Ricky has enjoyed great success in various modes of the entertainment industry as an entertainer, producer, and creator. Among his many accolades, Ricky played Danny Zuko in 726 performances of "Grease" on Broadway, performing with Brooke Shields, Rosie O’Donnell and Jennifer Holiday. Ricky has been nominated twice for a Daytime Emmy in the Lead Actor category and also picked up a special fan award at the Emmys as one half of a "Most Irresistible Combination."
Ricky created and executive produced "Street Match" for ABC Television with then partner Gabe Sachs and had production deals with Telepictures and Warner Brothers, to bring the CD-Rom game "You Don’t Know Jack" to primetime. Ricky attended Fordham University.
Vin Montello has a wide-ranging entertainment background. After working as a successful stand up comic in the eighties and early nineties, Vin tur ned to writing, creating and executive producing pilots for Crisscraft/UPN and Foxlab, a division of Fox Television.
Among his writing credits are the award winning animated series, "Rugrats," the Columbia/Tristar sitcom "Between Brothers," and a season working for Dreamworks Studios, writing and developing the series, "Steven Spielberg presents... Toonsylvania."
More recently, Vin helped develop a video game into an animated series for European software giant Ubisoft, and wrote for Kids WB on the animated series Loonatics. Vin pursued a Fine Arts degree at East Stroudsburg University.
Lifelong friends, Ricky and Vin paired up in 1997 for "The Celebrity Arabian Adventure," a reality/racing special, for ESPN. Next, they created the in-flight programming for UAE Airlines. Ricky and Vin's next project was a half hour comedy pilot, "Knockouts," starring Lou Rawls that led to a deal with Emmy award winning writer Maxine Lapiduss, to produce the one hour dramedy, "Doin’ sLife".
As the new millennium dawned, Ricky and Vin founded one of the internet’s first television networks "FlyTV." and landed a seven figure deal. They produced 90 episodes of seven short-form web shows.
In 2002, the FlyTV concept was sold as a pilot for broadcast to Viacom. The pair went on to create, write and produce a pilot with famed producer Bruce Nash called "Wired and Fired," a uniquely entertaining, twenty-two minute, hidden camera, reality game show. Ricky and Vin also appeared on camera for the first time together.
In 2005, Ricky and Vin collaborated on a CBS.com talk show where Ricky interviewed some of CBS’s biggest stars. In 2006, 2007 and 2008 Ricky again got to ply his hosting skills for ABC’s Soapnet Daytime Emmy Red Carpet show, with Vin working behind the scenes as a consultant, crafting questions and comedy for Ricky.
Ricky and Vin are currently working on two new projects: a paranormal show that puts claimants to the test for a huge cash prize, and a hidden camera relationship show that reunites ex’s... at any cost.
Following his long and successful run as Gus Aitoro on CBS’s "Guiding Light", Ricky has maintained his on-screen presence by making a smooth transition to playing the beloved rogue, Jake Martin, on ABC’s All My Children. But... the collaboration between these two lifelong friends endures.
