Weekends at the movies and waking to my dad’s Elvis imitations... big impact as a kid.
I remember toddling down the stairs, hearing him belt out Burning Love. Mom came out later and my folks split up. She worked two jobs most of the time.
She’d drop me at the Akron Cineplex and I’d stay there all day, pay for the matinee then sneak into one or two more. The movie theater was like a
second home to me. I fell in love with the magic of storytelling. It made me long to grow up and tell my own stories — to be a writer — but that
always seemed like a fantasy.
Got my first gig at 12 washing dishes at Tommy Bruno’s Bar & Grill. Paid under the table. When I got out of high school I roamed the states for years trying to figure out who I was. Four years in the Navy tracking submarines. Two years studying music. File clerk in a police station. And a brief bout as the world’s worst waitress. I wrote about my experiences. About my family. All the strange, surprising people I met along the way. And I finally realized — I am a writer.
So I transferred to NYU. Terrified to be alone in the Big Apple, that huge city I only knew from episodes
of “Taxi.” But I fell in love with it. Worked as assistant to a very eccentric artist. Production intern for the editor of Ken Burns’ “The West.” Edited school books at McGraw-Hill.
I sang in a rock band. Wrote some songs.
And discovered my passion for writing screenplays.
My life since then has been a love letter to storytelling. A heartfelt affair that sometimes feels like a bad
boyfriend I can’t quit. My screenplay Loved Ones was developed at Amazon Studios and came oh so close to winning Best Screenplay of the Year.
My girlhood as a latchkey kid inspired my film Love’s Baby Soft, starring Alexa Swinton (“And Just Like That…,” “Maestro”).
I wrote radio scripts
for Wynton Marsalis and a teen comedy for Applause Films. Fulfilled a childhood dream when I sailed to the UK and spent three months exploring England, Wales, and Scotland.
Now I’m living in New Jersey as a writer, web producer, film fanatic and ice cream addict. Current gig is helping Carnegie Hall maintain their website. My first children’s book, What Do Trees Think? is available on Amazon. And I recently produced a documentary about Mom’s struggle with faith in the wake of Alzheimer’s. In the Night I Remember Your Name features Academy Award winner Marcia Gay Harden. It’s streaming on PBS.
As a kid I knew deep down music and movies would be the path for my deepest connection to God. My truest source of joy. Mom showed me that with a little faith and a lot of courage I could achieve any dream. And that kindness must come above everything, or those dreams won’t mean anything.
|
 |
Honors & Blessings
LOVE'S BABY SOFT - Official Selection, Vero Beach Film Festival - June '22
MEMENTO MORI - Official Selection, Vero Beach Film Festival - June '22
LOVED ONES - Semi-Finalist, Film Fatales Grant (Stowe Story Labs) - March '22
MEMENTO MORI - Official Selection, Nosferatu Film Festival - October '21
LOVED ONES - Quarter-Finalist, Page International Screenwriting Awards - Aug '21
LOVE'S BABY SOFT - Semi-Finalist, Filmmatic Short Screenplay Awards - Aug '21
MEMENTO MORI - Official Selection and Winner Best Actress in a Short, Chain NYC Film Festival - Aug '21
ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING - Selected Project, Stowe Story Labs Feature Campus - July '21
LOVED ONES - Quarter-Finalist, Filmmatic Drama Screenplay Awards - July '21
LOVE'S BABY SOFT - Semi-Finalist, Emerging Screenwriters Shoot Your Short - Jan '21
THE WORM AND THE BUTTERFLY - Semi-Finalist, ScreenCraft Horror Competition - Aug '20
IN THE NIGHT I REMEMBER YOUR NAME - Official Selection, Reading Film Festival - Nov '18
THE WAKES OF WILSON POE - 2nd Rounder out of 9,707 scripts, Austin Film Festival - Sept '18
IN THE NIGHT I REMEMBER YOUR NAME - Finalist, Screencraft Film Fund (top 25 out of over 2000 entries) - Feb '18
LOVED ONES - Finalist, Sundance Screenwriters Lab - Aug '16
LOVE'S BABY SOFT - 2nd Rounder, Austin Film Festival (top 15% out of over 9,000 entries) - Sept '16
LOVED ONES - top 5, Stowe Story Lab Tangerine Fellowship - Aug '15
THE WAKES OF WILBUR POE - top 4% out of over 1200 scripts, Table Read My Screenplay (Sundance) - Jan '12
LOVED ONES - Finalist for Best Screenplay of the Year, Amazon Studios - Dec '11
THE WAKES OF WILBUR POE - Semi-Finalist, NexTV - Aug '11
DEAREST - Finalist, Sundance Screenwriters Lab - Aug '10
THE WAKES OF WILBUR POE - Finalist, Slamdance - Sept '10
PROM QUEEN - Outline & Screenplay for Applause Films - 2009
LOVED ONES - Winner, BlueCat "Screenplay Live" (Rochester Film Festival) - May '08
LOVED ONES - Semi-Finalist, Bluecat Screenplay Lab - March '08
DOLORES - Finalist, BlueCat Screenplay Lab - March '08
DOLORES - Winner, WildSound Screenplay Reading Series - Nov '07
LOVED ONES - Finalist, BlueCat Screenplay Competition (top 5 scripts out of over 2400 entries) - July '07
LOVED ONES - Finalist, WildSound Screenplay Reading Series (top 9) - April '07
LOVED ONES - Quarter-Finalist, Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope - Feb '07
DOLORES - Semi-Finalist, American Gem Short Script Contest (top 15 scripts out of 1023 entries) - Aug '05
DEAREST - Semi-Finalist, Women In Film Las Vegas Project c2c Competition (top 55 scripts) - July '05
DEAREST - Finalist, Media Darlings Guerilla Filmmaking Grant (top 10 scripts) - May '05
Commercial script - Car & Driver Magazine - Sept '04
DEAREST - Semi-Finalist, Blueprint (Maverick Films) - March '04
WYNTON MARSALIS RADIO SCRIPTS - Jazz At Lincoln Center for Delta Airlines radio - Jan '04
OLDER - Tribeca Underground Film Festival - 2004
OLDER - 2nd Place, Pioneer Theatre Short Film Slam, New York City - Dec '03
DOLORES - Finalist, CfiFN Short Script Competition (top 5 scripts) - Nov '03
OLDER - Cape Fear Independent Film Network Festival, Wilmington, North Carolina - Oct '03
DEAREST & BAKER HILL BEAUTIES - Semi-Finalists, Writers Network - Oct '03
WHEELS WANTED - Semi-Finalist, Flicks on 66 Short Script Competition - May '03
DOLORES - 2nd Place, short script category, Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope - Feb '02
Commercial script - MF2 Productions (BMW) - 2002
BAKER HILL BEAUTIES & KISS & TELL - Semi-Finalists, Chesterfield Writer’s Film Project - Jan '00
Helena Rubinstein Scholarship - New York University - 1992