About

Headshots by Theo & Juliet Photography (2021)

Producing

Esther is the CEO and Co-Founder of Team Rebelution Films, an award-winning Independent Film Production Company based in Los Angeles. Esther has produced and released eleven short films under Team Rebelution Films with two additional projects currently in Pre-Production, and two more projects in their developmental stages. She has independently produced films as well.

Team Rebelution Films was originally created for the 48 Hour Film Project by Esther and fellow Co-Founders Poonam Basu, and Austin Dragovich. The three joined forces in 2017, united by their mutual love for film, a hunger for more diverse narratives, and the desire to create the absolute best film they possibly could in just forty-eight hours. They assembled a driven team of passionate, like-minded professionals, and the race was on!

Since then, Team Rebelution Films has shot and produced a number of award-winning films. Everyone at Team Rebelution works hard to encompass an equal environment for each team member in all aspects of the films they create both in front of the camera and behind the camera.

Esther joined 2Cents Theatre Group  in 2019 as Social Media Manager and part of the Producing Team. She is one of eighteen artists that co-manage the entire company. This new collective-minded membership is universally passionate about taking 2Cents Theatre to the next level of production and community. Esther is thrilled to be Co-Producing 2Cents 7th Annual Acting Out INK Fest, a 3-day festival of female-identifying and non-binary playwrights.

Directing

Esther made her directorial film debut with her multiple award winning short, Inn Communication (2019), and has since directed four additional films. She is in the developmental stage working with three other fantastic writers on a really neat screenplay entitled The Writers’ Room, and she hopes that it will be the first feature film that she directs. Esther made her LA stage debut as a director for Little Fish Theatre’s Pick Of The Vine Festival (2021), which was done virtually due to the pandemic. She had an absolute blast working on Contact, which was written by the wonderful  Rideaux A. Baldwin, and starred the amazing duo, Lloyd Roberson II and Allen Barstow. She greatly looks forward to directing more theatre in LA (and elsewhere) and can’t wait to be able to direct on stage and in person soon!

Training

Esther has been acting since the age of four and dancing since the age of six. She has loved working to develop her craft through extensive training, including apprenticeships at a number of notable theaters. As an apprentice at The Berkshire Theatre Festival, she studied under Stephen Spinella, Joanna Going, and Suzuki instructor Eric Hill. She also completed a residency at the Boston University Theater Institute in Boston, MA.

She has studied abroad at The Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK under the guidance of Michael Boyd and Vikki Heywood, at The Globe Theatre in London, UK, at The British American Drama Academy (BADA) in London, and at The Russian Academy Of Theatre Arts (GITIS) in Moscow, Russia, where she performed as Nina in The Seagull.

Esther graduated from Scripps College in Claremont, CA with a BA in Fine Arts and Gender Studies.  There, she focused on opera, dance (modern, jazz, West African Dance, choreography) and theatre (Improv, comedy, musical theatre).

Esther received her MFA in Acting from East 15 Acting School, the theatre department of the University of Essex in London. There she did workshops and master classes in Shakespeare, Michael Chekhov, devised theatre, script writing, acting for film and TV, voice and accents, biomechanics, physical theatre, Grotowski and Laban Technique.

Notable Awards & Nominations

*Winner Best Woman Filmmaker of a Short Film (Inn Communication) – The 2021 Austin International Art Festival

*Winner Best Screenplay of Micro Short Film with Joseph Kibler (Inn Communication) – The 2021 Garoa Awards Monthly Film Festival of São Paulo

*Winner Honorable Mention Best Directing (Inn Communication) – The 2021 Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival

*Winner Honorable Mention Best Original Script with Joseph Kibler (Inn Communication) – The 2021 Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival

*Winner Best First Time Director (Inn Communication) – The 2020 Festigious International Film Festival

*Winner Best 1st Time Director (Inn Communication) – The 2020 New York International Film Awards

