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Born to John Engman of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Kathleen McCain of Los Angeles, California, Annie was raised on the Chicago border of Evanston, Illinois. She has a younger brother, Charlie Engman, who is a photographer known for publishing epics of caricature work with their mother.
As a kid, she had many stage leads, most notably Annie in Annie, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Mimi in La Bohéme and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. She was a treble in a touring classical choir, trained in improv with the Piven Theatre Workshop, and danced with the Gus Giordano Studio. In high school, she choreographed for Esande Dance Company and cast, choreographed and directed a production of A Chorus Line in preparation for a BFA in Acting at Millikin University, where she continued to lead and direct. Among other billing, her May in Fool for Love was lauded by playwright Sam Shepard.
Midway through her theatrical program, she trekked in The Yukon Territory followed by a move to Ecuador and then Perú, and deferred from performing to concentrate on other interests of writing, social work, political action and documentary photo and film. She enrolled at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington to self-direct a Bachelor of Arts.
Annie has since principled films, plays, music videos, radio shows, commercials and print ads, musicals and two operas, has sung harmony with bands across genres, and danced with companies and Latin, African, and samba troupes in Chicago, Olympia, Quito, Salt Lake City, London, Los Angeles and New York. She is as well a regular reader and workshop director at theater conferences for new work.
As a casting director, she has populated television, film, theatre, and documentaries, and coaches casts, scene groups and privately. She leads children's workshops, guests academically, is a script doctor and editor, and has programmed or moderated for the Sundance, Slamdance, Cannes, Tribeca and Brooklyn film festivals.
Behind the camera, she has been a director, intimacy coordinator, documentarian and PSA filmmaker, videographer, portrait photographer, set designer and post-production editor. She hosts The Parlour Salon and the banquet Women's Dinner in Los Angeles and New York, as well running two artist residency properties in Upstate New York collectively named The Build, managed by The Agrarian Home, her interior design company.
