Joan Sittenfield is a talent
manager, producer, and writer who heads her own management company, Joan
Sittenfield Management.
She began her career in the
entertainment industry as an actress and dancer. Upon receiving her master’s degree in theatre
from USC, she spent six years as a guest artist in residence, teaching acting
and movement at such universities as Michigan
State, California
State University at Sacramento,
USC, Cornell, and Arizona
State. She also worked as
a highly sought after private acting coach as well as a theatre director and
choreographer.
When she decided to make her
home in the Los Angeles
area permanently, she became a successful independent casting director. In that
capacity she worked on such feature films as ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA, OH
GOD II, BAD MEDICINE, AND PRIVATE BENJAMIN. She also cast the award winning
television program TAXI as well as THE JEFFERSONS, GLITTER, and numerous pilots
and TV movies.
In 1985 she went to Universal Television where, as Senior Vice
President of Talent and Casting for the next nine years, she was responsible
for the talent packaging and casting of such successful programs as LAW AND
ORDER, NORTHERN EXPOSURE, A YEAR IN THE LIFE, QUANTUM LEAP, MAJOR DAD, and
COACH, to name but a few of the over 20 series and 100 pilots with which she
was involved. While at Universal, she was also responsible for giving many of
today’s biggest stars their first breaks, among them Sandra Bullock, Ving Rhames, Julianna Marguiles, Eriq La Salle, Christopher Noth, Patricia Clarkson, and Steven Webber.
In 1993 she, along with
partner Jeni Munn, formed J and J Productions which put over 18 projects into
active development for both television and feature movies. Together they produced ON THE EDGE OF INNOCENCE through
Paramount Television for NBC which aired in April of 1997 and GOLD RUSH!, one
of the Wonderful World of Disney movies for ABC which aired in March of 1998.
With her own production
company, Joan developed original movie of the week scripts with a variety of
top production entities including Grossbart/Barnette Productions, Orly Adelson
Productions, and Hearst Entertainment. These projects included, DEATH STORM, an
action adventure story, ANOTHER LIFE,
ANOTHER DEATH, a Vertigo-esque suspense story, an original script for a
thriller entitled, FALSE SIGHT, and the film version of her own novel TO DANCE ON
THE DARK SIDE.
From 1998- 2000 Joan formed
an association with Carla Singer Productions where she developed, among others,
a new version of the Anne Frank story, a remake of the Edna Ferber book ICE
PALACE, a project for Jessica Lange entitled THE FARM SHE WAS,
a mini series based on Jules
Verne's GOLDEN VOLCANO and an HBO project entitled THE FIRECRACKER BOYS based
on a book which dealt with Edward Teller's doomed project to bring peace time
uses for nuclear energy to the Alaska
wilderness.
Joan is the co-author of HOW MANY MEN DOES IT TAKE TO SCREW IN A
LIGHTBULB?....NONE, THE MODERN WOMAN’S GUIDE TO HOME REPAIRS, a comedy “how to”
book which was published by Putnam books in September of 1997. She also wrote a comedy/cook
book entitled WAS IT SOMETHING HE ATE? COLLECTION OF AN EX’S FAVORITE RECIPES. She is the co-author of THANK YOU FOR NOT LAUGHING THE FIRST TIME YOU SAW ME
NAKED a collection of humorous greeting cards for unexpected and unusual life events.
In 1998, Joan added a
management division to her production company. Since that time JOAN SITTENFIELD MANAGEMENT has become a highly respected boutique company that offers an alternative to
the large agencies by concentrating on individual attention and career
guidance. Her actors work in television,
film, and theatre and all come from strong Broadway or conservatory based
acting programs. Past clients include TOM CAVANAGH of NBC's ED, MOZHAN MARNÒ, and ZACHARY QUINTO who can currently be seen on NBC's HEROES as well in the new STAR TRACK movie as "Spock" Her current roster includes GENE FARBER, star of the Fox pilot, VIRTUALITY, LESLIE ODOM, JR who just finished one of the lead roles in George Lucas' new movie RED TAILS, Broadway and Tony nominated actors CHARLOTTE d'AMBOISE
and STEPHEN BOGARDUS, TV veterans DE LANE MATTHEWS, MATT ROTH and BRUCE NOZICK, and such hot up and comers as JAMES HIROYUKI LAIO, CHRYSSIE WHITEHEAD, and DORIAN CHRISTIAN BAUCUM.
Joan has also conceived of a weekend seminar she is offering to students who will be graduating from B.F.A., M.F.A. or other conservatory programs with a specialization of acting and/or musical theatre. Called ACT-2 A MASTERCLASS, this class is, specifically, designed to serve as a transition from university theatre programs to work in the commercial world of theatre, film,and television. The web site for this program is
