Written by Stirling Gardner Friday, 01 May 2009 19:26

Biography

Born in New York to an Episcopal minister and a child psychologist, Stirling had little choice but to subject himself to Hollywood.  Although raised near a remote Amish community in rural Maryland, he managed to excel in school.  Stirling quickly outgrew performing "L'il Abner" in the school's newly raised barn, and moved on to community theater.

Winning a scholarship to study economics at the University of Richmond, Stirling chose Virginia over his warm Amish womb.  To the horror of his Sigma Chi Brothers, Stirling shifted his focus to include the performing arts where he won an Irene Ryan Award.  Upon graduation, Stirling fled to Los Angeles in an attempt to evade his fraternity brothers who still consider him a traitor for bringing up their grade point average.  "Dude, a 3.7?!  What the f*ck!?"

Several years later, Stirling's mom is proud to see her son in commercials for: American Express, GE, IBM, Hallmark, Sony, Kodak (all six directed by Cleo Award winning director Joe Pytka), Kia, SBC, Jeep, Miller Genuine Draft, the Aluminum Association, Drugstore.com, Cheer, Degree, Hollywood Video, Toyota, Marshall Fields, Chrysler, Honda and a dozen others including a campaign for the cell phone company U.S Cellular.

This commercial success afforded Stirling the time and resources necessary to write, produce and star in his first short film "Opposite Sex & the City", a male tribute and parody of the successful HBO series.  Within its first three weeks, it was ranked #1 Most Popular and #1 Highest Rated Comedy on IFilm.com.  It was featured on Yahoo's home page which drew over 300,000 people to view it.   It has been shown at The Los Angeles Short Film Festival, The Giggle Shorts International Film Festival and 6 other festivals only people who have films in festivals care about.

Stirling parlayed his short-film into landing lead roles in two feature films: "Black Days", a dark comedy film noir that won Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography at the Guerrilla Filmmakers Film Festival held at the prestigious Tribeca Center in New York City.  This film has won countless critical praise and numerous awards at the following festivals: Slamdance, Athens International Film Festival as well as the Newport Beach and San Diego Film Festivals.

Stirling can also be seen in the indie feature film "Hungry Hearts" opposite veteran star, Susan Blakely.   This film was completed in February 2002 and screened at the 2003 Hollywood Film Festival.  Stirling won the Martin Landau Award for Acting Excellence from the California Independent Film Festival where "Hungry Hearts" swept in 5 categories.  "Hungry Hearts" has been accepted to 10 domestic festivals and five international festivals.

Stirling's then went on to produce his one-man show "The Samsonite Luv Monkey/"  Stirling wrote and acted this comedic commentary on relationships, dating and the impact of "baggage" in the 20 something years.  "The Samsonite Luv Monkey" (dubbed "The Penis Monologues" by LA Weekly) has been called "edgy, poignant and first rate", a blend of "Chris Rock meets Spaulding Grey", and "an anthem for our generation."  Backstage West calls the show, "A comedic tour de farce!" (He hates that they used that term, but nevertheless they did.)  Critical and commercial success are two of the reasons Stirling was invited to perform at the prestigious HBO/Warner Bros. Workspace a total of 11 times- more than any other one person show in the history of the Workspace.  You can view this show and find out more information at his official website www.StirlingGardner.com.  Warner Bros TV offered him a holding deal for this show.

Stirling most recently produced his first feature film "The Enigma With A Stigma".  It is a mockumentary in the vain of "Waiting for Guffman" and "Best In Show".  The films plot is being kept secret, but he can tell you that all of the comic actors involved in the project are really fucking funny.  The Enigma with a Stigma is available through Anthem Pictures.

Stirling produced the short film, Body Electric that has been shown at ComiCon and in the following festivals: St. Louis International Film Festival, ShockerFest and several others.

At this point, Stirling is tiring of writing about himself in the third person, but will wrap it up by saying that he has produced two web series: Nick and Kim's WILD MULLET KINGDOM and CSI: Mullet (a parody of CSI Miami) for his own website.  And will continue to crank out high quality content for you to enjoy and be offended by.