Kimberlea Kressal
Filmmaking Guest Instructor & MFA Faculty Mentor
Education
B.F.A., NYU Tisch School of the Arts; M.F.A. Stephens College
About Kimberlea Kressal
Kimberlea is an LA-based TV writer and filmmaker who has sold and developed TV projects with ABC Signature, Automatik, Danny Rose Media, DiGa Studios, Dynamic Television, Escape Artists, Milojo, MGM-Orion, Gavin Polone’s Pariah, and UCP. Her directorial debut film, Jackrabbit Homestead, starring Yara Martinez, premiered at Outshine Film Festival in Miami, where it received the Audience Award for Best Short, and it continues to collect awards and praise at festivals around the world. She is currently adapting Sydney Graves’ novel, The Arizona Triangle, into a series for 3 Arts Entertainment. Kimberlea came to TV and Film following a twenty-year career in New York as a theatre director and playwright. Once hailed “the Susan Stroman of downtown lesbian theater,” her work has been produced in New York City’s filthiest bars, basements, and black boxes. She is the book writer and lyricist of the hit off-Broadway musical, Lesbian Love Octagon. For ten years, she was the Resident Director for the theatre company Wreckio Ensemble, creating devised theatre. Most recently on stage, Kimberlea directed a workshop of Alice Stanley Jr. ‘s The Second Best School Shooting, executive produced by Adam McKay and Shira Piven.
Kimberlea is the Founder/Producer of Tisch Represents, a community of NYU Tisch School of the Arts alumni elevating underrepresented voices in television and film. For the past seven years, she has been teaching her popular class, TV Writing for the Actor™ to actors, writers, playwrights, novelists, poets and anyone else interested in character-driven storytelling. Additionally, she serves on the screenwriting faculty of Western Colorado University’s graduate program in creative writing. Kimberlea earned her BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and MFA in TV and Screenwriting from Stephens College. She is represented by Authentic Talent and Literary Management. You can learn more about her www.kimberleakressal.com.