Cynthia’s most recent short film, The Shallow End, written by acclaimed playwright Wendy MacLeod based on her one-act play of the same title, was an Official Selection at 2019’s Adirondack Film Festival, Indie Memphis Film Festival and the recipient of the Silver Whiskers Award at IndieWorks NY. It will continue its festival run in 2020.
Other filmmaking credits include Chemistry, which screened at the 2019 Napa Valley Film Festival, LA Femme Festival, RevolutionMe Film Festival (Winner: Best Direction of an Experimental), Female Voices Rock Film Festival (Winner: Made in NYC), Berkshire Short Film Festival (Finalist), IndieWorks, USA Film Festival (Finalist), NY Shorts Int’l Film Festival, SAG-AFTRA NY Short Film Showcase and Big Apple Film Festival; and the first season of Adult: The Series, created by Tatienne Hendricks-Tellefsen, which screened at the 2018 Hollyweb Festival, Lower East Side Film Festival, Brooklyn Women's Film Festival, NYC Web Fest (Nominated: Dynamic Duo & I Love NY Awards), and Indieworks (Winner: Audience Choice Award).
Cynthia has also directed two short films for Made With Sass: Sleep Training, written by Anna Ziegler, was an official selection at Brooklyn Women’s Film Festival, NY Shorts Fest, NewFilmmakers NY, and the recipient of a 2015 Silver Spotlight Award; and Sibs, written by Samantha Slater, screened at the 2017 Oscar-qualifying Edmonton Film Festival, Brooklyn Women’s Film Festival, USA Film Festival (Finalist, Short Film & Video Competition), San Jose International Short Film Festival, the 2018 Garden State Film Festival, Hollyweb Festival, People's Film Festival, SoHo Film Festival and won the IndieWorks Audience Choice Award at both their monthly & Best of Fest screenings in NYC.
Cynthia was one of ten filmmakers selected to participate in the 2019 THROUGH HER LENS: The Tribeca CHANEL Women's Filmmaker Program
where she pitched and developed MELISSA, her second collaboration with writer Charlotte Martin under the mentorship of Anne Carey, Julie Dash, Liz Hannah, Nicole Holefcener, Catherine Keener, Olivia Milch and Lesli Linka Glatter and attended master classes lead by Alison Benson, Ane Crabtree, Sabine Hoffman, Laura Karpman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Laura Rosenthal and Julie Taymor.
She also became a member of New York Women in Film & Television in 2019.
Cynthia’s stage directing credits include
The Revolutionists, by Lauren Gunderson, Reckless, by Craig Lucas, Uncommon Women and Others, by Wendy Wasserstein and Melancholy Play, by Sarah Ruhl (Atlantic Acting School at Atlantic Stage 2); Dipika Guha’s The Rules (Joust Theatre Company); Almost, Maine, by John Cariani and Shel Shocked: An Evening of Grown-up One Acts by Shel Silverstein (Atlantic Acting School Studio Theatre); Cookie, by Chad Beckim at FringeNYC, among others. Cynthia was named a finalist for the 2015 Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Directors Fellowship.
Photo by Sadie Silver
Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area,
Cynthia began her artistic career as an actor, training at New York City’s Atlantic Acting School, and receiving her BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her critically acclaimed one-woman show, BRIDEZILLA STRIKES BACK!, co-written with Kenny Finkle (Winner: Outstanding Solo Show, FringeNYC) received commercial productions in both New York and Los Angeles.
Photo by Tom Bloom
Other stage acting credits include
TEN, KIDSTUFF, and Open House (Winner: Best Ensemble, FringeNYC) w/ Partial Comfort Productions, of which she is an ensemble member; Paper Cranes w/ Packawallop Productions; Carnival Round the Central Figure at IRT; The Adding Machine (Winner: Best Overall Production, FringeNYC), Richard Nelson’s Jitterbugging: Scenes of Sex in a New Society, Eric Bogosian’s Scenes from a New World, Warren Leight’s The Loop, and The House of Yes, by Wendy MacLeod with Mobius Group Productions, of which she was a founding member. Big & small screen acting credits include “Boardwalk Empire”, “CSI: NY”, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”, Brightest Star, The Green, and Colin Fitz Lives!.
Photo by Lauren Fritz
Cynthia has been an acting teacher since 1998.
She was on faculty at Atlantic Acting School for 21 years, where she taught advanced scene study classes, with an emphasis on plays written by living womxn playwrights, to the second year of the professional conservatory and NYU undergraduate program, and workshops on the business of acting to the graduating conservatory and NYU students. She continues to coach privately.
Former students include
Amelia Rose Blaire (Scream: The TV Series, True Blood), Anna Chlumsky (Veep, Halt and Catch Fire), Lucy DeVito (Speech & Debate, Deadbeat, Melissa & Joey), Edwina Findley Dickerson (If Loving You Is Wrong, Get Hard, Treme), John Early (Search Party, Beatriz at Dinner, Good People), Eloise Mumford (Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy, Chicago Fire), Elizabeth Olsen (Ingrid Goes West, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Age of Ultron; Godzilla), Marianna Palka (GLOW, Bitch, Good Dick), Rebecca Rittenhouse (The Mindy Project, Blood & Oil, Redband Society), Jason Ritter (Kevin [Probably] Saves the World, Girls, Parenthood), and DeWanda Wise (She’s Gotta Have It).
Photo by Augusta Quirk
Cynthia credits her twenty+ years in the classroom for teaching her
a thing or two about and solidifying her love of storytelling, and her colleagues and students for nudging her into the role of director.
It’s been like finding home in her own backyard.
Photo by Jenelle Pearring