Lonely Rider Productions is the brainchild of Francis Tejada. Born and raised in a working‑class New Jersey town, Frank (as he is known by those closest to him) found filmmaking early, borrowing a Mini DV camcorder from a neighbor to shoot scrappy horror shorts with friends behind the local strip mall. After studying Communications at Stockton University, Frank became self‑taught in the craft of filmmaking, refining his skills while cutting his teeth directing, producing for corporate and local brands before moving into micro‑budget features that played late‑night slots at niche festivals around the country.
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Now based in Long Beach, California, he has built a quiet reputation on the festival circuit for intimate, character‑driven thrillers that blend blue‑collar New Jersey roots with the sun‑bleached edges of Southern California life. His third film, a tense, award‑winning thriller about an LA serial killer who terrorizes the city, became his breakthrough: it collected jury and audience awards at several regional festivals and earned him emerging‑filmmaker honors from a handful of independent film organizations.
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Despite the recent attention, he continues to work with small crews, non‑actors, and real locations, favoring authenticity over spectacle and insisting on staying close to the kinds of neighborhoods he grew up in. From community screenings back in New Jersey to sold‑out indie cinemas in Los Angeles, his work has begun to attract a loyal following of viewers who recognize their own struggles and small victories in his grounded, quietly powerful films.