About Haley Ahern
Chief Executive Officer/ Director/Producer
A creative on all levels, Haley Ahern is a multi-talented director, photographer, screenwriter, choreographer, dancer, and cinematographer that draws her audience in with captivating concepts, placing them in the palm of her hand. Bold and dynamic, Ahern approaches every music video as if she were the music – every instrument, lyric and beat coming together to compose a visual storyline on the screen. When photographing, Ahern’s purpose is to capture the moment and leave the spectator with a lingering feeling.
Since a very young age, Ahern was always drawn to the arts and entertainment world. Growing up, Ahern was raised on old films and musicals such as “The Wizard of Oz” and “It’s a Wonderful Life,” along with Doris Day favorites that she would dance and sing along to in the kitchen.
Since then, Ahern’s audience has grown from her family in the kitchen to over 30,000 while dancing live on Vidcon’s main stage, plus hundreds of thousands worldwide watching the live stream. However, the charismatic go-getter is no stranger to large audiences. Ahern has been in multiple viral dance videos that have reached over 28 million views each on Youtube. She has also danced on stage with Jason Derulo and has worked with world-famous choreographers such as Matt Steffanina, Liz Imperio and Rosero McCoy. Most recently, Ahern danced in Green Day’s music video “Father of All” and her dancing appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and at the iHeart Radio Music Festival.
No one-trick pony, Ahern has not only danced, but acted on multiple television and movie sets for Warner Bros, Michael Patrick King Productions, CBS, New Form Digital and 30 Ninjas. Her resume includes work for directors Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Red Riding Hood) and Samuel Bayer (Nightmare on Elm Street, Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Maroon 5’s “Payphone”).
Blending the experience she gained working on sets with her own initiative and creative prowess, Ahern took the helm of writing, directing, choreographing and creating the official music video for Casey Ahern’s “Just A Dance.”
"It started out with my sister Casey coming to me because her back was against a wall,” Ahern recalls. “She needed a music video for her new single and every production company she met with was immensely overcharging her. So I told her, ‘I’ll give it a shot!’”
After that decision, Ahern found her true passion: taking her visions from concept to execution, creating honest stories that can be shared with the world. So Ahern founded Refuse Reality Productions, a production company that prides itself on pushing creative boundaries and streamlining the way in which they produce content.
Since forming Refuse Reality Productions, Ahern’s company has filmed at Fox Plaza in Century City, making it one of the few production companies to film there, others being Warner Bros and Twentieth Century-Fox. Ahern has also worked with A-list post-production teams that included Gregory Alosio (CMT Europe Music Video of the Year 1993: Dwight Yoakam’s “Suspicious Minds”), Randy Coonfield (CBS, NBC, HBO) and Jennifer Ngou (The X-Files, America’s Next Top Model).
Coming full circle, Ahern’s most recent music videos she has created for her sister Casey have achieved over 136 television placements. Although Refuse Reality Productions is a small, independent company, its intimate yet high profile shoots are the reason it stands out amongst the bigwigs.
Now at a point where Ahern feels the company is ready to expand and take on more, Refuse Reality Productions is opening its own brick and mortar. Ahern spent a long six months building, by hand, the highly anticipated Refuse Reality Productions Studio located in Westlake Village, CA. The newly completed space features a cyclorama wall, editing bay, podcast studio, grand room, office, and a warehouse. Inspired by Ahern’s beginnings, the decor of the headquarters is reminiscent of Old Hollywood, with a bold, British racing green and gold accented color scheme as well as iconic portraits of silver screen legends.
“I remember when I first started renovating the space, I barely knew how to hold a hammer,” Ahern states. “After a long six months of rebuilding from dawn til dusk, I can confidently say I can work any tool thrown at me and understand the technicality behind it.”
The fact that Ahern rebuilt the studio by hand not only shows how personal the company is to her heart, but symbolizes something much greater. At Refuse Reality Productions, their small scale crew accomplishes projects that are normally taken on by much larger crews. Ahern takes pride in the name Refuse Reality because day in and day out, they exceed standards and accomplish above and beyond what is considered “realistic” for the traditional workflow of cinema.
Haley Ahern is the new kid on the block with her company doing things old school. And to top it all off, she’s only 20!