Right now I have 5 film projects in motion and a new production company taking shape.

I never set out to become a producer, and I certainly never imagined I would one day call myself a filmmaker. I always assumed I would tell stories through the written word alone.

Instead, those stories found their way to the screen.

And the path that led me here was anything but straightforward.

Looking back, the path makes more sense than it did while I was living it.

Early Creative Paths

I earned a BFA in theatre (acting) and began my career working as an actress and model, primarily in Asia. Eventually I moved from in front of the camera to behind it, getting a fashion design degree at Parsons, so I could become part of the creative team shaping what audiences see.

In the end, the fashion world - whether in front of the camera or behind it - wasn’t quite the right fit for me. But the experience taught me how creative industries actually function and how collaboration turns ideas into something tangible.

An Unexpected Detour: The Restaurant Years

After stepping away from fashion, I opened a restaurant in New York. That venture became its own unexpected success: the restaurant received a Michelin Bib Gourmand and won Time Out New York’s award for Best New Neighborhood Joint the year it opened.

Running a restaurant also taught me something I didn’t fully appreciate at the time: how to manage chaos, budgets, people, logistics, and problem-solving under pressure.

As it turns out, those are exactly the skills producing requires.

Reentering the Film World

It was during that chapter of my life that I reconnected with the man who would become my husband. We had been acquaintances in college years earlier. By the time we re-met, he had just left the studio system in Hollywood after fifteen years working across nearly every corner of the film and television industry.

He had come to New York to shoot a film he had written.

And by pure coincidence, he landed in my Brooklyn neighborhood.

At the time he was stepping into the world of independent filmmaking himself. I soon found myself working on several of his projects doing costume design, and it felt like the different threads of my life were finally weaving together.

My First Experience Producing

We married and planned an around-the-world honeymoon after completing production and post-production on one of his films.

During that project I also ended up co-producing, mainly because the film was being shot in my hometown and I naturally became the person connecting people, organizing logistics, and making things happen.

At the time I didn’t realize it, but that was my first experience producing. To me I was just calling in favors, bringing collaborators together, and solving problems, but looking back I now see that without my efforts the film would never have happened.

Motherhood and a New Chapter

Then life took another turn.

Just as we were preparing for our honeymoon, I became pregnant. The first trimester wiped me out completely. Honeymoon on hold (we never took it)! One unexpected development led to another, and before long I found myself living in Bulgaria with a baby.

That began a new chapter of my life: motherhood.

For a few years I was largely a stay-at-home mother, occasionally working on short films and consulting on costume design for projects at the film studio where my husband was helping develop a film school.

But I didn’t yet have a project that truly felt like my own.

Making Our Own Film

That changed during our time in Bulgaria when visa issues unexpectedly sent us back to the United States for six months.

Suddenly we had something rare: time.

So we decided to make a movie of our own.

It was a story I had wanted to tell for years. We financed the project ourselves and shot it on a shoestring budget with a small but dedicated group of people who believed in the story enough to volunteer their time.

We filmed the entire movie in less than two weeks - which, as I later learned, is no small feat in independent filmmaking.

The shoot was intense, and the period surrounding it brought more than their share of chaos. Eventually the project had to be shelved

.

Years of Setbacks and Persistence

Life moved forward again. We relocated to Barcelona, and not long after arriving the world shut down during the first Covid lockdown. For six weeks we were confined to our apartment.

During that time my husband finally revisited the footage from the film. The original edit we had received was disastrous, but with patience he managed to reconstruct something that actually resembled a film.

For the first time, I could see that all the effort we had put into the project might not have been in vain.

Still, progress came slowly.

After Covid came another pregnancy - one that drained my energy for nearly the entire nine months. Then there was another baby to care for, and the film went back on the shelf again.

Finishing What We Started

But in 2025 something shifted. I felt a very clear push from the Universe and realized it was time to finish what we had started.

I found a new editor, someone who had worked on the original shoot and also wanted to see the project completed. He took it on with the goal of finishing by the end of the year.

It is now March of 2026 and we are still waiting for the final cut, but the finish line is finally visible.

After years of setbacks, we are closer than ever.

What Producing Really Means

In the process I learned what it really means to be an independent producer. The job is part problem-solver, part connector, part strategist, and part storyteller.

It requires persistence, creativity, and the ability to keep moving forward even when progress is slow. Most of all, it requires belief and never giving up.

And while this film has taken time, it hasn’t been the only project.

During these years we also filmed a second movie - one that didn’t face the same obstacles but still requires patience. Independent filmmaking often runs on passion rather than payroll, which means projects move forward while everyday life continues around them.

Where Things Stand Now

Over the past decade I’ve learned an enormous amount - both through direct experience and by being the person my husband talks through every creative and logistical challenge with.

Teaching is also one of his passions. After years of seeing how much people benefit from his knowledge, I encouraged him to build an online platform where he shares what he knows about filmmaking.

Meanwhile, the ideas keep coming.

We are currently writing two new scripts and developing an additional film. Once you start building stories, they tend to multiply.

And now, for the first time in years, I have the space to fully step into this work. My youngest has started preschool, and I am finally able to claim the hours of the day as mine again.

I know my time has arrived - not for me the costume designer or someone helping out on the sidelines, but as what I have become over these past 10 years of doing the work:

a filmmaker

a writer

and an independent producer.