Amber Sealey is a British-American actress, film producer, screenwriter, and film director.

Early life

Sealey was born in

Brighton, England Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

and raised in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , literal translation, lit. "Holy Faith") is the capital city, capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Santa Fe County. With over 89,000 residents, Santa Fe is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, fourt ...

. She attended the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

and studied Theater and Modern Dance. She attended the acclaimed

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...

and the

Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for ...

. In 1998 she moved to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

where she worked with the acclaimed theatre collective, Shunt. In 2008 she moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and began writing, directing, and producing her own feature films, which have screened in festivals internationally.

Career

Sealey is known as an actor in the feature films '' The Good Night'' and ''

Big Nothing ''Big Nothing'' is a 2006 black comedy crime film directed by Jean-Baptiste Andrea, starring David Schwimmer, Simon Pegg and Alice Eve. It had its world premiere at the Cardiff Film Festival on 18 November 2006, and was released in the United ...

'', and the television series '' Attachments''. She also voiced many audio books, including ''

How I Live Now ''How I Live Now'' is a novel by Meg Rosoff, first published in 2004. It received generally positive reviews and won the British Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the American Printz Award for young-adult literature. Plot Fifteen-year-ol ...

'', '' Penny from Heaven'', and the acclaimed ''

The Princess Diaries ''The Princess Diaries'' is a series of epistolary young adult novels written by Meg Cabot, and is also the title of the first volume, published in 2000. The series spent 48 weeks on the New York Times Children's Series Best Sellers List. The ...

''. Sealey has directed the feature film ''A Plus D'', which was distributed by

IndiePix Films IndiePix Films, Inc is an independent film distribution and online streaming service based in New York City. IndiePix Unlimited, the company's subscription-streaming service, uses Streamhoster to deliver the desktop version for the service, and ...

and Seed & Spark, and premiered at the

Montreal World Film Festival The Montreal World Film Festival (), commonly abbreviated MWFF in English or FFM in French, was an annual film festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from 1977 to 2019.The Montreal Gazette ''The Gazette'', also known as the ''Montreal Gazette'', is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper which is owned by Postmedia Network. It is published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the only English-language daily newspape ...

said, “Amber Sealey’s lacerating cinéma verité… the acting is fearless.. See this film!” and “Fact and fiction are obliterated… edgy, anguished, funny… The acting is astonishing… I thought of Cassavetes, Winterbottom…”. Her second film, ''How to Cheat'', which was distributed by FilmBuff, premiered at the

Los Angeles Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episodi ...

in 2011 to positive reviews.

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers ...

said it was, “Amazing… laugh-out-loud hilarious… I really can’t speak highly enough about this movie”. IndieWire said it was, “intriguing… defies expectations” and “Sealey manages to buck innumerable conventions, which makes her career worth tracking”. ''No Light and No Land Anywhere'', Sealey's third feature, premiered at the 2016

. IndieWire said, “''No Light and No Land Anywhere'' has the potential to further cement Sealey’s reputation as one of the most promising directors of female-driven stories working the U.S. today.” Sealey was selected for Film Independent's Directing Lab in 2013. Amber was also selected for Film Independent's Fast Track program in 2013 Sealey was selected to participate in Women In Film's 2017 Mentorship Program. Sealey is an experienced acting coach who regularly works with directors and actors. She teaches a weekly Acting Class. In 2024, she directed the

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

feature film Out of My Mind, starring Phoebe-Rae Taylor as a sixth grader with

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, spasticity, stiff muscles, Paresis, weak muscles, and tremors. There may b ...

. The film won a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...

Personal life

Sealey currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Ben Thoma, who works for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

’s

Jet Propulsion Lab The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researche ...

, and their two children.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sealey, Amber Film directors from New Mexico American women film directors American film actresses British film directors British women film directors British film actresses Living people English-language film directors Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women