Official press materials · 4-page PDF
Press Kit
Film overview, synopsis, writer/director bio, cast and crew biographies, production notes and press contact.
Official Press Page
BRAINSOMNIAC
She wants to sleep. Her brain has other plans.
- Film
- Brainsomniac
- Format
- Short Film · 19:43
- Genre
- Dark Comedy
- Writer / Director
- Deva Dalporto
- Starring
- Kirsten Vangsness · Allison Munn
- Festival Status
- Seeking Festival Premiere · 2027
Approved assets
Downloads
Official one-page overview · PDF
One-Sheet
Film essentials, synopsis, cast, creative team and contact details for programmers, media and industry.
Official key art
Poster
Festival-ready artwork in high-resolution print, PDF and digital formats.
9 approved images · JPG
Production Stills
Download the complete approved stills collection as one ZIP file.
High-resolution JPG
Director Headshot
Approved portrait of writer and director Deva Dalporto.
Approved copy
About BRAINSOMNIAC
Logline
She wants to sleep. Her brain has other plans.
Synopsis
In a darkly hilarious exploration of mental health, a perimenopausal hypochondriac insomniac attempts to sleep, but is forced into battle with MY BRAIN (personified by Kirsten Vangsness “Criminal Minds”) who keeps ME (Allison Munn “Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn” “One Tree Hill” “The Big Show Show”) up all night with a series of escalating, imaginary emergencies.
As the hours tick towards morning, fears of a kitchen-knife-wielding intruder, bladder cancer and early-onset Alzheimer’s crescendo with a phantom heart attack that sends ME running to the ER … for the second time in a single day. The diagnosis? Anxiety. Will she ever escape her racing mind? ME is going to try.
Director
Deva Dalporto
Deva Dalporto is known for her funny viral videos about motherhood and her music parodies for which NBC dubbed her the “Weird Al of YouTube Moms.” Her videos have garnered a billion views and have been featured on Good Morning America, The Today Show, People Magazine and many more.
Deva was one of the first women to create humorous viral videos about motherhood, and her work sparked an entire category of “mom video” creators and influencers, shaping the new real, raw, irreverent mom content prevalent today. Prior to her viral video career, Deva was a Senior Editor for Nickelodeon’s parenting website. Her writing has also been published in several parenting anthologies.
BRAINSOMNIAC is her narrative debut.
Director’s Statement
BRAINSOMNIAC is an inside-out exploration of what it feels like to live with anxiety. As someone with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, my brain never shuts off. It ruminates on everything from hypochondriac health concerns to embarrassing missteps to fears of flying, fears of dying, fears of anything and everything. My anxiety was truly debilitating until I started an SSRI. Which took some time, because one thing I was really anxious about was anxiety medication.
Life is sometimes stranger than art, and in the middle of pre-production my biggest fear came true. I was diagnosed with cancer a month before we were set to shoot. In the middle of the panic of my diagnosis, I decided to forge ahead with the project. We shot a week before my double mastectomy. Coming from the YouTube world, I edit my own projects, and finished a rough cut between my first 7-hour surgery and my second 10-hour reconstruction. I polished the project between infusions.
In the same way my raw, real viral videos (one billion views) helped parents around the world laugh at the insanity of parenting, I hope BRAINSOMNIAC helps people find humor in the daily (or really, nightly) struggle with their minds. I hope this short shows people that it’s okay to seek help, and even more important to laugh.
Approved photography
Production Stills
Festival, Press & Distribution