An award winning filmmaker and solo performer, I grew up on buses and airplanes traveling between divorced parents and my four sisters, raised on TV and theater. For me, the world was a playground for connection and figuring out what makes humans tick. I sought and found stories in everything. 

I lived in the art rooms of my grandmother, a painter,  and on the stages of my mother directing plays. I learned that a daily creative practice is vital for well-being. My own versions came through Carol Burnett and Gilda Radner’s larger than life characters, as well as Casey Casum’s Sunday night Top 40 stories. I wrote plays, stories, danced routines, played characters in talent shows, performed in musicals. 

My first film-making venture was a claymation adaptation of Moby Dick, with a blue VW Bug cast as the whale. This led to a deep dive into the craft of filmmaking, further inspired by a World Cinema class in college.   I  absorbed myself in the world of indie and experimental films, studying them, making them, traveling to and volunteering for days at film festivals. Intimate stories by Jim McKay, Dardenne Brothers, Chantelle Ackerman, Victor Nunoz, Mike White, Lynn Shelton, Allison Anders about real people in real life situations were my jam.

In my professional life I travel the world building things: film productions, site specific performance groups, storytelling shows.  

Some of my operating principles include:

• a well designed production mirrors a pop up chosen family. 

• building fun, inclusive, safe, creative spaces and production communities makes better work and saves lives. 

After many years in the Bay Area working in social justice oriented solo performance spaces originated by W. Kamau Bell and Martha Rynberg, 

I moved to Los Angeles  and stumbled into Nicole Blaine’s The Crow Comedy Club and Bobbie Oliver’s Tao Comedy Studio. I found myself hitting open mics and producing comedy shows.  I love this generation of comics that’s embraced more inclusive voices, women content creators and a new level of accountability. 

If I’m not on set or in a writers’ room, I’m coaching a friend at LACMA or Lo/Cal cafe, attempting to stand on a surfboard, or working on my tight five at open mics.  And, of course, listening to Prince…