Stephanie Pearson (born 16 December 1988) is an American actress and filmmaker. She has appeared in the films ''

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang ''Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'' is a 2005 American neo-noir black comedy mystery thriller film written and directed by Shane Black (in his directorial debut), and starring Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, and Corbin Bernsen. The scri ...

'' (2005), '' Insidious: Chapter 2'' (2013), ''Downrange'' (2017) and Psychosynthesis (2020). She has been featured in the television series ''

Ray Donovan ''Ray Donovan'' is an American crime drama television series created by Ann Biderman for Showtime. The twelve-episode first season premiered on June 30, 2013. The pilot episode broke viewership records, becoming the biggest premiere of all ...

'' (2015), '' Rizzoli & Isles'' (2014-2015), and '' Pam & Tommy'' (2022). Alongside acting, Pearson is a director and has directed music videos for artists

Wolfmother Wolfmother is an Australian hard rock band from Sydney. Formed in 2004, the group is centred around vocalist and guitarist Andrew Stockdale, who is the only constant member of the line-up. The band has been through many personnel changes since ...

, and 98º.

Early life

Stephanie Pearson was born in Burbank, California on 16 December 1988, the daughter of Lisa Pearson and director and producer Lee Pearson. She has a younger sister, Leila. She grew up in

Laguna Beach Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish for "Lagoon") is a seaside resort city located in southern Orange County, California, in the United States. It is known for its mild year-round climate, scenic coves, environmental preservation efforts, and a ...

, California and spent time at her father's production studio watching the shoots. She decided she wanted to become an actor at the age of ten. Stephanie studied theater at

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located ...

in Los Angeles.

Film career

Pearson began her career as a child actress starring in a dozens of commercials and international ad campaigns during her childhood and teen years. Stephanie caught the eye of director

Shane Black Shane Black (born December 16, 1961) is an American filmmaker and actor who has written such films as ''Lethal Weapon'', ''The Monster Squad'', ''The Last Boy Scout'', ''Last Action Hero'', and ''The Long Kiss Goodnight''. As an actor, Black is ...

and was cast in the 2005 film

. Soon after, Pearson landed roles in TV shows

The Young And The Restless ''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (not the real-life similarly-named Genoa City, ...

(2009),

'Til Death ''Til Death'' is an American sitcom which aired on the Fox network from September 7, 2006, to June 20, 2010. The series was created by husband and wife team Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa, who were also the writers and executive producers. The ...

(2010),

Medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane *Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

(2010), '' Rizzoli & Isles'' (2014–2015), ''

'' (2015), and ''Murder In The First'' (2016). In 2013 Pearson starred in

James Wan James Wan (born 26 February 1977) is an Australian director, producer, screenwriter and comic book writer. He has primarily worked in the horror genre as the co-creator of the '' Saw'' and ''Insidious'' franchises and the creator of The Conjur ...

's '' Insidious: Chapter 2'', opposite

Rose Byrne Mary Rose Byrne (born 24 July 1979) is an Australian actress. She made her screen debut in the film ''Dallas Doll'' (1994), and continued to act in Australian film and television throughout the 1990s. She obtained her first leading film role i ...

and

Ty Simpkins Ty Keegan Simpkins (born August 6, 2001) is an American actor. His notable film credits include the supernatural horror '' Insidious'' (2011), its sequel '' Insidious: Chapter 2'' (2013) and ''Jurassic World'' (2015). He is also known for his ap ...

. This film kicked off Pearson's career as a "scream queen" in the indie film scene. Most notably, in 2017 Pearson starred in

Ryuhei Kitamura (born May 30, 1969) is a Japanese film director, producer, and screenwriter. Biography Early life Kitamura was born in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. He dropped out of high school at age 17 and relocated to Sydney, Australia, where he attended a sch ...

's ''

Downrange Downrange, or down range, is the horizontal distance traveled by a spacecraft, or the spacecraft's horizontal distance from the launch site. More often, it is used as an adverb or adjective specifying the direction of that travel being measure ...

'', which premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

as part of their Midnight Madness series and won the Jury Prize for Best Film at Spain's Molins Horror Film Festival. Pearson's "stand out" acting in the film was heralded as "an intense and smart" performance. Subsequent lead roles in horror-thriller films for Pearson included 2019's stunt-heavy ''Recovery','' the 2020 release ''Psychosynthesis'' directed by Noam Kroll, distributed by

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

, and 2022's ''The Sleep''. In 2022 Pearson appeared opposite

Sebastian Stan Sebastian Stan (born August 13, 1982) is a Romanian-American actor. He gained recognition for his role as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe media franchise beginning with the film '' Captain America: The First Ave ...

and

Lily James Lily Chloe Ninette Thomson (born 5 April 1989), better known by her stage name Lily James, is an English actress. She studied acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and began her career in the British television series ''Ju ...

in episode two of Hulu's '' Pam & Tommy''.

Directing

In 2019, Pearson directed the music video for

's "''Chase The Feeling''" featuring

Chris Cester Christopher James Cester (born 16 September 1981) is an Australian musician, songwriter, producer and founding mainstay drummer and backing vocalist of rock band Jet. As a member of Jet, Cester has won awards as a songwriter from the Australas ...

from JET, and produced promotional key art for the single. In the spring of 2021, the song and its body of work was nominated for an

APRA Music Award APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwri ...

for Most Performed Rock Work Pearson created a "90's nostalgia throwback" music video and EP cover art for boy band 98º and their pop single "''Where Do You Wanna Go''" in 2021. Billboard was quoted as saying "the summer just heated up with the new video from 98 Degrees for their hot-weather bop...directed by Stephanie Pearson".

Personal life

Since 2017, Pearson has been in a relationship with Australian musician

, with whom she lives with in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

Early life

Film career

Directing

Personal life

Filmography

Film

Television

Directing

References