Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Redish.
Jessica, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up in Chicago, and it was cold. I would dance around my room to Madonna and Whitney Houston, and I would put my tape recorder up to the TV to record the “Happy Days” theme song. I always loved music and was drawn to it from a young age, along with television comedies.
I attended Northwestern University where I studied theatre and musical theatre. I met many of my collaborators there with whom I still work to this day. I moved to NYC, choreographed off-Broadway and around the country, and ran a theatre company for seven years outside Chicago. This work led me to producing, directing and choreographing full-length musicals and developing new titles as well, including Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins’ first musical. It was all show tunes, all the time, including a hit production of “Merrily We Roll Along” which The Chicago Tribune recently named as one of the top ten Sondheim theatrical productions in Chicago in the last 25 years.
I would host singer-songwriters at the theatre on off-nights. I had always had a curiosity about film and began to direct their music videos. I received a Driehaus Foundation Grant to study music video in New York, and from there, I kept getting work in film. At this point, I had also just won a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Choreography for “Silence! The Musical!,” a musical parody of “The Silence of The Lambs” and I was toggling between theatre and film work. I moved to LA in 2017 and my first job was choreographing The Smashing Pumpkins’ international tour, which meant my work got shown around the world on jumbotrons. It was quite exciting. I kept choreographing digital shorts, commercials and plays and was working in live theatre and film up until the pandemic, when, for the first time in 18 years, I didn’t have an assigned choreography job.
Coincidentally, at the top of 2020, my short film “The Last Croissant,” about a woman who will do whatever it takes to get the last croissant at the coffee shop, was featured on Funny or Die, where they likened my work to Scorsese. From there, I made a choice to fully pivot to film and focus on writing, as well as finishing projects I mercifully had in the can prior to lockdown. During this time, I decided to apply to USC’s MFA Program in filmmaking at the School of Cinematic Arts, and I rebounded from the pandemic entering the best film school in the world.
Since 2020 my films have won awards and been screened all over the world, including at Oscar-qualifying film festivals, where they have been finalists and winners for both writing and directing. My work in theatre was always very visual, so the adoption of filmmaking felt like a very natural evolution.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I think believing in one’s own voice is the greatest treasure and one which took me a while to embrace. A new filmmaker emailed me a question last week about how to direct when he is struggling with confidence in his leadership. And my answer was to keep directing – the more you do it, the more you’ll find your wings.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a Director/Writer/Choreographer with a comedy focus. I love finding ways to bring humor to the screen because it’s the greatest way to tell the truth. I excel at coaching performance and enjoy working with actors. My choreography work is organic and feels like the character created it themselves. I have been told my characters and stories are “relatable” which means I’m being heard, which is thrilling. I’m generous with a comedy punch-up and love collaborating with great minds, as well as with artists with discipline.
I created a trilogy of shorts: “The Last Croissant,” “AIRWAY,” and “cat.,” which is currently in post-production. “Croissant” and “AIRWAY” have won Best Comedy and Best Director awards across the country, and I’ve had the pleasure of seeing them on the big screen at major movie theatres in LA. Both films feature a woman succumbing to the most neurotic part of herself, first, fighting for the last croissant and then envisioning the worst when the man sitting next to her won’t turn his phone to Airplane Mode.
“cat.” is about a woman who signs up for a dating coaching service in search of her soulmate and ends up marrying a cat. Principal photography was completed in July 2022, and the film has already become a Shore Scripts Film Fund Finalist and a Screen Craft Film Fund Quarterfinalist. We’ll be launching a crowdfunding campaign to help us finish the film. Follow the film @cat_thefilm on Instagram for updates!
My short musical film “Exit, Pursued by a Bear,” which I wrote with collaborator Michael Mahler, won the Stage 32 Short Film Contest and played at the Oscar-qualifying Raindance and HollyShorts Film Festivals. I am thrilled my work has been seen and celebrated around the world. I’ve taken making the transition of live theatre to the screen very seriously, and love the unique possibilities of cinema.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
Like Best: The weather, the creative people, the food.
Like Least: Traffic.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jessicaredish.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessicaredish/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JessicaBethRedish
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicaredish/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jessicaredish2169
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jessicaredish
Image Credits
Jessica Redish – photo by Ashly Covington Jessica Redish directing “Exit, Pursued by a Bear” – photo by Ashly Covington Jessica Redish directing “cat.” – photo by Ashly Covington Jessica Redish working on the set of a Karmina Music Video – photo by Sean Longstreet
