Terisa Greenan (born November 15, 1967) is an American film producer, film director, writer and stage and film actress.

Background

Raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles, Greenan attended

Whitney High School (Cerritos, California) Gretchen A. Whitney High School, called Whitney High School or WHS, is a public school in Cerritos, California serving grades 7–12. It is in the ABC Unified School District. According to US News Report, as of 2024, Whitney High School is rank ...

from 6th through 12th grade and then went on to graduate from

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

. Currently based in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Greenan operates her film production companies, Petal Films and 3 Dog Pictures. Greenan has received national and international attention for her semi-autobiographical

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

, Family: the web series. In addition, Greenan has produced several music videos for Seattle band

Gaia Consort Gaia Consort is the original incarnation of Seattle-based folk rock music-group Bone Poets Orchestra.Gaia Consort http://www.gaiaconsort.com The group, popular in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, was founded as Gaia Consort by Chri ...

, and wrote an article on the band for New Witch magazine. The ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'' article which profiled Greenan, her web series and her real life family, was named one of Newsweek's Editor's Top Ten articles of 2009. Greenan's work often portrays a controversial subject in an unexpectedly nonchalant manner. As an actress, Greenan has worked in films alongside notable actors such as

Cary Elwes Ivan Simon Cary Elwes (; born 26 October 1962) is an English actor. He starred as Westley in ''The Princess Bride (film), The Princess Bride'' (1987), and also had lead roles in films such as ''Robin Hood: Men in Tights'' (1993) and the Saw (fr ...

Dave Coulier David Alan Coulier ( ; born September 21, 1959) is an American actor, voice actor, and comedian. He is best known for his roles as Joey Gladstone on the ABC sitcom ''Full House'', Peter Venkman on '' The Real Ghostbusters'', and Animal and B ...

and

Tang Wei Tang Wei (; ; born 7 October 1979) is a Chinese actress. She rose to international fame for her role in Golden Lion-winning ''Lust, Caution'' (2007) by Ang Lee, for which she was banned by the Chinese government until her comeback in ''Crossing ...

. Greenan openly advocates

polyamory Polyamory () is the practice of, or the desire for, romantic relationships with more than one partner at the same time, with the informed consent of all partners involved. Some people who identify as polyamorous believe in consensual non-mon ...

and lives a polyamorous life with partners Scott and Larry. The group has lived together since 2000."I love you and you and you" Firecracker Films
''Channel 4 UK'', 2006. Accessed July 7, 2011.

Filmography

Actress (plus)

* ''Sleep Come Free Me'' (1998) as Sally * ''The Observation Room'' (2005) * ''The Family Holiday'' (2008) as Isadora Brown * ''Miss Shellagh's Miniskirt'' (2008) as Margaret Czarnecki (and as director, editor) * ''The Day My Parents Became Cool'' (2009) as Mom * ''

Family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

'' (2008-2009) as Eliza (and as writer, producer, director, editor) * ''The Classified'' (2009) as Kim * '' Late Autumn'' (2010) as Prison guard * ''A Face for All Occasions'' (2010) as Voice * '' Chop Socky Boom'' (2 episodes, 2012) as Mitzi * ''Someday You'' (2012) (as producer, director) * ''The Rite of Sol, a Rock Opera'' (2013 (as editor, cinematographer) * ''A Bit of Bad Luck'' (2014) as Country store clerk

Advocacy

Terisa Greenan is an outspoken advocate for sexual freedom and has spoken on the topic of polyamory in various public forums, including multiple appearances on

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

and

The BJ Shea Morning Experience BJ & MIGs Mornings was a morning drive time radio show on 99.9 FM KISW in Seattle, Washington, owned by Audacy (previously Entercom). The show aired Monday through Friday, 6–10 a.m. PST and was also available as a stream and a downloadable po ...

, at the

Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality The Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality (IASHS) was a private, unaccredited, for-profit graduate school and resource center for the field of sexology in San Francisco, California. It was established in 1976 and closed in 2018. Degr ...

and in Canada with John Ince (politician) and

Janet Hardy Janet W. Hardy is an American writer and sex educator, and founder of Greenery Press. She has also been published as ''Catherine A. Liszt'' and ''Lady Green''. She is the author or co-author of eleven books, and frequently collaborates with Dossi ...

on a panel coinciding with a landmark Canadian court case regarding whether the anti-polygamy section of Canadian Criminal Code 293 was drawn broadly enough to impinge on the human rights of polyamorists. In 2009, Greenan co-hosted with sex therapist Dr. Roger Libby a weekly radio call-in show "Sex Once A Week" on

KKNW KKNW (1150 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Seattle, Washington. The station is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc., and features a talk radio format. KKNW mostly airs call-in and discussion shows where the host pays the s ...

. The radio show offered support and advice to listeners and callers with questions regarding any aspects of sex and sexuality. "The Year The Press Came Calling, or, How My Girlfriend Mainstreamed Polyamory", ConnotationPress.com.

Awards and nominations

* 2013, won shared 'Award of Recognition' from Best Shorts Competition for 'Ensemble Cast' of '' Chop Socky Boom'' * 2015, won shared 'Outstanding Achievement Award from LA Web Fest for 'Ensemble Cast: Comedy' ''Chop Socky Boom''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Greenan, Terisa Filmmakers from Seattle Living people Actresses from Washington (state) 1967 births American documentary filmmakers University of California, Davis alumni American women documentary filmmakers Polyamorous people 21st-century American women