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Awkward Pictures is made up of award-winning writer/directors Payman Benz and Sean Becker. Together they produce comedic short films and sketches. Their work has been screened at over 30 film festivals, featured on prominent websites such as YouTube and Myspace, and they've won several awards, including an Emmy in 2004.

In July 2007, Awkward Pictures won the 1st YouTube Sketchies Contest, sponsored by Sierra Mist, where they faced off against over 5,000 other entrants.

'Fanny Pack' and 'Creepy', two comedic music videos directed by Payman Benz, are featured on AdamSandler.com, and are the first videos not produced by Happy Madison to be featured on the website.

One of their most recent shorts, 'Tuesday', won 'Best Narrative Short' at Sundance as part of the 2006 Moving Pictures Magazine Short Film Contest. A few months later, 'Tuesday' won 'Best in Fest' at the 2007 Wizard World Film Festival in Los Angeles. Their short 'The Long Walk Home' won Best Comedy at the RadioAlice Film Festival in San Francisco, California.

Awkward Pictures was the first independent production company to have their own shorts program at a major film festival. This collection of short films, 'Awkward Pictures presents...Comedy Gumbo' premiered at the 2007 Newport Beach Film Festival, and featured 8 Awkward Pictures films.

In addition to writing and producing their own material, they've produced videos for other comedians such as Nick Swardson, Owen Benjamin & Howard Kremer.

Their most recent project is "Comedy Gumbo", a 10-episode sketch series created specifically for the web. "Comedy Gumbo" features over 60 new sketches, commercial parodies, short films, one-off jokes and bizarre characters. The show is available on YouTube, Hulu, Myspace, Crackle & AOL Video. "Comedy Gumbo" is distributed by Sony Pictures Television. Awkward Pictures is based in Los Angeles, California.

Payman Benz & Sean Becker are represented by United Talent Agency and by Dan Halsted of Manage-ment.