Jeanne Marie Spicuzza

Jeanne Marie Spicuzza is an actress, writer, director, producer, artist, composer, herbalist and entrepreneur. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to educators Robert and Marianne, Jeanne Marie attended St. Robert Grade School and Shorewood High School. She has acted since the age of six and wrote her first stage play at ten. After giving birth to her daughter, Stephanie, Jeanne Marie earned a GED and a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She also studied the classics, art, art history and comparative religions, and began her research in herbology and ethnobotany. Jeanne Marie entered the Master of Arts degree program in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, but left academia to pursue filmmaking in Los Angeles. She trained at The Groundlings Theatre and School, the Theatre Royal Haymarket, and with top acting instructors like Diane Salinger, Ivana Chubbuck and Marjorie Ballentine. Jeanne Marie spent seven years researching and three years writing her first screenplay, "Breath of God," which was a semifinalist in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. Jeanne Marie completed her short film "Field Day," which screened at Portobello Film Festival, and the VDKUF award-winning motion picture "The Scarapist." Her second feature, "Night Rain," is slated for release in 2021. Jeanne Marie has featured at Lollapalooza, Ladyfest, The Green Mill, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Pabst Theatre and more, and on television and radio, including Lifetime, NPR and BBC. Her films have screened at festivals like LA Femme Film Festival, Weyauwega International Film Festival, and Wisconsin and Portobello Film Festivals, and markets like Berlinale European Film Market, or EFM, worldwide. Jeanne Marie has competed in poetry slams around the globe, and has received awards and nominations from Shepherd Express, National Organization for Women, Farrago Poetry, Fade-In Magazine, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Vatican Division of Arts and Culture and others. Her self-titled CD was nominated for the Golden Headset Award and was beaten out, by a mere three votes, by the audio recording "James Earl Jones Reads The New Testament." She is published in Shepherd Express, Blue Fifth Review, A Gathering of Tribes and others, and has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize. Jeanne Marie's motion picture project "Breath of God: The True Story of Hildegard von Bingen" has been hailed by David Lynch and blessed by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. Audio segments from the screenplay are on permanent exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, as part of Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party." Books by Jeanne Marie include Beautiful Terrible & True, My Italia and For Beautiful Children Like You, from Libri Publishers. She has completed her first novel, Making Angels, based on the motion picture project bearing the same title. Jeanne Marie resides in Los Angeles.