Critically Acclaimed Online Series Downsized Returns for Second Season

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New YORK ,New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) April 28, 2011 -- Critically acclaimed web dramedy Downsized is back for Season 2 starting April 27, 2011.

Shot in New York City and New Jersey, Downsized is a made-for-the-web ensemble dramedy about the extremes people go to when faced with an economic crash. The critically acclaimed series, told in the mosaic style of Magnolia with the dark humor of Nurse Jackie, follows the lives of several New Yorkers as they try to balance work, love and their checkbooks post-economic crisis.

Nominated as Best Web Comedy by Clicker.com in 2010 and an Official Selection at the Cologne Conference 2010 in Germany along with HBO's Treme and AMC's Mad Men, Downsized is also one of the few scripted web series granted a partnership with YouTube.

Written and directed by rising female writer/director Daryn Strauss and produced by Strauss, Maitely Weismann (Mother Eve's Secret Garden of Sensual Sisterhood) and Scott Napolitano (Issues), the show depicts the interconnected stories of average people from different financial and cultural backgrounds as they adjust to recession-fueled lifestyle changes, told with a mixture of realism and absurdity that earned creator Strauss the distinction of being named "a fresh and strong voice" in 2010.

The upcoming season shifts the focus from the work environment to the home environment, dealing with the absurd complications that happen in relationships during changes in finances.

The four main storylines continue: Beth (Daryn Strauss) and Hank (Gerard Urciuoli) deal with Beth's unemployment as Beth gets desperate for cash; Connor (Chris Henry Coffey) is caught between his estranged wife and his feelings for his Turkish cleaning Leyla (Esra Gaffin); Andy (Conan McCarty) continues to harass his ex Priscilla (Meredith Zinner) while he tries to launch his self-help program the E Trinity; Astrid (Shannon Conley) finds herself in an awkward situation with pageant parents.

Downsized will be the first of many original online productions for DigitalChickTV.com, a web community created by Strauss to raise awareness for quality content by and for women in digital media.
 
The cast includes TV/Broadway/film vets including Strauss, Chris Henry Coffey (straight off his critically acclaimed costarring role in the film Trust with Clive Owen), Conan McCarty (The Closer with Kyra Sedgwick, Broadway’s A Few Good Men and Macbeth), Meredith Zinner (Erin Brockovich), Shannon Conley (Lez Zeppellin), Anna Stone (Boardwalk Empire), Brian Keane (FX's Lights Out) Kaipo Schwab (Fair Game with Naomi Watts), Gerard Urciuoli (White Collar), Duncan Murdoch (FACE), Esra Gaffin, Aysan Celik, Michele Mavissakalian, Maitely Weismann, and Dawn Vicknair.
 

Both seasons can be viewed at
www.downsizedthewebseries.com/viewepisodes
 or
http://www.youtube.com/show/downsized
 
REVIEWS
 
NewTeeVee, February  2010: A fresh and strong voice.
 
NewTeeVee, February 2010: Downsized represents an upgrade in episodic drama.
 
Daytime Confidential, February 2010: Think HBO’s Hung meets Up in the Air, only worthy of the hype.
 
Tubefilter, November 2009: an adept ensemble cast with no real weaknesses
 
Tubefilter, November 2009: believable writing
 

Tubefilter, November 2009: some of the most thoughtful visual compositions you’ll find in any web series, the style of which perhaps most defines Downsized’s quietly moody atmosphere
 
Tubefilter, November 2009: Downsized has succeeded in giving relevant drama a home on the web.
 
Visioweb.Tv: Downsized is beautifully crafted and shot as well as perfectly acted.
 
Visioweb.Tv : In these times, the show Downsized is right on the mark.
 
BIO

Daryn Strauss (Beth) (Director, Writer, Producer)

Named “a fresh and strong voice” by NewTeeVee in 2010 for her work as creator of the critically acclaimed online series DOWNSIZED, which was an Official Selection of the prestigious Cologne Conference 2010, Daryn Strauss has been profiled in Script Magazine, Clicker and Web Series Network. In 2010, she was a guest on GRITtv with Laura Flanders, TV Talk Radio, Indie Intertube, and On the Road with Leah.
One of the first twenty-two digital media signatories to the Writers Guild of America, East in 2009, Daryn is an avid supporter of equal rights in programming content, so she is very happy to provide a home for online content geared for women, Digital Chick TV (www.digitalchicktv.com). 
Daryn is also an Associate Member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

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