ELISSA PISZEL

Elissa Piszel is an actress, producer and writer that was brought up in a very creative household in the town of Bethlehem, PA.  Her early years were spent in summer theater and ballet school. It was no surprise to anyone that Elissa would wind up smack in New York attending NYU Tisch School Undergrad at the Lee Strasberg Institute on a theater scholarship.  

Elissa studied acting with many great acting teachers including the late great director Mike Nichols.  Feeling antsy after booking her first SAG Polish Census commercial in 2001,  Elissa felt the need to get her hands dirty and create her own work.  YOLO Theater Group was born in the heart of TIMES SQUARE Theater Row.   At age twenty five, Elissa and her best friend Pete Dorton produced over fifteen plays and events on theater row.  Elissa has been directed by Woody Allen , Sam Shepard, Gene Hackman, Elaine May, Aaron Sorkin, Mark Heyman and many more Hollywood celebrities. 

Producing is not foreign to Elissa. Her feature film, In The Moon's Shadow was a finalist as best feature at LA Femme International Film Festival 2020. Starring in as well as producing this film is now in distribution with Green Apple Entertainment and can be seen on Amazon, TUBI , Reel Women's Network, VUDU,  RCN and Xfinity. Writing is also a love for Elissa.  When out in LA studying Improvisation with The Groundlings,  Ellie's Perk, her film was written.  Whether shooting in New York or LA, what's most important to Elissa is to inspire filmmakers to use disabled actors in their films.  You can see Elissa on The Morning Show (AppleTV), The Other Two (HULU) WeCrashed (Apple TV) The Path (Hulu) and many other television shows.