Richard Elfman

American film director

Richard Elfman (born March 6, 1949) is an American actor, musician, director, producer, screenwriter, journalist, author and magazine publisher.

Richard Elfman was born in the Watts district of Los Angeles. His mother, Blossom Elfman (A. K. A. "Clare Elfman"), was an Emmy winning novelist. His younger brother is musician and film composer Danny Elfman, with whom Richard would found the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, a performance art troupe that would later morph into Oingo Boingo, an eclectic band that was popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Elfman dropped out of college and opened clothing stores adjacent UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley. At that time, Elfman performed and recorded as an Afro Latin percussionist and wrote, performed and directed with the San Francisco avant guarde/absurdist, drag theater group the Cockettes.

While in Paris, Elfman was a member of Jérôme Savarys musical theater company, Le Grand Magic Circus, which toured Europe extensively and performed the show Zartan for a year's run at the 800 seat Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. The company also performed at London's Roundhouse under the auspices of Savary's mentor, Peter Brook of the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was during the Magic Circus' summer tour that Richard's brother Danny received his first professional job as a violinist with the company, performing as an opening act alongside Richard on percussion. Shortly after his stint with the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, Elfman acted in and directed a stage production of Igor Stravinskys L'Histoire du soldat, which won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Production. In 2018 Richard wrote and directed an absurdist musical comedy in Los Angeles, Dead Man's Boner, co starring his wife Anastasia Elfman. Richard played percussion in the show's band, Mambo Diabolico. Elfman made a film titled, Bloody Bridgette in 2023, a horror musical. Richard and Anastasia Elfman currently host an underground musical/theatrical salon, The BBQ Bacchanals. Richard, a semi professional barbecue chef, cooks as well as entertains. Elfman left the Mystic Knights in 1979 to pursue a career in filmmaking, after which Danny assumed creative control of the band, eventually shortening the name to "Oingo Boingo" and transforming it into an 8 piece rock band, which found success throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Richard plays Afro Latin percussion in the band Mambo Diabolico, originally created for a play of Richard's with collaborator Ego Plum. The band features five octave singer Lena Marie Cardinale and Anastasia Elfman's burlesque choreography. Mambo Diabolico was recently featured in Darren Lynn Bousman's immersive production Theatre Macabre. The band appeared on the soundtrack of Richard's film Aliens, Clowns & Geeks (2019) and Bloody Bridget (2023).

Elfman's first directing project was the cult musical film Forbidden Zone, which was shot over a period of three years and released in 1982. The film itself was a surreal black and white film version of the Mystic Knights' theatrical show starring its band members and friends; notably, Danny Elfman appears onscreen as Satan, singing a modified version of Cab Calloways "Minnie the Moocher", while Richard also appears, singing the 1920s song "The Yiddishe Charleston". Owing to its cult following, Forbidden Zone still screens in numerous cities and Elfman often performs in a live 20 minute pre show composed of local artists, involving music, video clips and burlesque choreographed by Anastasia Elfman. Facilities allowing, Elfman, an accomplished grill master, throws a barbecue after the show. More recently, theaters have also begun performing "shadow cast" screenings of Forbidden Zone similar to those made famous by The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), in which fans who are dressed in character perform in sync alongside the film. Elfman sometimes participates by playing characters in these live performances. The Syfy channel has run a teaser musical number, "Princess Polly" from Forbidden Zone 2: The Forbidden Galaxy, on its show Monster Man, starring Cleve Hall. Elfman opens the Forbidden Zone shadow cast shows (after the march in) with Erin Holt singing "Princess Polly" live in front of her screened "monster" image on stage. Elfman also directed the 1994 horror film Shrunken Heads for Full Moon Entertainment—footage and scenery of which was later reused for sequences in the 1996 Full Moon feature Zarkorr! The Invader—and the 1998 horror comedy Modern Vampires, both of which were written by Forbidden Zone writer and former Mystic Knights member Matthew Bright. In a 2009 interview, Elfman revealed he had also done various pseudonymous film work under the names "Aristide Sumatra" and "Mahatma Kane Sumatra", including the 1994 Mimi Lesseos martial arts film Streets of Rage. Elfman continues to work in film, television and streaming media, including the science fiction comedy Aliens, Clowns & Geeks, which debuted in 2019 and horror comedy Bloody Bridget, 2023. Both films feature music by Richard's brother Danny Elfman and bandmate Ego Plum.

Elfman has been a published journalist for 30 years, focusing on food, wine, travel and entertainment. In 2007, he became a writer for Buzzine magazine, eventually becoming its film editor and then editor in chief. In 2010, Elfman and his son Louis purchased Buzzine, expanding it online and also creating a Buzzine Bollywood sister site. Between 2010 and 2015, Elfman produced 275 Buzzine red carpet, music and celebrity video interviews, as well as developed the web series Buzzine Celebrity House. His first novel, The Schlimazel of Sebreim, a humorous vampire tale, was published by Encyclopocalypse Publications in 2023. Elfman has two more upcoming novels slated for publication in 2024. Elfman is presently engaged to write and develop animation projects for FilmHenge and The Apiary group.

Other members of Richard's family in the arts include his sister in law, actress Bridget Fonda; his son, actor producer Bodhi Elfman; his daughter in law, actress Jenna Elfman; his niece, horror producer Mali Elfman; and his nephew, Emmy winning broadcast journalist Diego Santiago. Richard is married to Anastasia Elfman, a ballet dancer, actress, cellist and burlesque artist. They have a daughter, Audrey Grace. His family is Jewish.