Cast
Amber Gray is attached to be Avena. Amber (Avena) is best known for originating the role of Persephone in the Tony Award-winning musical, Hadestown. Her performance earner her nominations for a Tony award, The Lucille Lortel Award, and The Drama League Awards. Additionally, she won the Outer Critics Circle Award. Amber also won the Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance for her portrayal of Helene Kuragina in NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 on Broadway. Amber holds an MFA in Acting from NYU Tisch and has starred in plays on and off Broadway for the past fifteen years, including, but not limited too, ON THE RAZZLE, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, AN OCTOROON, and OKLAHOMA! She can also be seen in Berry Jenkins' upcoming series The THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD premiering this spring on Amazon Prime. She is extremely excited to be collaborating with Miriam for the first time since they went to undergraduate together at Boston University.
Crew
Miriam Louise Arens (Director, Producer, Co-Writer) is an award winning writer/director whose narrative and documentary shorts have screened worldwide. She received her BFA from Boston University College of Fine Arts where she majored in playwriting and performance. After spending several years working as the finance director at David Mamet's Atlantic Theater Company, Miriam found her true calling and returned to graduate school at New York University's Tisch Asia, where she received her MFA in film direction. Her filmmaking debut, BLACK HORN NIGHT HERON, shot in Cambodia, won The Director's Guild of America Best Student Director Award and premiered at the Berlinale International Film Festival. Since then she's had short films screened in Australia, Europe and the United States, and streamed in Asia on Viki TV. Miriam now lives in Los Angeles, where she works as a writer, director, producer and editor. She has created commercials for companies including Mobil One, Virgin Hyperloop, and Chevy. Additionally, she produced and edited music videos for Nils Lofgren's PRETTY SOON and Elton John's 2020 Oscar winning song, I'M GONNA LOVE ME AGAIN. She is now focusing her creative efforts on women's empowerment through narrative film.
Mitchell Arens (Co-writer and Director of Photography) received his MFA from NYU Tisch Asia. He has shot documentaries and narrative films all over the world, including OH LUCY! (dir. Atsuko Hirayanagi) which premiere at Cannes and received the International Short Jury Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. More recently he shot, DANDELION, (dir. Basil Mironer) currently in post, SEVEN DAYS, (dir. Corey Kupfer) currently in post, KATE NASH: UNDERESTIMATE THE GIRL (dir. Amy Goldstein) which premiered at Los Angeles Film Festival and ten episodes of the e-short show THE DROP. Additionally, he has shot commercials for clients such as Chevrolet, Mobil 1, Hyundai, Virgin Hyperloop-One, and music videos for artists such as Natasha Bedingfield, Nils Lofgren, and Elton John.
Nancy Foy (Producer and Casting Director) began her career at Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Studios, where she assisted in the casting of numerous films including THE OUTSIDERS and REDS. She soon broke off on her own. She was twice honored with the prestigious Casting Society of America's ARTIOS Award for THE RAT PACK and JAMES DEAN: AN INVENTED LIFE. And was nominated for OCTOBER SKY, in which she cast Jake Gyllenhaal in his first leading role. She served as Vice President of Motion Picture Casting at both Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox, respectively. She supervised casting on hundreds of films most notably, FORREST GUMP, WAYNE'S WORLD, INDECENT PROPOSAL, SCHOOL TIES and THE FIRM. Nancy has cast for such distinguished directors as Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, the Farrelly brothers, Mike Figgis and Guillermo Del Toro.
Melanie Ramos (Co-Producer) got her start as a writer/director exploring her own experience as a Queer Filipinx American in the diaspora. After receiving an MFA from NYU Tisch her focus veered toward cinematography, which granted her the opportunity to travel throughout Asia shooting documentary and narrative films in a multitude of countries. Eventually, she returned to her roots, producing and directing the short film LIMBOLAND, which screened at festivals globally. After wearing so many different hats, Melanie decided to take her cumulative wealth of cinematic knowledge and channeled it into producing. DAY 90, her premiere endeavor as producer, was her first collaboration with Miriam Arens. Finding her true calling she has gone on to produce multiple narrative and documentary shorts, commercial streaming content, and live music streams throughout the US. Melanie is thrilled to be collaborating with Miriam once again on HEARTWORM.
Kyle Haskett (Co-Producer) is an international filmmaker who has produced films in Singapore, Malaysia, India, Ireland, Kurdistan, Bolivia and the United States. After graduating with his MFA from NYU Tisch Asia in Singapore, Kyle received the Panavision New Filmmaker's Grant for his directorial debut, NEW EARTH ON THE BARRENS. He went on to edited multiple short films, that screened at film festivals worldwide, as well as Pat Murphy's feature documentary TANA BANA, which premiere at Vancouver International Film Festival. After wearing so many different hats, Kyle decided to take his cumulative wealth of cinematic knowledge and channeled it into producing. Most recently Kyle produced BLACK BOX, an international documentary, currently in post-production. He is trilled to be collaborating with Miriam on HEARTWORM.