About Vanessa Parise
Vanessa Parise is a director, actor, and writer. Named one of "Ten Female Directors Breaking Stereotypes" by SheKnows, Vanessa grew up one of five children in a large, extended, Italian-Columbian-Jewish family, which inspired Kiss the Bride (2002).Parise graduated from Harvard magna cum laude in Biology, and was accepted to Harvard Medical School. Instead, she attended a summer program at Circle in the Square in New York City and was invited to enter their two-year theatre program. She took a deferment from HMS and has never looked back.While at Circle, Parise dove into the Off-Broadway theatre scene, earning honors in the New York Times for her performance of Sarah in "Seascape"). Upon graduating, she headed to Hollywood without any ties or connections, where she wrote, directed, produced and starred in Lo and Jo (1998), a short film which won various awards and accolades. Kiss The Bride was her first feature as director/actor/producer/writer. The film won Best Actress for Parise at Cinequest, Best Feature Film for Parise as writer/producer/director at the Hamptons, Sarasota, and Rhode Island, Best Actress (Talia Shire) and Best Score (Jeremy Parise) at Monte Carlo,, Best Actress (Francis Bay) at Torino, and the list goes on.Most recently, Parise directed Tim Kring's one-hour supernatural drama Beyond for Freeform. She also directed the high-profile Simone Biles biopic, which just premiered to extremely strong ratings on Lifetime and NBC. Parise has directed multiple episodes of Just Add Magic for Amazon and multiples of MC2 for Netflix. She also directed the edgy, highly-acclaimed television movie Perfect High (Bella Thorne), thrillers #Popfan (Chelsea Kane) and Status Unknown, and the comedic Unauthorized Beverly Hills 90210 Story.Parise was selected for the inaugural year of Fox's prestigious Global Diversity Initiative. She received a 2016 Leo Nomination for Best Direction of Perfect High and a 2015 Leo Nomination for Best Direction of #Popfan. She was honored by Lifetime with their Broad Focus Top 5 Original Movies.::jordan@replaypictures.com
Born in NYC and raised in coastal Rhode Island, Parise graduated from Harvard University with a major in Biology and a self-proclaimed minor in writing, directing, and acting in student productions. Her pursuit of a medical degree at Harvard Medical School ended when she secured financing for her first original screenplay, Kiss The Bride, which she also produced and directed. The feature film, starring Alyssa Milano, Sean Patrick Flannery, Talia Shire, and Parise, was sold to MGM and enjoyed a theatrical release before airing on Showtime, Lifetime, Starz and the CW, and was named Best Feature at The Hamptons and Sarasota and Best Actress (Parise) at Cinequest Film Festivals. Parise followed this with her feature Jack and Jill vs the World, a love story for cynics, which she co-wrote, produced and directed. Along with Parise, that film stars Freddie Prinze, Jr., Taryn Manning, Robert Forster, and Kelly Rowen.Parise recently entered the television world, where she sold a spec pilot to ABCF, and a pitch to ABCS. She directed the presentation pilot, Shape, which she also co-wrote and exec produced, starring Johnathan Schaech and Amanda Detmer, and the movie The Wedding Chapel, starring Shelley Long and Mark Deklin. Parise also directed the television movie Home for Christmas and has wrapped production on the Lifetime thriller Facebook Detectives. Parise wrote the finale episode of Hallmark'...