Website: www.esentertainment.net

https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0250327/credits

A graduate of California Institute of the Arts, RONA EDWARDS became Vice President of Creative Affairs for multiple Emmy-winner John Larroquette (“Night Court”), Academy-Award winner Michael Phillips (“The Sting,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Taxi Driver”) and Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated producer Fern Field (“Monk,” “Heartsounds”) before she was dragged kicking and screaming into the world of independent producing. As a producer, she co-produced and/or executive produced “One Special Victory” (NBC) starring John Larroquette, “The Companion” (USA/SyFi Channel) directed by Gary Fleder, “I Know What You Did” (ABC) starring Rosanna Arquette, “Out Of Sync “(VH1) as part of VH1 Movies That Rock, and “Der Morder Meiner Mutter”(Sat.1/Studio Hamburg) for German television. In addition to those films, she had a script deal with ABC and set up “Matchmakers,” a feature film at Warner Bros based upon an article she found in “People” magazine. She produced the TV movie, “Blind Trust,” for Lifetime Television with Anne Carlucci Productions and Incendo Media and produced a series of movies based upon a book series she optioned, subtitled “Crimes of Fashion,” by Ellen Byerrum. The first two books, “Killer Hair” and “Hostile Makeover,” were aired on Lifetime and shot in Vancouver and Washington D.C. 

Additionally, she developed and set up a number of TV series and films for various cable networks. Edwards has always straddled the fence working in both television and feature films. She is known for working with writers on ideas from scratch and has written several screenplays and treatments herself that were optioned by production companies and networks. With Toonz Media Group, she is producing an animated feature film and TV Series based on “The Birbal Tales,” titled, “Jewels of the Mughal Crown,” and is currently developing several books, screenplays and true-life stories into feature films and television series projects.

Edwards is also working on a number of documentaries including a series about Military Nurses, which will examine war through the POV of nurses who were there in the trenches and are the unsung heroes of war. She produced the doc, “Unforgettable,” written and directed by Eric Williams (“Mad City, ” “Out Of Sync”), which tells the story of a year in the life of his brother (deemed “the human google” by “Good Morning America”) who has what is called hyperthymesia– the autobiographical ability to recall every moment and day of his life. It aired on PBS. She executive produced the awarding-winning documentary, “Selling Sex In Heaven” aka “Hope in Heaven, ” which won the Beyond Borders award for documentary film, the juror’s award at the Big Bear Film Festival, and aired on the CBC, and was executive producer on the follow up documentary, Selling Sex, which followed sex workers in America. Edwards has had projects made and/or in development with many of the major networks and studios including a script deal at ABC, movies at CBS, ABC, NBC, Hearst Entertainment, VH1, HBO, Phoenix Pictures, Edward R. Pressman, Revelation, Lifetime, Motor City Films, Warner Bros., Alan Landsberg Productions, The David Wolper Organization, Lifetime, Incendo Media, All Girl Productions and Wilshire Court, to name a few.

She has served as a film and TV consultant and story editor for numerous film commissions and production companies worldwide including Film Victoria, Screen Queensland, Stewart-Hall Productions, Enjoy Entertainment in Australia and Pilgrim Pictures in Singapore as well as for individual writers and filmmakers.

In addition to her work as a TV and film producer, she taught “Introduction to Feature Film Development” at UCLA Extension (both on campus and online) for more than ten years, as well as “Story Development Process” at Riverside City College’s Distance Learning online before teaching online was fashionable, with Monika Skerbelis, a former VP at Universal Pictures.

Together, Edwards & Skerbelis wrote the critically acclaimed book, I Liked It, Didn’t Love It (Screenplay Development From The Inside Out), which is now in its 3rd edition and illuminates the development process for both television and feature film development. A second book, published by Michael Wiese Publishing (MWP) and titled, The Complete Filmmakers Guide to Film Festivals (Your All Access Pass to Launching Your Film on the Festival Circuit), is a soup-to-nuts book on all you need to know but were afraid to ask about film festivals. A 2nd edition is due out early 2024. Both books are used as textbooks at colleges and universities worldwide.

