Category: Profile

I’m on the gram (@Marpio) and Twitter (@SarahMarpio). My next step would be to shop some pilots around that I’ve written and submit to writing fellowships. I’m also considering signing up for some sketch writing classes at Groundlings just to get those creative juices flowing. 

I collect bits of everything! My most recent is Disney enamel pins. I also love collecting books. I don’t think I could ever not have physical books around.

Just to keep trying. There’s a huge difficulty with trying to balance your 9-5 job with creative work. It’s something I still struggle with and continue to push on from. Don’t overwhelm yourself and take it one step at a time.

When I had someone come up to me after a screening of my work and tell me that they related to it. That’s all I ever want; is someone to relate with what I’m writing.

Being able to share my stories to a large audience.

In regards to writing, the most defining moment in my life was to have my writing mentor tell me, “You can do this.” It was the first time someone, especially from the industry, gave me that type of encouragement. I still carry it with me to this day.

Since I was young, I watched a lot of movies and always loved the feeling of when a movie ended, you walked away with that story and lived with it in from there. It became a part of you like you lived that adventure. I wanted to be a part of that in some aspect. When I discovered writing, I learned that I could tell the adventures that I wanted to be a part of and others to experience through my writing.

Where can people find out more about you on social media? What is next for you in your career? More of the same passions: acting and writing! I made a pilot performing as a principal character for a series called “Street Smart.” It is about the opioid epidemic. A play I wrote was read with academy award screenwriter/director Bobby Moresco at his workshop. He compared it to Harold Pinter’s Dumb Waiter. We are chatting about casting and directing with Amanda Moresco and rehearsals will start in January. My full play just finished a rewriting scholarship at the Dramatist Guild (as one in eight picked). I have two plays in workshop sessions with my theater ensemble under the guidance of artistic directors Paul Calderon and David Zayas. My TV series has Phil John, Downtown Abbey and Marvel director supporting on my series bible and interest from a Games of Thrones actress for my lead, so I am working very hard towards writing fade out on my final draft. I used to think you couldn’t put a deadline on creativity. I was wrong. Now, I love deadlines. They get the job done. So, on that note, thank you so much for chatting with me and giving females in film this networking opportunity. For future collaborations, like having me in your writers room or movie—you can find me on:

Twitter and instagram @joannapickering

My latest films on imdb from my small role in Danny Boyle and Nick Moran film Creation Stories to principal cast in Alice Fades Away with William Sadler (Green Mile), Blanche Baker (Handmaid’s Tale) and Paxton Singleton (The Haunting of Hill House) http://www.joannapickering.com

I used to collect Japanese art, but I loyally collect old classic books—rare or masterful works. I have always been an avid reader. I don’t have book shelves so there are stacks and piles of books like a maze around my house. I think the best writers are the best readers, so the stacks have to stay. I am now a member of SAG in US and my plan is to start collecting income next! I’ve learnt so much from indie sets and with the freedom to pick scripts I am most passionate and proud about—the story of writer and sculptor Baroness Elsa Von Freytag Loringhoven is a great example, and this screened at The Whitney Museum—but the journey is hazardous. Artists need to paid and properly. You want to know the journey will come to fruition, that you will see the end product of your hard work on screen distributed without further budget issues, and, perhaps, one day, you will buy some book shelves and a big oak library for the book collection too.