I'm American, but my extended family comes from Eastern Europe, India, Scandinavia, and the Middle East and embraces all five of the world's major religions. Partly because of this, I’ve always seen the familiar in the foreign and the unexpected in the everyday.

 

I’m especially interested in patterns, both in nature and in human nature, and the ways they emerge and evolve.  My experiments with pattern-making spring from photography, which I began as a journalist, and have done everywhere I’ve traveled and worked.

 

I’m also a scriptwriter, filmmaker and producer, often working with my husband, Mikael Södersten. Together, we’ve made documentary and narrative films, including MOVING STORIES, THE OTHER WOMAN and FIVE FEELINGS ABOUT FOOD. I also co-produced the New York Times Critics Pick NIRBHAYA off Broadway.

 

I began my career as a writer for theater with the musical OUT OF THE REACH OF CHILDREN, for which I wrote book, music and lyrics. The longest running show in the history of New Playwrights Theater, it won the Seagram Award for New Music Theater. I also co-wrote the hit off-off Broadway musical TWO’S A CROWD and more recently, lyrics for the Susan Seidelman musical BOYNTON BEACH CLUB, based on her film of the same name. Most recently, I wrote scripts for Academy Award® winning producer Charles B. Wessler (GREEN BOOK) and Lars von Trier's Zentropa.

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Previously, I was a freelance journalist for The New York Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Art Asia Pacific and other magazines, including two years as a US Correspondent for India's leading newsmagazine, India Today.  I’ve also worked as a speech-writer, communications strategist and producer of videos for  Fortune 500 companies as well as video news releases for media outlets including ABC News, PBS and CNN.

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I like forming groups. In the '90s I hosted monthly events for diplomats, foreign correspondents and media professionals at the National Arts Club and Ismael Merchant's restaurant Pondicherry. I co-founded Women Independent Producers, now an international organization, in my living room. I speak on panels and at institutions on film, gender and trauma. I have a B.A. from Harvard University and have lived in India, Egypt and Sweden, which now feels like my second home. 

 

One constant in my life is taking photographs. I got my first camera as a college graduation present from my father. I’m still capturing the world around me in new ways.