A contributing writer to “The Beachwood Voice” for seven years, Edwards was also the newspaper’s restaurant reviewer and feature writer. She then became a lifestyle columnist for the Los Feliz Ledger. Currently, she is a contributing feature writer to “Produced By” magazine, the official magazine of the Producers Guild of America, in which she interviews film and TV producers. Her articles can be found in Script magazine and various digital websites geared towards the entertainment industry. In addition, she has written music reviews for “FAME” (The Folk Acoustic Music Exchange) and her column, “Rona’s Reel Take,” had a run for the New York quarterly newspaper, “The Neworld Review,” in which she ranted and raved about the film and television business. She was also senior editor at Morton Books.

Edwards has been interviewed by a number of newspapers, and on television and radio shows including USA Today, Rolling Tape: Inside Script Development, Script magazine, Connie Martinson On Books, Movies Matter, Digital Production Buzz, Your Hollywood Pro (available on iTunes), Reel Ladies, the Gregory Mantell Show, Murder Must Air (sponsored by the Mystery Writers or America), 938Live’s The Living Room in Singapore, and WWJ 950AM in Detroit. She has been a guest lecturer and/or panelist at the Bangkok International Film Festival, the United Nations Women’s Film Festival, University Film and Video Association (UFVA), Screenwriters Network, Palm Springs Women In Film, the Margaret Perry Filmmaking Seminar in Halifax, Nova Scotia, The California Writer’s Club in Monterey, California, Palm Springs International Short Fest, Mendocino Film Festival, San Diego Film Festival, Screenwriting Expo in Los Angeles, California, Moondance Film Festival in Boulder, Colorado, Cinewomen, Women in Film, The Mystery Writers Association’s Bouchercon, Sisters In Crime and more.

Ms. Edwards majored in theatre, and has a strong background in performance, both acting and singing, in addition to directing live theatre, and writing and producing film, television and Transmedia projects. In addition, she was a full-time assistant professor at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film & Media Arts’ Singapore campus in their Creative Producing program where she contributed to building the program and taught Creative Producing and Development, Producing for Television, Basic and Advanced Screenwriting, Producing Transmedia for Creative Producers,, Producing the Corporate Video, and Entertainment Marketing & Promotion, Thesis Portfolio in addition to film studies courses such as Feature Film Analysis and Survey of International Film which she nicknamed Around the World in 16 Weeks.

 She has traveled extensively throughout Asia and Europe, attending film festivals and markets, and has worked with filmmakers and content creators in the Asianic and Oceanic regions not only on creative content but also in advising them on the global media marketplace. For four years, she divided her time between her home in Los Angeles and in Singapore. 

More recently, she can be found teaching at AMDA in  L.A., located on the Los Angeles Center Studios lot) such courses as Producing for Scripted Television, which in addition to helping students create a scripted TV series bible, she teaches them about international television and selling TV formats, she also teaches a class on Film Festivals & Distribution. She also has taught two more courses in their Entrepreneurship program: Literary Acquisition & Development and Entrepreneurship & Innovation. At the University of Miami’s Semester in Los Angeles, she taught Finance in Media for two years. She also teaches for Columbia College Chicago’s Semester in L.A. program (SiLA), having taught such courses as Research and Analysis in the Movie and Television Industry, The Business of Screenwriting, The Business of Hollywood a the undergrad internship class in addition to a graduate course entitled Long Form Narrative Package and more recently,  she teaches Career Development. 

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Since 2006, she has taught at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film & Media Arts in Orange, CA, and today teaches numerous courses there in the screenwriting and creative producing programs, including Creative Producing and Development, Filmmaking Fundamentals for Producers, Senior Thesis Development, Overview of Producing, Maneuvering Film Festivals, Basic Screenwriting Fundamentals, Short Script Workshop, Visual Storytelling for Film, Visual Storytelling for TV Writer/Producers and a Visual Storytelling class for PR and advertising majors.

She is a member of the Producers Guild of America, The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, SAG/AFTRA, Actors’ Equity, International Documentary Association, and Film Independen

Recent Research Achievements: 

Columbia College Chicago research grant, “I LIked it, Didn’t Love It (Screenplay Development from the Inside Out (Editions 1,2,3),” “The Complete FIlmmakers Guide to Film Festivals” nd edition 2forthcoming,  

Juror at numerous film festivals, Speaker and Panelist at numerous Festivals, Radio Shows, podcasts and online interview web series. Guest speaker at the UN Women’s Festival in Singapore, Palm Springs Short Fest, Mendocino Film Festival, numerous UFVA conference panels