SAG-AFTRA | AEA | American Member of British Equity | Dramatists Guild
FILMMAKER
I’m one of the lucky ones. My first call to an agent was a cold call I made to William Morris. Dan Stevens signed me. My first job was starring in a prime-time series on ABC. Immediately followed by a starring role in a CBS pilot. It didn’t get picked up, but CBS put me under contract for my own show. I had a wonderful acting career until I was forty-three. That’s the last time I starred in a studio film.
I started writing screenplays and fell in love with it. My first screenplay won the WGA Producers Access Program. Four out of six of my spec scripts have been optioned but none of them made it to the screen. Frustrating.
I opened my own production company, Got a Laugh Entertainment. Then wrote, produced, directed and starred in a short which was accepted at Cannes and won multiple awards in additional festivals.
Next, I made a 90-minute romantic comedy, “1 Nighter”, starring Timothy Bottoms and myself. I also wrote, produced and directed. It gets 3.0 to 4.2 stars of Amazon depending on how much I promote it. A lot of big budget studio films get 2 stars. There aren’t many people who can write, produce, direct and star in a feature and be successful at it.
Now, I’m moving into mainstream films with my next feature, “Finding Joy”. It’s a woman’s empowerment story about losing love, gaining strength and finding joy. It's not a revenge script or an action film in which a woman battles beasts and barbarians with only one magic spear. It’s about a devoted mom and loving supportive wife. Joy Richman is a character every woman can relate to.
The film shoots in Singapore and the US and has a mixed Asian and American cast. Now I have to build a new team for representation and partner with a company set up to work in Singapore and the US.
People on the festival circuit always asked me how I could do all of that. I think what sets me apart from others is the way I think. Most people look at their lives and think, "Where can I go from here?" They are looking at their lives from the bottom up. I decide what I want to do and make it happen.
Below is my favorite quote
.
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Begin it now. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way." - Goethe
 |
|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |