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 and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Ag ...

and raised in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label= Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. The name “S ...

. She attended the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge ...

and studied Theater and Modern Dance. She attended the acclaimed

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Sena ...

and the

Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama was 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 young actors and other students. It became a ...

. In 1998 she moved to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

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

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

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 ''The Good Night'' is a 2007 fantasy comedy-drama film written and directed by Jake Paltrow. The film stars his sister Gwyneth Paltrow, Penélope Cruz, Martin Freeman, Danny DeVito, Simon Pegg and others. The movie takes place in London and New Yo ...

'' 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 K ...

'', 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 ...

'', ''

Penny from Heaven ''Penny from Heaven'' (2006) is a children's novel that was named a Newbery Honor book in 2007. It was written by Jennifer L. Holm, the author of another Newbery Honor book, '' Our Only May Amelia''. It was first published by Random House. Plot ...

'', 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 revolves around Amelia 'Mia' Thermopolis, a teenager in New York who discovers ...

''. Sealey has directed the feature film ''A Plus D'', which was distributed by IndiePix Films and Seed & Spark, and premiered at the

Montreal World Film Festival The Montreal World Film Festival (WFF; french: le Festival des Films du Monde) was one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF (although the Toronto Interna ...

to rave reviews.

The Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

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, episod ...

in 2011 to positive reviews. Huffington Post said it was, “Amazing… laugh-out-loud hilarious… I really can’t speak highly enough about this movie”.

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...

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

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.

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 agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

’s

Jet Propulsion Lab The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

, and their two children.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sealey, Amber American film directors 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