Meet Amanda Renee Knox

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Renee Knox.

Hi Amanda, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I honestly never started out saying that I wanted to direct. I do love telling stories though and feel that much of my love of storytelling came from my Grandparents. My Grandmother’s family immigrated to Texas by way of New York in 1871 from Poland and Berlin. She was one of eight children who grew up in a very Polish community of Anderson, TX. My Grandfather’s family is from the Galicia region in Eastern Europe that is now Southeastern Poland. He was one of twelve children! I cannot imagine growing up with so many siblings. He enlisted in the Navy during World War II and would sit and tell me stories about the farm and being in the service when I was little. This was way more captivating than anything I could ever see on television. Legend has it that one of his cousins dared him to dance with my Grandmother at a country dance and they never stopped. I think romanticizing the history of my family through their stories ultimately cultivated my imagination in a way that I probably would not even realize until decades later. I grew up playing outside, in the dirt, eating tomatoes from his garden right off the vine. It was wonderful.

My mother also played a huge role in my wanting to perform. As a single Mom, she had her work cut out for her. I am deeply grateful that she enrolled me in the Swayze School of Dance run by Patsy Swayze, Patrick Swayze’s mother. This was not a grand ballet studio by any means. It was one small room with an unleveled floor and a dressing room that opened up to the train tracks! But this small neighborhood studio was filled with hard work, dedication and inspiring talent. I can still smell the resin box and leather ballet shoes they used to sell in the office. Once, when my mother had dropped me off for class Patrick was home from New York and had showed up to do a morning barre. I didn’t know who he was, this was before his acting career took off  but I do remember thinking that this is what you did: You showed up early and put in the work no matter what. I also sang and went to College with a Vocal Performance scholarship. During my first semester, I studied Opera with Elena Nikolaidi who sang with the Vienna State Opera, San Francisco Opera and the Metropolitan Opera and at 18, I was the only Freshman in her Graduate Vocal Studio. She was legally blind by the time I met her but she always somehow knew when my shirt was untucked and would promptly tell me to tuck it in!

I thought that I might pursue Opera as a career, but my ever-practical father urged me to try and get a job in arts administration so I applied to and was accepted as an intern at The Kennedy Center for performing arts in Development. I left school without graduating and ran away to the East Coast. Living in Washington, DC was life-changing! While at the Kennedy Center, I would sneak backstage after hours and sing and dance in the rehearsal studios. This made me realize that arts administration wasn’t necessarily the route for me and that I needed to perform. I am very grateful that I was able to learn how to raise money and write grants from one of the largest arts organizations in the country. I left DC and moved to New York. I arrived with $20.00 in my pocket and my suitcase and I had never felt so at ease. I honestly instantly felt my blood pressure go down because I was finally in a place where it was normal to be an artist.

I lived in New York for 15 years and didn’t start directing until the very end of my time there. After a few years of dancing there, I got injured and started teaching Bikram Yoga. I was one of the first teachers there and before the studio on 48th Street opened we used to travel to Long Island to take class in a chiropractor’s office where the gas heater had real flames and the ceiling was low. If you weren’t careful you burned your fingers! Then 9/11 happened and my world fell apart. I had ended a relationship and decided that I wanted to get back on stage but I hadn’t sung in years and starting the day laying on a bag of ice didn’t exactly sound appealing. So, I thought acting might be fun. I was always intimidated by actors but I am someone who likes to run toward my fears so, I thought why not? I began studying Meisner at William Esper Studios and Williamson Technique on scholarship and at The Actors Movement Studio. I felt that I was able to use everything that I had studied since childhood and incorporate it into my acting. I also began meeting all of these women who were directing and producing and after my first trip to Sundance, I thought, “Maybe I could do it.”

