Ross Partridge

Multi-hyphenate Ross Partridge worked steadily as an actor, writer and director on independent features for more than two decades before scoring a critical hit with the psychological drama "Lamb" (2015). Born Ross Whitman Partridge in Kingston, New York, he began his acting career with minor roles on television and in features like "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" (1996). By the new millennium, he had forged a working relationship with Kevin Spacey's production shingle, Trigger Street, which oversaw "Interstate 84" (2000), a crime drama that marked Partridge's debut as a writer and director. The film generated middling reviews, but Partridge remained in Trigger Street's fold as producer on several of the company's documentary efforts, including "America Rebuilds: A Year at Ground Zero" (PBS, 2002) while also logging occasional acting roles on television and in independent features. He soon began collaborating with a number of critically acclaimed figures on the independent film scene, including the Duplass Brothers, who cast him in their meta-horror feature "Baghead" (2008) and collaborated with him on the web series "Wedlock" (2014) and the comedy "Do-Deca Pentathlon" (2012), and Amy Seimetz, with whom he co-starred in "The Off Hours" (2011). After nearly two decades in the entertainment business, Partridge earned his breakthrough year as both actor and director in 2015. He landed supporting roles in the thriller "Secret in Their Eyes" (2015) opposite Julia Roberts, and a recurring role on the Netflix series "Stranger Things" (2016), with Winona Ryder. More significantly, his second effort as writer and director, the indie drama "Lamb" (2015), generated excellent reviews for its story of a complicated and eventually ominous relationship between a middle-aged man (played by Partridge) and an 11-year-old girl (Oona Laurence).