Tessa Slovis is a film and theatre-maker based in LA and New York. Her career began in front of the camera and on stage, appearing off- Broadway and regionally at Playwrights Horizons, The Flea Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Berkshire Theatre Group and others. She has recurred and guested on Grey’s Anatomy, The Walking Dead, Law and Order SVU, New Amsterdam and Cooper Raiff’s SXSW winning feature Shithouse.
After graduating with an MFA in Acting from USC, she began self generating work and building a vibrant career behind the camera. Her Directorial Debut, Pizza Party, a magic realist retelling of the night before the Larry Nassar trials began, garnered her international and Academy qualifying festival attention. Pizza Party screened at 24 festivals over the course of one year.
Her subsequent film Falsies was nominated for best short at the Tallgrass Film Festival and Montclair Film Festival. She is currently in the festival circuit for her latest film, Aisles.
She is attached to direct Teen comedy, False Profits, penned by Madeline Mahoney. As well as the upcoming short Hunger Pains, a women-led revenge western written by award winning playwright Matilda Corley Schulman. Tessa has brought her directing talents to the stage, directing Luis Alfaro’s Mojada, at California State University Los Angeles, as well as traveling with actress Jen Ponton, directing her solo show, Sugarcoated at the Denver Fringe Festival and Off-Broadway at The Flea Theatre.
Additionally, Tessa works as an on camera acting professor at USC, The Stella Adler Art of Acting Studio and Cal State LA. At USC she is the co-founder of the USC MFA Film initiative, a program sponsored by The ADOBE Foundation and AGBO studios that galvanizes Acting students to write, direct and produce short films. She and the program’s co-founders Ahmed Best and David Warshofsky have built an educational production company, Dramatic Narrative Design LLC, which aims to support recently graduated acting students as they produce their own films, and create their own work.
She is a USC Marshall School of Business Creative Eye Scholar, and a Latina Merit Scholar. Tessa also freelances as a producer and copy editor for marketing and branded work through Art Class Content and Scholar Studios and Betches Media.
