FACULTY G - I
Sean Gaffney (Act One Graduate) is a playwright, screenwriter, director, teacher and producer. He has authored twenty produced plays, two television pilots, three published books, as well as twenty plus produced videos, animation projects and short films (including for Big Idea, SuperBook, Yake Films and Globalstage). He received his BFA from Drake University, his MFA from Columbia University, and graduated from the Act One: Writing for Hollywood program. Sean’s day job is as Story Administrator for Warner Brothers features. More information is available at www.gaffneyinkwell.com.
Anne Marie Gillen, CEO of Gillen Group, LLC, is an independent producer whose goal is to develop and produce commercially successful entertainment that enlightens the human experience. Gillen Group’s consulting division, established in 2006, offers business planning, script analysis, worldwide distribution consultation and internal greenlighting (project and/or film company cash flow projections) to independent film producers and investors. Anne Marie also served as COO for Morgan Freeman’s company, Revelations Entertainment. During her time there, the company produced Along Came A Spider (Paramount Pictures), developed Port Chicago Mutiny (NBC), and produced Under Suspicion (Sony Pictures). Anne Marie co-founded and served as CEO of Electric Shadow Pictures, and executive produced the multiple Golden Globe and Academy Award nominated film, Fried Green Tomatoes. Fall 2010 Ms. Gillen will be releasing her first book – the 3rd edition of “The Producer’s Business Handbook” – through Focal Press and co-branded by Variety.
Melissa Glenn is an Act One Alumni (LA ’02, Act Two ’03, Act Two ’05) and television track faculty. She is a former collegiate swimmer, member of Campus Crusade for Christ staff member, lifeguard, swim coach, school photographer, operating room secretary and barista. She is currently an executive story editor at TNT’s Leverage, owner of the worlds best dog, married to the worlds best husband and addicted to her iPad.
Barbara Hall was the executive producer of Joan of Arcadia (CBS). Her producing credits include Judging Amy, Chicago Hope, Northern Exposure, I’ll Fly Away, Moonlighting, and Anything But Love. She also developed three produced pilots, and worked as Story Editor on A Year in the Life and Newhart. She wrote the feature films Sylvie and Hearts, in addition to authoring seven published novels. Barbara has garnered a Humanitas Award, Viewers for Quality Television, NAACP Image Award, TV Critic’s Association Award, American Library Association Best Books & Notable Books, three Emmy nominations, as well as a nomination for both the Writer’s Guild Award and the Producer’s Guild Award.
Karen Hall is the Consulting Producer for the CBS series Judging Amy. She has been writing and producing episodic television since 1980 and has written for M*A*S*H, Hill Street Blues, Moonlighting, Northern Exposure, and I’ll Fly Away. She has also written many television movies and mini-series, including
The Betty Ford Story and The Women of Brewster Place. She has received six Emmy nominations, six Writers Guild Award nominations, four Humanitas Prizes and has won the Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Drama Script for the “Grace Under Pressure” episode of Hill Street Blues. She has also won the Scott Newman Drug Prevention Award for the television movie Toughlove.
Laurie Hutzler has had several plays produced in theaters across the US, winning two Madoline Cervantes Awards at Lincoln Center in New York City. She was a staff writer and story consultant on Oscar-winner Paul Haggis’ NBC series, The Black Donnellys. She also worked with Haggis on his recent films: In the Valley of Elah and Quantum of Solace. She consulted on two Oscar-winning foreign language films, as a story advisor on Tsotsi (South Africa) and on The Counterfeiter (Austria), as an eQuinoxe script advisor. Laurie has worked as a consultant to the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, talkbackTHAMES, Mersey Television/Lime Pictures and Aardman Animation Studio (UK), for Disney and Dreamworks (US), Endemol Netherlands (NL), RTL (Germany), GloboMedia (Spain) and TNT (Russia) among others. She is a consultant for FremantleMedia across a variety of formats in the UK, Europe and Australia. She is currently the Head Writer and Executive Producer of the forthcoming US original online drama “Beyond Lemonade.”
Susan Isaacs is a writer and comedienne with many credits in TV, film, stage and radio, including Planes Trains & Automobiles, Seinfeld, My Name Is Earl and Parks & Recreation. She is an alumnus of the Groundlings performing company, written TV specials for DirecTV, and contributed to NPR’s Weekend America. Susan spent this fall on Donald Miller’s A Million Miles tour, performing — her solo show based on her memoir, Angry Conversations With God, in which she takes God to marriage counseling. Publisher’s Weekly named Angry Conversations With God one of the top Ten Religion books of 2009. Susan has spoken at the International Arts Movement Encounter, Pepperdine University, the BIOLA Media Conference. She’s taught for the Act One Screenwriting Program and Azusa Pacific University. This fall, Susan will tour with author Anne Jackson and musician Solveig Leithaug on the Permission to Speak Freely tour, talking about life, love and the secrets women keep.