Growing up in a European family, the kitchen table was where everyone shared the world and their perceptions of it; so for Teri, the collaborative storytelling process started early. Three artist uncles and a nuclear physicist father with a love of the science fiction masters sealed the deal on the world of make-believe. At San Diego State University, life took her in another direction — as it so often does — and it was quite some time before Teri found her way back to her first love. Tutelage under Toronto production designer Anthony Morassutti reminded her that there was no cure for the temporarily permanent insanity that is filmmaking.
Working her way up from Art PA, Teri has filled just about every role in the art department; from painter, coordinator and buyer, to art director and production designer. Projects have ranged from thesis films for the American Film Institute, including The Passage of Mrs Calabash — honored by the International Cinematographer’s Guild — to the independent feature film Blood Deep, shot at Universal Studios.
Recent live action work includes production design on two short films — now with Isotropic Films — Family Pieces for director Ryan Close, and Bloody Baby Blue for director Vong Chea. Bloody Baby Blue has been selected to screen at the 2009 Swansea Bay Film Festival in Wales.
She happily reunited with Calabash cinematographer Dan Hertzog last April when he directed the webisode pilot The Art of Chores and was fortunate enough to reunite with producer Lea-Beth Shapiro and WGA writer Richard Manning for the StrikeTV pilot Fusion. Fusion gave Teri the opportunity to mix production design with producing; a combo made relatively painless by the truly tremendous nature of both cast and crew.
Teri can currently be found at The Jim Henson Company, digitally coordinating the PBS Kids’ freshman animated series Sid The Science Kid to within an inch of its life.