Naomi McDougall Jones is an American actress, writer and producer. She is best known for her work on films ''Bite Me'', ''Imagine I'm Beautiful'', ''

The New Yorker Presents ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' and more.

Life and career

Naomi grew up in

Aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the ''Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. She studied acting at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

and graduated from the

American Academy of Dramatic Arts The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) is a private performing arts conservatory with two locations, one in Manhattan and one in Los Angeles. The academy offers an associate degree in occupational studies and teaches drama and related art ...

. Naomi wrote, produced, and starred for ''Imagine I'm Beautiful'', directed by Meredith Edwards. She won The Don Award for Best Independently Produced Screenplay at the Cape Fear Independent Film Festival and Special Jury Award for Best Performance at the Arizona International Film Festival in 2014. She is a vocal advocate and activist for bringing gender parity to film, both on and off screen. In 2016, Naomi gave a TED Talk on the subject at TEDxBeaconStreet. Naomi served as a writer on Amazon's original series, ''

'', which premiered at

Sundance A Sun Dance is a Native American ceremony. Sun dance or Sundance may also refer to: Places ;Canada *Sundance, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood *Sundance, Manitoba, a ghost town ;United States * Sundance, New Mexico, a census-designated place ...

2016. She wrote and produced the 2019 feature film ''Bite Me,'' also directed by Meredith Edwards, in which she co-stars alongside Christian Coulson,

Naomi Grossman Naomi Grossman (born February 6, 1975) is an American actress, writer, and producer best known for her role as Pepper in the second and fourth season of the FX horror television series ''American Horror Story''. Early life Grossman was born in ...

and

Annie Golden Annie Golden (born October 19, 1951) is an American actress and singer. She first came to prominence as the lead singer of the punk band the Shirts from 1975 to 1981 with whom she recorded three albums. She began her acting career as Mother in ...

. ''Bite Me'' is a subversive romantic comedy about a real-life vampire and the IRS agent who audits her. In the spirit of transparent filmmaking, Naomi created the
Fear(ful)less: Filmmaking from the Edge
' podcast to document the process of making ''Bite Me'' from pre-production through

post-production Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. The ...

. The film premiered at

Cinequest The Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival is an annual independent film festival held each March in San Jose, California and Redwood City, California. The international festival combines the cinematic arts with Silicon Valley’s innovation. It is ...

, won Best Feature Film at VTXIFF, and was then self-distributed online with partner Seed & Spark and across the United States on the Joyful Vampire Tour of America, a 51-screening, 40-city, three-month release roadshow that incorporated the film, live Q&As with the cast and creative team, and "Joyful Vampire Ball" parties. The entire tour was filmed by documentary filmmaker Kiwi Callahan for
YouTube docu-series
with each episode released week-by-week during the tour. The release strategy behind the Joyful Vampire Tour of America was intended by Naomi and producing partner Sarah Wharton to be a case study for improving the indie film distribution landscape, to create a more economically sustainable ecosystem. She is currently at work on a book, ''The Wrong Kind of Women: Inside Our Revolution to Dismantle the Gods of Hollywood'', which will be published by

Beacon Press Beacon Press is an American left-wing non-profit book publisher. Founded in 1854 by the American Unitarian Association, it is currently a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association. It is known for publishing authors such as James B ...

on February 4, 2020. Inspired by the TED Talk, ''The Wrong Kind of Woman'' examines the systemic exclusion of women in film—an industry with massive cultural influence—and how, in response, women are making space in cinema for their voices to be heard. She is also at work on her third feature screenplay, ''Hammond Castle'', a magical realism film that explores themes of identity, legacy and gender through a modern-day seven-month pregnant woman's unexpected interaction with the brilliant, eccentric and deceased inventor

John Hays Hammond, Jr. John Hays Hammond Jr. (April 13, 1888 – February 12, 1965) was an American inventor known as "The Father of Radio Control". Hammond's pioneering developments in electronic remote control are the foundation for all modern radio remote cont ...

For the screenplay, Naomi became the first recipient of the artist-in-residency program at

Ernest Hemingway House The Ernest Hemingway House was the residence of American writer Ernest Hemingway in the 1930s. The house is situated on the island of Key West in Florida. It is at 907 Whitehead Street, across from the Key West Lighthouse, close to the southern ...

, author Ernest Hemingway's final home in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Filmography

As writer * Imagine I'm Beautiful (2014) *

(2016) * Bite Me (2019) As producer * Imagine I'm Beautiful (2014) * The Seal (2019) * Bite Me (2019)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:McDougall Jones, Naomi Living people American film actresses American women screenwriters American women film producers 21st-century American women 1987 births