*Winner Best 1st Time Director (Inn Communication) – The 2020 Oniros Film Awards

*Winner Platinum Award for Best Voice Over Performance (Resolve) – The 2020 Best Actor Award New York

*Winner Gold Award for Best Duo Performance with Heather Ludwig (Resolve) – The 2020 Best Actor Award New York

*Winner Grand Jury Prize for Best First Time Director (Inn Communication) – The 2020 Imagine Rain Independent Film Awards

*Winner Best First Time Screenwriter with Joseph Kibler (Inn Communication) – The 2020 Imagine Rain Independent Film Awards

*Winner Best Voiceover (Resolve) –  The 2020 Imagine Rain Independent Film Awards

*Winner Best First Time Director (Inn Communication) – The 2020 Hollywood Blood Horror Festival

*Winner 3rd Best Director Super Short Film (Inn Communication) – The 2020 Košice International Monthly Film Festival (KIMFF)

*Winner Honorable Mention Best First Time Director Short Film (Inn Communication) – The 2020 Košice International Monthly Film Festival (KIMFF)

*Winner Honorable Mention Best First Time Director Female (Inn Communication) – The 2020 Independent Shorts Awards

*Winner Honorable Mention Best Acting Duo with Heather Ludwig (A Good Shake) – The 2020 Independent Shorts Awards

*Winner (Award of Merit) & Finalist Best Director (Inn Communication) – The 2020 Global Shorts Awards

*Winner (Award of Merit) & Finalist Best Screenplay with Joseph Kibler (Inn Communication) – The 2020 Global Shorts Awards

*Winner (Award of Excellence) & Finalist Best Director (Inn Communication) – The 2020 One-Reeler Short Film Competition

*Finalist Best First-Time Filmmaker Short (Inn Communication) – The 2021 Austin International Art Festival

*Nominated Best Director of Micro Short Film (Inn Communication) – The 2021 Garoa Awards Monthly Film Festival of São Paulo

*Nominated Best Actress of Micro Short Film (Inn Communication) – The 2021 Garoa Awards Monthly Film Festival of São Paulo

*Top Nominee Best Newcomer Actor (A Good Shake & Inn Communication) – The 2021 FILMHAUS: Berlin Film + New Media Competition

*Finalist Best First-Time Director (Inn Communication) – The 2021 FILMHAUS: Berlin Film + New Media Competition

*Finalist Best Screenplay with Joseph Kibler (Inn Communication) – The 2021 FILMHAUS: Berlin Film + New Media Competition

*Finalist Best Lead Actress (A Good Shake) –  The 2021 FILMHAUS: Berlin Film + New Media Competition

*Finalist Nominated for Best First Time Filmmakers – Director (Inn Communication) – The 2021 Seoul International Short Film Festival

*Finalist Nominated for Best First Time Director Filmmaker (Inn Communication) – The 2020 New Wave Short Film Festival

*Nominated Best First Time Director Female (Inn Communication) – The 2020 IndieX Film Fest

*Nominated Best Actress Short Film (Inn Communication) – The 2020 IndieX Film Fest

*Nominated Best Acting Duo with Heather Ludwig (A Good Shake) – The 2020 IndieX Film Fest

*Nominated Best Actress: (Inn Communication) – The 2020 Indie Short Fest

*Nominated Best Acting Duo with Heather Ludwig (A Good Shake) -The 2020 Indie Short Fest

*Winner Best Comedy (Initial Velocity) – 2Cents Theatre Group’s 2019 Acting Out INK Fest

*Runner-up Best Actress in a Comedy (Initial Velocity) – 2Cents Theatre Group’s 2019 Acting Out INK Fest

*Winner Best in Dance & Physical Theatre (With My Eyes Shut) – The 2018 Hollywood Fringe Festival

*Winner Encore Producers’ Award (With My Eyes Shut) – The 2018 Hollywood Fringe Festival

*Nominated The Outdoor Voices Festival Conversation Creation Award (With My Eyes Shut) -The 2018 Hollywood Fringe Festival