Donna Pizzi

Former Broadway/Film actress, Donna Pizzi, hailed by Uta Hagan for her acting "gift," turned to writing after co-starring on Broadway with Jack MacGowran and David Selby in "Gandhi," and appearing in "The Godfather" (Part 1). After a stint as an award-winning short story writer, Procter & Gamble employed her to write scripts and head-writer long forms for such soap operas as "Edge of Night." (1983-84) and "Days of Our Lives." As a highly popular UCLA fiction teacher from 1985-96, she also co-taught screenwriting with John Truby. In 1987, CBS International Films snagged Pizzi to write the script for "White Tracks," a story about Leonhard Seppala's sled dog race - Alaska's First Iditarod - and the heroic saving of the children of Nome - the first of many collaborations with award-winning British-born Producer Philip Clayton-Thompson with whom she now co-owns BSEFilms and Blackstone Edge Studios in Portland, Oregon. In 1990, Orion TV greenlighted the pair's project "Rag Times," a comedy/drama TV series starring Matt Frewer (Maxx Headroom). Producers Jennifer Warren and the late Beth Howland hired Pizzi in 1991 to write "The Bonnie McDaniels Story" - a TV Movie about the horrors down-winders experienced while working near Nevada test sites. Producer Gary Goldstein (Pretty Woman) optioned Pizzi's 1994 film script "Black Swan," based on a true story of late 1950s African American USAF ground crew confronted by racism in a small Northern England town that depicted Clayton-Thompson's upbringing there. Pizzi and Clayton-Thompson have totally rewritten and expanded "Black Swan," making it into a 3-part Streaming Series and submitted it to top African American actors. BSEFilms YouTube hit series with over 6 million hits include "Pack Your Kit," "2 Gals Decorating," six "Dreamer" projects, as well as "Evolving Guys," starring Randy Spelling. On each of these projects, Pizzi turned her eye for creating dramatic story arcs to include film editing as well. Their award-winning 2015 film, "ARDOYNE," winner of 6 International Film Festivals, also toured Embassies worldwide as part of a Human Rights exhibition which led them to create filmfestfinder. For 20-years the partners have also been the most diversely published writer/stylist/photographer team in the U.S., with over 5,000 articles and 247 covers that include Architectural Digest and 150 others.