Ash Christian Dead: 'Social Animals' Producer Was 35

Ash Christian, a producer, actor and director known for Social Animals and Coyote Lake, has died. He was 35.

Christian died in his sleep while vacationing in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, according to his representatives.

He ran his own production company based in New York, Cranium Entertainment, producing numerous films including the SXSW hit 1985, Hurricane Bianca, Little Sister and Coin Heist.

In 2006, Christian won outstanding emerging talent for his first feature film Fat Girls at Outfest. In 2014, Christian won a Daytime Emmy for outstanding special-class short-form daytime program for “mI Promise.” He shared the win with producing partner Anne Clements and executive producers Lauralee Bell and Scott Martin.

“Ash was a great friend, colleague and partner in crime. He was a champion of indie film and filmmakers and his love of the process of putting movies together was infectious. My heart goes out to his family, especially his mother. The world lost one of the good ones,” Clements shared in a statement.

Christian and Clements had few new releases in progress, including Chick Fight with Malin Akerman, Fortune Feimster and Alec Baldwin coming out in the fall, and Paper Spiders, featuring Lili Taylor, Max Casella and Peyton List.

“With Ash, work was always fun. That’s the effect he had on people. I will miss my good friend dearly, as I know so many others will as well. The world has lost a talented writer/director/producer, but most importantly, a great person who had so much more life to live,” friend and producing partner Jordan Yale Levine of Yale Productions also shared in a statement.

Christian and Yale Levine had recently worked together on After Everything with Marissa Tomei, Gina Gershon and Jeremy Allen White, and Burn with Josh Hutcherson, Tilda Cobham-Hervey and Suki Waterhouse.

Christian was born in 1985 in Paris, Texas and began making films at a young age. As an actor, he appeared in the TV series Cleaners, The Good Wife, The Good Fight, Law & Order, Person of Interest and more. His additional producing credits include Hello Again, Burn and Kindred Spirits.

Following Christian’s death, Thora Birch, who starred in Kindred Spirits, posted a tribute to him on Twitter, remembering Christian as “one of my very few truly wonderful friends. He was genuinely hilarious and to lose him is just… I can’t even say.”

Christian was set as a producer for numerous projects in various stages of production including As Sick As They Made Us, Mayim Bialik’s directorial debut starring Dustin Hoffman, and The Sixth Reel, starring Charles Busch and Doug Plaut and directed by Carl Andress and Busch.