Vanessa Parise is an American film director, writer, producer, and actress based in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Her first feature film '' Kiss the Bride'' won the Golden Starfish Award at the Hamptons Film Festival in 2002. Her television movies, '' Perfect High'' and ''Drink Slay Love'' have been named by the Lifetime’s Broad Focus initiative. Parise has been nominated for Leo Awards for Best Direction for ''Lighthouse'' in 2015, for ''Perfect High'' in 2016, for ''Beyond'' in 2018, and for ''The Simone Biles Story'' in 2019. Her television movie ''The Simone Biles Story'' was nominated for Best Television Movie and Best Lead Actress by the NAACP Awards in 2019.

Early life

Born in

and raised in

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

, Parise ended her pursuit of a medical degree at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

to venture into the business as actor/writer/director/producer. on the feature film '' Kiss the Bride,'' starring Parise and Alyssa Milano.

Career

Parise ended her pursuit of a medical degree at

to venture into the business as actor/writer/director/producer on the feature film '' Kiss the Bride''. Parise followed this with the film '' Jack and Jill vs the World'' which raised money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and then enjoyed a limited theatrical release. She has directed the television movies " The Unauthorized Beverly Hills 90210 Story", " Perfect High", and "Status Unknown". As a writer, she has sold multiple spec features including BFF. Parise sold the pilot script ''The New Twenty ''to Freeform''. '' Parise is the co-executive producer and directing producer on ''

Charmed ''Charmed'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by Constance M. Burge and produced by Aaron Spelling and his production company Spelling Television, with Brad Kern serving as showrunner. The series was originally broadc ...

''. She directed the Tim Kring series '' Beyond,'' for which she was nominated for a Leo Award for Best Direction in 2018, and episodes of the Amazon series ''Just Add Magic''. She also directed the series ''

Andi Mack ''Andi Mack'' is an American family comedy-drama television series created by Terri Minsky that premiered on Disney Channel on April 7, 2017. It ran for three seasons and 57 episodes, concluding on July 26, 2019. The series stars Peyton Elizab ...

''.

Nominations and honors

Parise received a 2019 Leo Award Win for Best Direction of "Simone Biles: Courage to Soar," a 2016 Leo Award nomination for Best Direction of ''Perfect High'' and a 2015 Leo award nomination for Best Direction of ''#POPFAN''. She was named by Lifetime with their Broad Focus Top 5 Original Movies 2015, and by SheKnows as one of Ten Female Directors Breaking Stereotypes in 2014. Her film ''Kiss the Bride'' won the Hamptons Film Festival’s Golden Starfish Award for Best Feature. At

Cinequest The Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival is an annual independent film festival held each March in San Jose, California and Redwood City, California. The international festival combines the cinematic arts with Silicon Valley’s innovation. It i ...

, she won the Director’s Award. She also won the Excellence In Filmmaking Award at Sarasota, Best Actress, and Best Score at Montecarlo, and Best Feature at RIFF.

Filmography

References

External links

*
Vanessa Parise website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parise, Vanessa American actresses American women writers Film directors from New York City American women film directors Living people Harvard Medical School alumni Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women