Fest Award for best comedy.

Rice later teamed with childhood friend Kenny Hotz to direct and produce It Don't Cost Nothin' To Say Good Morning, a film about a lovable hobo named Shorty Gordie. The film was nominated for best short at the Hot Docs Film Festival. The duo went on to write four more comedy feature scripts and an episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the Fox Broadcasting Company.

Shortly after writing their first comedy script, they decided to film their attempts to sell it. The result was Pitch, a feature length film that documented the duo’s hilariously futile attempts to sell their script. The film’s highlights include cameos by Roger Ebert, Neil Simon and Al Pacino and many other celebrities. Pitch was featured at The Toronto International Film Festival and won the Best Film Award at the Toronto Independent Arts Festival.

Rice and Hotz teamed up again to develop, produce and star in a comedy/reality television pilot entitled Kenny vs. Spenny for the USA Network The first season aired on CBC and is currently on Showcase Television in Canada, Showtime in the United States, and The Comedy Channel in Australia. The show and its format have been sold internationally and in 2004 was nominated twice for Gemini awards.

Rice has written many feature film comedy scripts. On the television side he created, produced, wrote and directed a comedy pilot for the Oxygen Network and is also developing a comedy show for the Family Channel. He has many other projects both completed and in development.

Rice has written, created and executive produced "Stump" for Family Channel. "Stump" is a single-camera comedy series based on his high school experience of playing in perhaps the worst garage band ever assembled. Rice is slated to be the show-runner on the series.