amy brown
Amy Brown's performance career has encompassed stage and screen, acting, dance, and song. In addition to starring in several independent feature films, short and student films, television, and industrials, she has frequently performed in theatre and burlesque shows. Currently filming Take-Away Spirit, a Chinese ghost and vampire feature for New York’s One Shot Productions, Amy’s best-known film to date is The Rockville Slayer, a thriller starring Joe Estevez and scream queen legend Linnea Quigley. In this internationally-distributed film, Amy has a supporting role as an escaped mental patient. She is represented by Linda McAlister Talent.
Amy began acting in school productions and community theatre in Waco, Texas. Her interest in acting deepened in high school, when she had leading roles in plays such as The Odd Couple (Female Version) by Neil Simon and the title role in David Mamet's The Poet and the Rent. An early highlight was the Holocaust drama No Fading Star, in which Amy played a Jewish boy hiding in a convent while preparing for his Bar Mitzvah. For this challenging role, Amy adopted a masculine look and learned to speak passages in Hebrew. She fondly recalls when, at a state one-act play competition, she alarmed several people when entering the girls' restroom while in costume.
Amy spent a year at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, where her favorite experience was acting in renowned director Mark Lord's surrealistic production of Strindberg's A Dream Play. However, homesickness brought Amy back to Texas and she completed her BFA degree in acting (graduating summa cum laude) at Texas Christian University, studying under such respected teachers as Forrest Newlin, George Brown, and Margaret Loft. Performance highlights there included the role of Sister Martha in Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac and dual leading roles in the gender-bending student production Breakfast Serial, in which Amy played a male serial killer who preys upon younger boys. Another experience was performing in Andy Dick's Circus of Freaks, a disturbing stage show directed by and starring the controversial TV star Andy Dick. Amy also forayed into directing with Djuna Barnes's The Dove. She was a founding member of New Studio Theatre, a group of students who explored avant-garde, surrealist, and Dadaist plays and writings, focusing on the theories of Antonin Artaud. The group gave some memorable performances before disbanding due to artistic differences.
Although her background was in theatre, the majority of Amy’s professional acting career has been in film. In addition to a mental patient, her roles have included an amnesiac pursued by a hit-man (Dawn of Twilight), a woman tormented by a killer (Mute), a goth girl (Caffeine Headache), smart-mouthed artist (Getting To Know You), leukemia patient (an award-winning performance in Diva Star), 300-year-old witch (Dr. Deadly's Theatre of Horrors), vampire victim (Blood Party), accidental murderer-cum-zombie victim (How To Dig Your Own Grave), cheerleader (Pot Zombies), murderous housewife (You Can Have It!), French translator (The Sadness Will Last Forever), and Natalie Portman fan (Fandom). She has also lent her voice-over talents to several nationally-aired anime cartoon shows. Amy studied film acting with Michele Condrey at REACT in Dallas (where she was named the studio's top actor for summer 2004).
Amy returned to the stage to star in Goose Dance in Fort Worth and the Comedy Killers murder mysteries in Dallas. She has worked with the Rose Marine and Hip Pocket Theatres and the Butterfly Connection. She was an original member of the Lollie Bombs, a popular burlesque troupe. Never losing her passion for the dark and avant-garde, she hopes to focus her career in independent projects that will surprise, disturb, and deeply affect the audience. She is fluent in French and is an amateur pianist and harpsichordist. Her hobbies include art, web design, watching Seinfeld and Star Wars, and caring for her many cats. A vegetarian since age thirteen, Amy is an adamant supporter of animal rights.
My Favorite Movies
One of my favorite movies is The Piano. Mainly because I play the piano and music is incredibly close to my heart, and I was so moved by the character Ada's bond with her piano it changed my life. It's such a beautiful film. I prefer independent film over Hollywood; I also like foreign films. I love The Silence Of The Lambs as it's a great, thrilling story and Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins are two of my favorite actors of all time. I also love Natalie Portman (Leon/The Professional), Cillian Murphy (Disco Pigs), and Soledad Miranda (Jess Franco's Vampyros Lesbos). I'm a big fan of all the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies. Particular directors I like include Jean-Luc Godard (My Life To Live; Alphaville), Jean Rollin (Fascination; The Iron Rose), Alfred Hitchcock (Rebecca; Psycho), Julie Taymor (Frida; Titus), Spike Jonze (Adaptation.; Being John Malkovich), and Luis Buñuel. I love horror movies. Other movies I'm fond of include Fight Club, Natural Born Killers, Bram Stoker's Dracula (the Coppola version), Donnie Darko, The Stendhal Syndrome, Requiem for a Dream, Buffalo 66, Secretary, Neverending Story, Daughters of Darkness, Little Otik, and Visitor Q (as well as numerous classic horror films). I really don't know if there's a pattern here. However, by and large I do like movies that are original, have something to say and use unique ways of saying it, and that simply are not like any other movies!
My Favorite TV Shows
Seinfeld. It's my favorite show of all time and I can quote exchanges of dialogue from it, I nearly always am able to find a correlation between a situation in real life and something on Seinfeld, and I am a master of its trivia! Other shows I like include Surface, Carnivàle, Charlie's Angels, Third Rock From the Sun, That 70s Show, and The L Word.
My Favorite Music
I love classical music. I play the piano, so naturally my favorite composers are those who wrote piano music I like: Chopin, Satie, Debussy, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, and so forth. As for composers like Bach and Scarlatti, I like their keyboard music too, as long as it's played on the original instrument (i.e. the harpsichord, which I also play). As far as orchestral music goes, I like the Romantics and the Russians. As for modern composers, I think Wojciech Kilar's score for Bram Stoker's Dracula is just about the coolest piece ever written and I think John Williams is an absolute genius. Classical music aside, I love Tori Amos, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, PJ Harvey, Björk, Fiona Apple, The Flaming Lips, Gomez, Hooverphonic, Janis Joplin, Goldfrapp, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Bauhaus, and Madonna. Finally, I also am very fond of jazz singers like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, as well as Spanish flamenco music.
My Favorite Books
Mostly nonfiction and drama. I love art books. What artists? Mainly the Surrealists (Dalí, Ernst, Magritte, etc.), plus Bosch and one of the most amazing women ever: Frida Kahlo. I have lots of books on classical music and the piano, Surrealism, horror movies, etc. As far as specific authors I like, I greatly appreciate the work of Thomas Harris, George Sand, Djuna Barnes, and Bram Stoker. One of my favorite books which influenced me a lot is When God Was a Woman.
Passion
I have been a vegetarian since I was thirteen years old. I became one after reading a short story in school in junior high. It is called A Mother's Tale and I welcome you to read it here. It is my strongest belief in life, that Animals Are Not Ours To Eat, Wear, Experiment On, Or For Entertainment, as the PETA saying goes. Another saying I fully and adamantly believe is that Meat Is Murder. Vegetarianism is truly the most passionate belief I have, and takes the place of any standard kind of religion. I believe it is wrong to kill an animal for food, clothing, or any other purpose whatsoever. I respect and love all life, especially that of helpless animals! I support PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), and the Humane Society of the United States. If you're ever in Fort Worth you should check out the excellent vegan restaurant The Spiral Diner.
