Today we’d like to introduce you to Leonora Pitts.
Hi Leonora, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up in Grand Forks, North Dakota, a small city about an hour south of the Canadian border and right next to Minnesota. I was lucky to be surrounded by the arts and supported by my parents – training and performing with the North Dakota Ballet Company, appearing in community theater and in all my high school productions, and even receiving exceptional vocal training at the University of North Dakota while still in high school.
Those early opportunities led me to New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where I earned a BFA in Acting and trained at the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School. After graduation, Atlantic hired me to teach on their faculty, where I spent several years. I continued to perform on stages in and around New York, including a long off-Broadway run in The Donkey Show.
I eventually moved to Los Angeles in the hopes of building a film and television career. There were good years and rough years, and at one point I realized LA wasn’t going to love me unless I loved her back. So I threw myself into local service, ran for office, and was elected co-chair of the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council. I worked closely with LA City Councilmembers Tom LaBonge and Eric Garcetti, and when Eric became Mayor, he appointed me as a City Commissioner. I spent the next six years focused on habitability and housing rights for LA’s rent-stabilized residents.
During that time, I continued cultivating my creative community – acting, teaching, marrying Scott Pitts, and starting a family. During an acting dry spell, I dusted off a short film I’d written with Bryan Safi, God I Hope I Get It, and decided to direct it. I cast myself and a group of my dear friends – among them Parvesh Cheena, Amy Claire, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Artemis Pebdani, Ilana Cohn-Sullivan, and Lisa Schwartz – and fell completely in love with directing. I’ve since directed three more short films and have loved traveling to the festivals that have programmed them. I hope to direct my first feature in 2026.
I’ve been very fortunate to work as an actor with the prolific Duplass Brothers for many years. They encouraged me to explore producing, and when Jay Duplass conspired with director J Davis while putting together J’s feature I Hate Myself and Want to Die, I jumped at the chance to reunite with J, who had directed me in Manson Family Vacation. I’m incredibly proud of our film, which premiered at the Austin Film Festival, and I’m excited to bring it into the world.
I recently received my MFA in Screenwriting from the David Lynch School of Cinematic Arts. It has been deeply gratifying to see my screenplays place – and sometimes win – at festivals and competitions around the world. My writing partner Emily Robinson and I were semifinalists for the Academy’s Nicholl Fellowship this year for our screenplay Mad Bad Dangerous to Know, and my script This Way Comes was selected for the prestigious Stowe Story Lab.
Last year, a dream came true when I was offered a position teaching in the American Film Institute’s MFA Directing program. Working in that hallowed, historic place is a genuine honor.
Since 2010, I’ve also co-founded and led Moms’ Groups in Los Angeles. We are fierce advocates for one another, and over the years we’ve raised and directly distributed more than $150,000 to moms and families in need in our community.
This community came together in an extraordinary way after the LA Fires. Only five days after the disaster, we (the NELA Mamas) partnered with our sister group, The NELA Purge, to open a free store for survivors of the Eaton and Palisades fires. We provided immediate relief – curated clothing, toiletries, toys, shoes; costume designers and stylists donated racks of clothing; Beis donated luggage; the Soul Points Fund and others contributed thousands of dollars in gift cards; and we filled an entire storeroom with Beats headphones and speakers to give away. Thanks to the generosity of so many friends, we kept the store open through July of this year. In total, we served about 5,000 families. In the midst of devastation, it was a pretty miraculous endeavor.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I think it’s so rare to hear about any creative career that wasn’t met with struggles along the way. Some of my struggles were run-of-the-mill show business stuff. I’ve dealt with self-doubt, frustration, long periods of no work.
But I’ve always been very, very lucky in many ways – I have supportive parents who’ve always believed in me, I’ve got incredible friends and collaborators who pick me up when I’m flailing. I’ve thought about quitting it all so many times, and every time I get close to quitting, an opportunity presents itself that pulls me back in.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m an actor, director, screenwriter, dancer, singer, and teacher. I like to say that I’m a “nobody who knows everybody,” and honestly, I think that’s because I’ve been lucky enough to build an extraordinary creative community around me. If I’m known for anything, it’s for being a connector and a community builder.
I’m drawn to stories about complicated women, about power and powerlessness, and about the human experiences that feel both intimate and universal.
One of the things I’m most proud of is that I came to Los Angeles with no real connections – just a couple of phone numbers for people I didn’t even know. I went days without talking to anyone except the barista at the coffee shop near my tiny Hollywood sublet. I felt a deep, hardening loneliness and missed New York, my life, and my friends so intensely it sometimes hurt to breathe.
But slowly, LA opened up to me. Dance was my first doorway, and then an amazing new group of friends folded me into their fray. I began to build a life. I started to work. I fell in love with this city. I met my husband, whose own wide, creative community welcomed me with open arms and collaboration. Together we built a life and a family. I started my first moms’ group – and it grew to 6,000 members.
It took work. It took showing up, again and again, for people and for the community around me. But in doing so, I built a life far bigger and more fulfilling than I ever could have imagined.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
It’s funny – I don’t really feel successful? As in, I always wish for more work, more opportunities. As Martha Graham famously told Twyla Tharp:
“No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”
Whatever success I’ve had comes from the communities that surround me – some I actively cultivated, and some graciously welcomed me in.
I’ve also been bold about seeking mentorship. I’ve essentially forced people I admire to become my mentors, nurturing those relationships and taking their advice to heart, often to great effect. I’ve built a constellation of peer mentors too – collaborators and artists whose support, perspective, and encouragement are invaluable to me.
My father always told me that the key to his success was surrounding himself with people who were smarter than him – I think it’s really valuable to have people around you who help you keep perspective, inspire you, conspire with you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vimeo.com/leonorapitts
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/leeleepitts
Image Credits
1) Marie Buck Scott
2) Scottie Images, Scott Pitts
