Hi there, my name is Miranda. I'm a film and theatre maker currently living in the Philadelphia area after living in New York City for 12 years.  I'd like to settle in for a cup of chamomile tea and tell you my story. It's an exciting time with twists and turns, plans changed, adventures had, and lessons learned.  And it's made me into the professional woman I am today. 

     When I was a little girl, all I wanted to become was a performer.  My parents are both in the arts.  Mom is a dancer, musical theatre performer, and choreographer.  Dad is an Equity stage manager, casting director, and artistic director.  Growing up, being on the front rows of shows with my two baby brothers was the norm for me.  The three of us would recreate mom's and dad's shows in the living room (eventually creating our own), and Cast Swings were regular babysitters. 

     In 1996, my parents moved us to Southern Utah for a show at the Tuacahn Amphitheatre where both of my parents had gotten hired. At 6 years old, I got to be in the show which was my first performance in an Equity production.  After the show's run, my parents decided to open a performing arts school called Diamond Talent Productions which has since produced several Broadway performers (Hamilton, Sweeney Todd, Mean Girls, Kinky Boots), professional dancers, and a Radio City Rockette.  
     I grew up at Diamond taking ballet, jazz, tap, musical theatre & vocal performance, as well as summer acting workshops.  When I was 14, I was first introduced to performing Shakespeare and I fell in love with it.  That's when I knew I wanted to be an actress.  

    Growing up this way, I was unbelievably imaginative.  I created my own stories, plays, dances, home-movie films, skits, and animation voice edits; I learned how to frame a camera, how to edit video and media on Windows Movie Maker, and how to choreograph a dance. 
   
    I taught myself so many skills like filmmaking and writing just to be able to create the stories I saw in my head, but I always thought that performing would be what would get me the farthest down the career path that I saw in my dreams.  My career dreams included becoming an EGOT winner, winning a lifetime achievement award, opening my own charities for children's literacy, and living in a castle of my own design complete with secret passages and a rose garden and built in Scotland. 

     With all of these ambitions, by the age of 18, I was beyond ready to get started and move to New York.  I had dreamed about it my whole life.  So in 2009, I moved to New York expecting all of the opportunities to come flying my way. 

     I learned many, many lessons over those first few years. Life is not as easy as it was in the movies and books I grew up admiring.  But I remained optimistic.  I spent several years working the grind, performing in several fun independent theatre works and short films like Romeo and Juliet on the streets of New York and a play about Christmas Town after it was hit with an apocalypse.  These felt like experiment years for me.  They taught me a lot about myself and who I really wanted to be rather than become those whom I wanted to emulate. 

     Over time I got tired. I spent my time working myself to the bone in what an actor's life is "supposed" to look like: 60-hour work weeks in restaurants, catering companies, museum guide jobs, nannying for families, cleaning apartments, and any other sort of job you can think a mid-twenties artist would do.  I was faced with the harsh reality of truly living in New York City. And I was slowly dying inside. 

    Finally, in 2017,  I remembered a script that I had written in 2011 for a college screenwriting class while I had been studying abroad in London at Regent's College.  It was a short film called "Innocence".  I took it out and worked on a quick rewrite.  Then on a whim, I contacted a director friend of mine to see if he would like to make it with me.  A year later, "Innocence" won Best Short Film at the International Filmmaker's Festival of NY and Best Indie Film (March 2018) at the Top Shorts Online Film Festival. 

     After "Innocence", I continued to write and developed some first drafts of a feature film "Writing Theo" which reached the Semi-Finalist round of Screencraft's Screenwriting Fellowship. 

    Then, during the pandemic when I felt like everything was going to stop and I would be stuck in doom and depression once more, I was hired by my parents' studio Diamond Talent to be their video editor and film advisor while they made performance adjustments for Covid.  I  kept myself busy teaching myself Adobe Premiere Pro while editing pre-recorded singing teen faces on a stage projection screen while they danced live and masked.  

    At the beginning of 2021, I saw a Facebook post from a friend of mine looking for a video editor.  I responded and was hired by The 24 Hour Plays in NYC which creates 6 short plays in under 24 hours.  In November of 2021, I became their Lead Editor and Post Producer for their Viral Monologues online program, and in November of 2022, I was working my first live gig since 2020 in my Broadway Debut as a Video Designer for The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway at Town Hall in NYC!

    Near the end of 2021, I moved to Philadelphia to start fresh post-pandemic.  A year later, I was approached by film director William Rush to edit four of his horror and psychological thriller films for production in 2023 including a short called "One For the Road" based on a short story by Steven King.  

     And that's my story of how I became a professional film and theatremaker.  In addition to producing, writing, and getting back into the acting world after a few years away doing behind-the-scenes, I'm also a gardener.  I love to bake, knit, paint, hike, and visit the archery range with my recurve bow.  I'm learning French and sign language. And before I left NYC, I fell in love with a story enthusiast who encourages me every day to live confidently in my fantasy world.  

     I still love fairytales and adventure stories, as well as autobiographies and documentaries.  I still want that castle with secret passages and a rose garden.  Though I'm happy to have it in Pennsylvania someday rather than in the highlands of Scotland.  After all of that struggle and facing reality for the better part of my young adult life, I woke up one morning and my life had changed completely... and no, it's not what I was expecting, but the magic is still there.