Clara Ritger grew up in Huntington Beach, California, where she trained as a junior lifeguard, broke a distance swimming record, traveled to Hawai’i to play soccer, sang in a competitive children’s choir, was cast as Annie in the school musical, and won a contest for tickets to Hollywood movie premiere after playing the piano on a radio show. Amidst her vast extracurricular interests she also found time to excel in school, and graduated as the salutatorian of her high school class. She attended the University of Notre Dame on a merit scholarship, where she graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Political Science and Film, Television and Theatre in May 2013. She also has a minor in Journalism, Ethics, and Democracy, because she never really could do just one thing.
Currently, Clara is a freelance video director and producer based in New York, NY. She works across mediums in digital, TV and film, and has recently worked with NBC News, the Wall Street Journal and PBS. Her curiosity about the world has led her to tell stories across industries, including finance, health, food, travel, fashion, and the environment. She partners with media companies, brands, and nonprofits to create emotional, shareable stories. Her work with her production company, Humanity Is, can be found here.
Prior to moving to NYC, Clara was based in the Washington, D.C. area as a Producer at Green Buzz Agency, where she created documentary style videos for major brands and nonprofits, including Upworthy and Make-A-Wish. She has also written and/or done multimedia work for National Journal, The Indianapolis Star, USA Today, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Patriot-News, Morning Call, Capitolwire, Northern Virginia Magazine, 88.1 WVPE NPR, the Reno Gazette-Journal, NDtv News and the oldest collegiate publication in the United States, Scholastic magazine.
Clara really likes coffee, and once bought everything on the menu at Starbucks because she had extra monopoly money at school and wanted to find out what her favorite drink actually was. It cost her $134.80 and most days she still drinks it black. She also enjoys traveling and a good book. She has summited Kilimanjaro, and recently ran her first marathon.
Clara does not feel that autobiographies – or life – should be taken seriously.
clara ritger 