So, I wrote and directed my first short film, Lillian. It was a period film set in 1918 and was inspired by the Edna St Vincent Millay Poem, “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed”. I got bit by the directing bug on this project. I had some incredible mentorship on Lillian. I had also moved to New Orleans in the middle of the project and as luck would have it, Larry Blake was also in New Orleans. Larry Blake is Steven Soderbergh’s dear friend re-recording mixer, mixing nearly every film Steven has made since 1985! Everyone told me to go to Larry to mix and I thought that there was no way he would mix my little short film. Then when the 5th person told me to call him, I did. He mixed the film and taught me a lot of invaluable things about post-production as well as – if you can fix it you must fix it even if it means a mild inconvenience or another long export. Lillian went on to screen at some of the top international film festivals, most were Oscar Qualifying. During Lillian, I finished my undergraduate degree at Tulane University graduating Summa CumLaude. I applied to graduate school for directing and received a sizable scholarship to Chapman University.

Chapman opened a lot of doors for me as a director. During my second year of school, I was invited to shadow Donald Petrie on Chicago Med. Donald was a director that I had TA’d for in graduate school and is a friend and mentor of mine to this day. I was invited back that same season to shadow the producing director, Michael Waxman. Because of my time there, I was able to team with Joseph Sousa one of their writers to write my thesis, Night Call. Night Call is about a Black female cop living in and patrolling Inglewood who was forced to make a life-altering decision on a routine patrol. It stars Marlyne Barrett of Chicago Med and Rachael Holmes of Mad Dogs. It went on to screen in 84 festivals, winning 42 awards. We were an ASC Finalist and placed 6th at the prestigious CILECT competition. The highest a film had ever placed at Chapman and I believe the highest American narrative film to place that year. I won a Student DGA Award and because we won an Academy Qualifying Film Festival, we were able to submit to the Oscars in 2019 for a Live Action Short Academy Award. We also aired on PBS and were a part of the Pennsylvania Police Conference in 2018. Additionally, Night Call screened in Munich at the US Consulate as a presentation for the long night of the consulates. The US Consulate General introduced Night Call at Filmschoolfest Munich in 2017 that is run by the prestigious Munich International Film Festival and invited me back to present the film the following summer.

Since Night Call I have been a Finalist for NBC Universal’s Launch program that allows candidates to shadow and then direct their first television episode. I was also a Ryan Murphy Half Foundation Mentee shadowing 911 Lonestar, in March 2020. We wrapped the week before the Covid lockdown happened. Over Covid, I wrote a serial killer series and just recently directed a short film The Errand starring newcomer Naya Johnson and Ezekiel Bridges. The Errand received a prestigious Panavision New Filmmaker Grant and is Fiscally Sponsored by Film Independent. The Errand was written by Mira Olsson, produced by Lara Aslanian and myself and the Director of Photography was Nick Ramsey. I am currently working on a feature that is about Climate Change.

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?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. But I often wonder, if I had had an easier time would I have the drive and determination to stick with this for so long? The bottom line is that I love to visually tell stories and I love working with actors! It is so much fun to jump in the sandbox with a team of creatives. There is something synergetic that happens that is hard to describe but I think this collaboration is what keeps many of us coming back.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a director first, then a writer and then a producer. I think that as a director you have to be aware of what needs to happen with production so that the train keeps moving forward. I love directing character-driven action/suspense films using multiple cameras. I often shoot handheld which I feel evokes a visceral reaction with the viewer. I love films that are told from the first person so that you feel like you are right there with the actors. I am big fan shooting practically with available light and I love fast editing, when it serves the story.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
I am so happy that I didn’t know what I didn’t know! I think my advice would be to observe the world. Look at art, read actual books you can hold in your hands, see all kinds of films, go to the symphony. Disengage. Go for a hike or a walk, let your mind wonder and learn to daydream. Another exercise I love is to take your hero and learn about who their heroes are. Then, find out who their heroes were. This can lead you down a rich cultural rabbit hole but it also colors your own artistic lens. After a screening once, Kathryn Bigelow told me to not take no for an answer- multiple times and on repeat. I think that it’s solid advise because the person who said no in the first place might not be the one who can give you a yes so you just keep asking and working toward your goal until the yes happens. Do one thing for your career everyday and the last thing is to continue to be grateful for the things you have in your life. We hear “no” so often that it is very easy to get sucked into the “poor me” vortex. Gratitude for everything you’ve accomplished, even if small, can help on the low days.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.amandareneeknox.com
• Instagram: @amandareneeknox
• Facebook: Amanda Renee Knox
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1884312/