biography
Joanna grew up in the middle of the woods of northeastern Connecticut. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Virginia, writing a magna cum laude English thesis on "Control versus Collaboration in the Work of Caryl Churchill" and including a chapter about performing the role of Isabella Bird in Top Girls, she moved to Cincinnati to do an acting internship at the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, where acclaimed playwrights like Edward Albee and Brad Fraser were debuting new works. After the internship, she became a founding member of the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, and she acted regionally, delighted to get her Equity card playing Edward in Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine at the Human Race Theatre Company in Dayton.
She later moved to New York, and worked in regional and New York theater, while also getting involved in the development of new work with New York off-Broadway companies like Theatre Askew, Transport Group, and in the solo show and variety performance scenes at alt-comedy venues like Surf Reality and the Fez. After returning from the Ordway national tour of Buddy: the Buddy Holly Story, she was especially thrilled to create and host a bi-monthly performance series called "The Happy Hour Salon" which lasted for five seasons in various venues. With Lance Werth, she created a two-person musical comedy tribute to Helen Reddy called Reddy or Not, which she was able to perform for La Reddy herself in a career highlight that saw Helen signing the back a photograph of Joanna singing "I Am Woman" in her fifth grade talent show.
A proud member of SAG, AFTRA, and AEA, Joanna has recently been working in independent film and television, and she looks forward to keeping the resume eclectic and the imagination fertile. She lives in midtown with her boyfriend, Stephen. You can learn more about Joanna's writing and performance projects on her blog.