Hey, thanks for being here. My name is pronounced “Lee Muh-dear-us,” and my pronouns are She/Her/Hers. I’m a third generation Azorean/Irish American living on the ancestral homelands of the Wampanoag (sometimes called Pokanoket) Nation in the state commonly known as Rhode Island.
How can I help you? Fostering creative expression in myself and others is a lifelong passion. (An artist friend once jokingly dubbed me “Our Lady of Eternal Encouragement.”) I can help with writing, book adaptation, screenplay analysis, podcast interviewing, story research, climate storytelling education, event production, and more. Client testimonials are here.
Some tidbits about me:
I’m passionate about storytelling that expands consciousness around the climate crisis. As such, I write ‘The Climate Screenwriter’ column at Script Magazine and co-produce the Hollywood Climate Summit’s Writing Climate: Pitchfest for Film & TV, a program sponsored by NBCUniversal and The Redford Center that connects global screenwriters with development executives, producers, agents, and managers. I’ve lent support to the United Nations Entertainment and Culture for Climate Action (ECCA) committee, facilitated a climate storytelling workshop with Rare, advised Good Energy Project on a social media campaign, and am working with members of a global film and TV community to create the first Emissions Checklist for Screenwriters.
My first memory of creativity is scribbling out a poem in blue crayon when I was 5-years-old. The words seemed to come from a place outside of myself. I remember thinking, “I didn’t write this.” (Listen to Elizabeth Gilbert discuss this concept at the 6:20 mark of her brilliant TED Talk on creativity.)
My dearly departed English teacher, Carlton Pinheiro, came to me in a dream days before I was asked to pitch some creative writing book ideas. Not long after that I was offered my first book deal with Adams Media, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, for The 1 Minute Writer: 396 Microprompts to Spark Creativity and Recharge Your Writing. The book of creative writing prompts is dedicated to him.
CURSED IN LOVE, the first screenplay I ever wrote, was a semifinalist in three notable competitions: Project Greenlight, San Diego International Film Fest, and R.I. International Film Fest. I’m also a two-time Screenwriting Merit Fellow through the State of Rhode Island, first for my script BIRD SONG (which also made me a Nicholl Quarterfinalist) and later for my script DANGER SOCIETY (which made me a PAGE Quarterfinalist).
Despite being a scaredy cat, I was an Associate Producer on Anchor Bay’s horror film THE ATTICUS PROJECT. You can watch the trailer - and see some other filmmaking projects of mine - here.
For HeadCount I pitched and got hired to make a short video about genius musician David Lamb of Brown Bird for the Heathcare.gov website. I’ve also produced and directed two short films for LIFE Inc., one of which profiled several incredible artists with developmental disabilities. That film, “Inside the Outside,” won an award at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
On and off for many years I worked production in L.A., N.Y., and New England. I was a casting assistant (27 DRESSES), assistant to directors (TANNER HALL), craft services assistant and lead (ESPN’s Dream Job, et al), screenwriters’ assistant (Andrew Marlowe/Terri Edda Miller), and props assistant on a bilingual educational series.
In 2022 I partnered with Linden Place historic house museum in Rhode Island to produce a yearly no-cost writers’ residency that supports 8 writers a year. They work with researchers and a sensitivity consultant to synthesize and contextualize the house’s history, which includes enslavement, colonialism, early industry, class divides, the agency of women, and historically-excluded voices.
The first short film I wrote and co-produced premiered on a wee island off the coast of Rhode Island to a packed house (ie. bar) that included comedian Steven Wright and one of my favorite children’s book authors, James Stevenson, in the audience. Gulp. You can still find a copy of the movie in the island’s library.
Grateful to live a robust life despite navigating panic disorder with agoraphobia, which I manage like a chronic illness. There are long bouts of being regulated and other stretches of needing more supports and interventions.
I’ve lived by the sea for most of my life, and I’ve got a naturalist’s cabinet full of broken bits of pottery and sea glass, bird bones, whelk egg casings, driftwood, and crab shells to prove it. (I dream about mudlarking on the Thames.)
My husband and I are “seeing eye people” to a blind dog who just so happens to be the best girl in the world, and we recently became “foster fails” to Moose the Kitty.
