Riley Levine

Bitter Jester Music Festival Judge

Riley Raine Levine is a cartoonist, musician, and social media influencer from Highland Park, IL. Alongside attending Columbia College Chicago as an Illustration major, they have a passion for songwriting and music performance, and are currently in the process of developing their first album.

Throughout their teenage years, Riley participated in the Bitter Jester Music Festival multiple times in both band and solo performer projects including BJMF’s 2020 Virtual Original Songwriting Competition. Riley was also selected by Bitter Jester to sing the National Anthem before the July 4 Parade in Highland Park and, along with their sister, was selected as a Featured Performer at one of BJMF’s Grand Finale Concerts, a coveted spot.

At Highland Park High School, they spent much of their time playing for the school's wind symphony and marching band as a percussionist, and was the winner of the school's “HP Idol” for its 2020 Charity Drive.

After graduating from HPHS, Riley and their older sister Zoe put together “the Levinia Festival,” a multiple-day benefit show with a rotating group of young musicians from the area. Their most recent shows in 2022 lasted over 10 hours, collectively, and benefited the Highland Park Community Foundation's 4th of July Response Fund.

Over the course of their childhood Riley has primarily been a singer and percussionist, but also learned the piano and ukulele along the way. They have grown to love nearly every genre of music under the sun, singing along to everything from musical theatre to punk rock and everything in between.

Along with making music and doodling in their sketchbook, they also spend their free time writing scripts for their work-in-progress comics, volunteering at PAWS Chicago, customizing used dolls, and making comedic animation reviews for their 11k YouTube subscribers and 34k TikTok followers.