User:Rhythmic5/Janet Grillo

Janet Grillo is an Emmy Award winning producer, an award-winning writer and director, and a former studio executive at New Line Cinema. Fly Away, her debut feature, which she wrote and directed, premiered in dramatic competition at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March, 2011. It opened in select arthouse release in the US in April, 2011 to positive reviews from New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, The New York Observer, Hollywood Reporter, Variety and others.

Professional career
In 2007, Janet was Executive Producer of the Emmy Award Winning documentary Autism: The Musical, with Bunim Murray Productions, which premiered on HBO in March, 2008. It is distributed by New Video. Autism: The Musical received the coveted audience awards at Newport, Palm Springs and Mill Valley Film Festivals, and premiered to uniformly excellent reviews at the Tribeca Film Festival. It was short listed for an Academy Award nomination. It won two Emmy Awards in 2008, including Outstanding Non Fiction Special (i.e.; Best Documentary).

Prior to making her feature, Fly Away, Janet wrote and directed two short films; At The Beach, starring Lucinda Jenney, and Flying Lessons, starring Dana Delany (of Desperate Housewives). Flying Lessons premiered at Palm Springs International Film Festival in August of 2008, to good reviews. It was programmed by many prestigious festivals here and abroad, including the Atlanta, LA Short, Rhode Island and San Luis Obispo International Film Festivals. It won the Silver Lei Award for Excellence in Filmmaking at the Honolulu International Film Festival, the Best Dramatic Short at First Look Festival, LA and Best Performance at WILDsound Short Film Festival in Toronto, Canada. The screenplay for her feature, Fly Away, won the Dylan Thomas Award for Best International Screenplay from the 2010 Swansea Bay Film Festival in Wales.

Previously, Janet worked at New Line Cinema for ten years, rising through the ranks to become the Senior Vice President of Production, East Coast. During this time she established an outstanding track record initiating the careers of emerging filmmakers.

She launched the career of filmmaker Reggie Hudlin, developing his feature debut, House Party, a 1990 hip hop comedy film starring recording artists Kid 'n Play. The film received the coveted Audience Award at Sundance, and went on to become a cult classic, grossing $25 million in North American theatrical revenues on a budget of $1.5 million. Janet then executive produced its two financially successful sequels, House Party 2 and House Party 3, the 1991 and 1994 sequel films, respectively.

At New Line Cinema, Janet developed and executive produced Joseph B. Vasquez’s acclaimed feature Hangin' with the Homeboys, starring John Leguizamo. It received the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance. She developed and associate produced Pump Up The Volume, starring Christian Slater, as well as Ted Demme’s directorial debut, Who's the Man?. The same year, she developed and executive produced David O. Russell’s acclaimed feature debut, Spanking the Monkey. It won the Sundance Audience Award and launched his prestigious career. Subsequently, she was married to David for 13 years, and participated in the development and editing of Flirting With Disaster, Three Kings and I Heart Huckabees.

After a decade at New Line Cinema, Janet left to produce independently. Since was then executive produced the critically acclaimed independent feature, Joe the King, which won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Along with Ruth Charny (Grace of My Heart and Search and Destroy), Janet produced Searching for Paradise, which was developed by the Sundance Institute, and distributed on the Sundance Channel.

Education
A magna cum laude graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut (1980), with an honors in theatre. Janet also trained at William Esper Acting Studio in New York City. While completing her MFA in dramatic writing at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, she served as Assistant Literary Manager for Circle Repertory Company, where she was also a member of their Playwright’s Workshop Lab. In addition, as a frequent blogger for The Huffington Post, Janet is also an autism advocacy activist.