Tessa Farrell
- Actress
- Writer
- Director
Tessa Farrell is an award-winning actress, writer, director and the auteur inventor behind the original film Cinema Legend. Tessa was born in Scottsdale, Arizona to Scott Farrell and Catherine McGinley. Tessa has one younger sister, Kelsey, and two younger brothers, Ryan and Shane. Tessa is mainly European with small traces of Native American, African and Asian ancestry. Tessa began running at the age of 2 and hasn't stopped since. Highly active in gymnastics, girl scouts, choir, dance, and soccer before she could properly tie her shoes, Tessa went to public schools in Arizona, Florida and Texas while being raised by her mother and stepfather, Patrick McGinley. Tessa completed high school in Austin, Texas and went on to obtain her BA in Radio-TV-Film with honors from The University of Texas.
Shortly after gracing magazine covers, billboards and music videos as a local model, Tessa moved to Los Angeles where she began working as an actress on HBO's Entourage as a recurring supermodel and in leading roles for indie movies such as The First Born, Diamond and The Madness Within; shooting commercials for Dish Network, Nike, Apple and Dodge, among others, in her spare time.
While on the common path in Hollywood, Tessa gradually grew frustrated with frequently being asked to audition as a "dumb hot girl" and having to dodge constant sexual harassment attempts made by movie producers, talent agents and managers. This eventually inspired her decision to take a break from auditioning to learn how to screenwrite and create compelling roles for herself.
While continuing to develop as a performer, studying improv at UCB and playing multiple characters on Barbee Rehab, Tessa was soon hired as a screenwriter to adapt Paralyzed But Not Powerless for the big screen. Tessa's deeply rooted passion for cinema quickly lead to her metamorphosis into a full-fledged filmmaker. She began honing her crafts by participating in timed filmmaking competitions to practice creating under extreme pressure and ended up winning awards in every competition for the projects she created as a star/writer/director.
When Apple released its first smartphone with a 4K camera, Tessa began shooting short films using her iPhone; commonly operating as a one person film crew to lower her costs of production. In 2017, the tides of fate blew in the moment Tessa changed her hair to blonde when word spread she was the "real life Barbie" who can do anything she set her mind too. Catching wind of a Barbie movie in development with Sony at the time, Tessa wrote a treatment and produced a teaser for the project that ultimately went undiscovered yet lead to her even bigger creation.
Drawing inspiration from her own experiences in Hollywood and incorporating unrecognized yet deeply-rooted parts of herself, Tessa expanded her initial Barbie movie concept and transformed her character into Daisy Blaine, fatefully giving rise to Cinema Legend which is set to enter new rounds of production in late summer of 2024. Tessa also has several spec high budget feature film scripts entering the beginning stages of bidding wars and is currently attached as the writer/director/star.
Shortly after gracing magazine covers, billboards and music videos as a local model, Tessa moved to Los Angeles where she began working as an actress on HBO's Entourage as a recurring supermodel and in leading roles for indie movies such as The First Born, Diamond and The Madness Within; shooting commercials for Dish Network, Nike, Apple and Dodge, among others, in her spare time.
While on the common path in Hollywood, Tessa gradually grew frustrated with frequently being asked to audition as a "dumb hot girl" and having to dodge constant sexual harassment attempts made by movie producers, talent agents and managers. This eventually inspired her decision to take a break from auditioning to learn how to screenwrite and create compelling roles for herself.
While continuing to develop as a performer, studying improv at UCB and playing multiple characters on Barbee Rehab, Tessa was soon hired as a screenwriter to adapt Paralyzed But Not Powerless for the big screen. Tessa's deeply rooted passion for cinema quickly lead to her metamorphosis into a full-fledged filmmaker. She began honing her crafts by participating in timed filmmaking competitions to practice creating under extreme pressure and ended up winning awards in every competition for the projects she created as a star/writer/director.
When Apple released its first smartphone with a 4K camera, Tessa began shooting short films using her iPhone; commonly operating as a one person film crew to lower her costs of production. In 2017, the tides of fate blew in the moment Tessa changed her hair to blonde when word spread she was the "real life Barbie" who can do anything she set her mind too. Catching wind of a Barbie movie in development with Sony at the time, Tessa wrote a treatment and produced a teaser for the project that ultimately went undiscovered yet lead to her even bigger creation.
Drawing inspiration from her own experiences in Hollywood and incorporating unrecognized yet deeply-rooted parts of herself, Tessa expanded her initial Barbie movie concept and transformed her character into Daisy Blaine, fatefully giving rise to Cinema Legend which is set to enter new rounds of production in late summer of 2024. Tessa also has several spec high budget feature film scripts entering the beginning stages of bidding wars and is currently attached as the writer/director/star.