Born in New York City and raised in New Jersey, Nancy continues to enjoy an eclectic career as a casting director, producer, director, writer, dramaturge and acting coach. She began her career as assistant to the artistic director of the Santa Fe Festival Theater on the staged production of Blithe Spirit, starring Madeline Kahn and Amy Irving. Nancy went on to become a highly regarded dramaturge and director in the renowned Chicago theater, where she directed the world premiere of The Poppy Garden, the one-woman hit show The Fall From Precious (awarded The Reader Critic Choice and received 4 stars from Sun Times critic Ron Mark), and the critically acclaimed production of Howard Barker's The Love of a Good Man, among many others.
In film making, she wrote and directed Marilyn for Tandem Films, produced by John Swanbeck (The Big Kahuna) and Executive Produced by John Logan (Lincoln, Gladiator), wrote, produced and directed a documentary about girls in Chicago gangs entitled Voices To Be Heard, which screened at the Charlotte Film Festival and selected for its honorary national tour, as well as most recently cast and produced The Callback Machine, under the banner of her new company, Au Courant Films.
Nancy was a department head and agent at a top-tier Chicago talent agency, a dramaturge in the development of new plays at Goodman Theater, an adjunct professor for The Theater School at DePaul University, as well as founder and instructor of a highly successful acting studio in Chicago prior to relocating to Los Angeles to serve as story editor for Trigger Street Productions' The Big Kahuna, starring Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito and Peter Facinelli; Roger Ebert named Kahuna among his top ten picks of that year. Subsequently, she was given a first-look deal at DeVito's company, Jersey Films, followed by a three-picture contract at Universal Studios.
Nancy is also casting and producing several features, including Meridian, together with John J. Kelly, producer of Into the Wild and the best picture Oscar nominated 127 Hours, as well as Breaking Code, an Au Courant co-production with CTP Films and helmed by cinematographer-turned-director Gerry Lively, best known for comedy, Friday, starring Ice Cube. Nancy is also developing a slate of films for Au Courant Films, including a drama entitled Girl Butterfly, about a 12-year-old girl who becomes entranced with a child psychology PHd student following the sudden death of her father, a psychological thriller, Pentimento, that centers on an arrogant man who's forced to examine his life after a near-death car accident that has left him blind, and the biopic Alice, based on the inspired life and work of visionary Alice Guy, the world's first woman filmmaker.
