04/29/2024
Hello hello. I’m Denise Reed! ✨
I hail from dirty Jerz, but knew the minute I first stepped foot off of a NJ Transit bus as a kid to see my first Broadway show—42nd Street—that I’d someday live in NYC. I was a competitive dancer and went on to see the show a total of 3 times (obsessed). But dancing wasn’t my dream. It wasn’t even theater. My big dream was to be on a billboard. 😂 I’d walk the city streets with my family just waiting for a model scout to discover me. Spoiler alert, didn’t happen.
When I realized I wasn’t going to be America’s Next Top Model, I went on to Rutgers University to pursue a blander life. It wasn’t until my fourth year that I was re-bit by the entertainment bug when I coproduced and starred in my first short film for a class project. And bitch…..when I saw what we made, I FELL IN LOVE with making films. It was then that I started skipping class to go into the city for auditions.
I found my world. 🎥 But also found that I didn’t like acting for the same reasons most actors did. I loved *filmmaking.* I loved being a PART of the BIG picture. And I realized what was missing. I didn’t want to just act in films. I wanted to MAKE them.
Since then I’ve worked as everything from a background actor, a PA, costume PA on SNL & a Pepsi Super Bowl commercial, a stand-in, a lead in an indie series that got me a best actress nom in the same festival as James Franco, assistant props, 1st AD & 1st AC on a feature in Mexico, a principal actor in several national commercials, co-starring on CBS’s FBI and (upcoming) STARZ’s Power: Book of Ghost, a producer, a director, basically everything under the sun that I’ve had the opportunity to do.
And YA’LL It’s been a journey to say the least! But all of it lead me to creating The Abbey Stories with my BFF, enabling me to do EVERY. SINGLE. THING. that I love about making films. And I really love the films we are making! 😊
PS. The little girl with dreams of seeing herself on billboards will be happy to know it happened, and it’ll happen again. 💋