Well, hello there...
Welcome to the organized chaos that is me. In addition to acting and creating films and theatre pieces, I am a mother, artist, & avid gardener. Willingness to explore many paths and allow them to inform each other is at the core of who I am and how I create.
As an actor for the past 20 years, I have appeared in dozens of TV shows, films and commercials; Amazon Studios The Power, NCIS: Hawaii, Good Trouble, American Sniper, Arrested Development, NCIS, The Mentalist, Sons of Anarchy, Masters of Sex, and Six Feet Under to name just a few.
As a director, I specialize in period pieces, including the Peabody nominated King of the Bingo Game for PBS, starring Colman Domingo and adapted from the story by Ralph Ellison, Darling, Darling, Wendy, which garnered numerous awards on the festival circuit in 2020, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Sensible Thing. I directed the dark thriller Donner Pass starring Erik Stocklin and Adelaide Kane that is having a cult revival on Peacock, and many humorous sketches, including the series The Wisdom of Children for Nick Mom, as well as many plays.
I also write and/or direct work for myself, and am currently touring a full length solo project entitled Imagining Rachel that explores the life and work of environmentalist Rachel Carson through the lens of my experience as a fellow daughter of Pittsburgh. Past self-produced/directed vehicles include comedy sketches The PTA Rap, The Sex Negotiators, and Mommy Tell Me a Story, all on the MomMayhem youtube channel.
I was born in Pittsburgh, PA, then made my way halfway across the country to Northwestern University, where I studied directing, acting and literary adaptation, and minored in fine art. After college, I continued my trek west, landing in San Francisco, where I began my career in the film industry as a character painter on Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. I went on to do scenic work on numerous features, and supervise the art department for ABC's stop motion cartoon Bump in the Night and my own model and character shop with clients ranging from Will Vinton Studios to Sony and Atari, before transitioning into directing, and later to acting.
I am Mom to two amazing girls, Stella and Sadie, and now that they're off to college, I find that teaching and coaching young actors fulfills my desire to teach (and learn from) the next generation. If I’m not on set, coaching, or working on a project, you’ll probably find me on a ladder restoring something in my tiny 1912 craftsman bungalow or in my tiny urban garden, where I grow everything from asparagus to zucchini (see my daily pics on instagram @1thingfrommygarden ).