Biography
Annette Andersen Caton (née Annette Leerdrup Andersen) is a Danish-American Actor, Writer and Producer. She was born in Houston, Texas on October 2, 1962. Her paternal grandparents were wealthy farmers south of Copenhagen in Nordruplund and her maternal grandparents were hoteliers on Bornholm, a small strategic island in the Baltic Sea, east of the rest of Denmark, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of Poland. Both her grandfathers were active in the Resistance during the Nazi occupation of Denmark.
Annette's parents were Danish immigrants who came to the US after two adventurous years in the tropical climate of Bogota, Colombia, where her father, John C. Andersen worked briefly for the Danish Consulate. After a four-month retreat back to Rønne on Bornholm, Annette and her mother, Ruth L. Andersen, returned to Houston in November of 1963, rejoining her father only a few weeks before President John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas. As Regional VP of Sales for Tuborg Beer, her father had called on his regular customer Jack Ruby just a week before the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald. Their young family left the tumultuous south and relocated to Glendale, California in 1964.
Her father then began a long career in medical device manufacturing, eventually starting his own business that put medical IV sets into space on an Apollo mission. Her mother Ruth--graduate of an esteemed finishing school in Copenhagen--embraced the nicer climate and idyllic 1970's lifestyle of Southern California. Her father was a graduate of the prestigious Herlufsholm boarding school and later the University of Washington and Lee in Virginia; together they brought an expectation of excellence to their family which had grown to include Annette's younger sister and brother.
Growing up, the motion picture industry was omnipresent in the San Fernando Valley and filming happened frequently in their neighborhood. At age 15, Annette won a contest in high school and was featured in John Carpenter's 1979 TV movie, "Elvis" for which Kurt Russell received an Emmy nomination. Before its release on ABC, Annette got a sneak peek of the film inside the L.A. Times office where the mother of one of her closest friends was the editor of the TV Times Section; the Dick Clark production was later released theatrically overseas.
As a high school senior, Annette had her drawing portfolio reviewed by an executive at Paper Moon Graphics. She was offered a job on the spot, on the condition she continue to develop her drawing skills and come back in four years with an illustration degree from Art Center in Pasadena. Planning to transfer to Art Center after two years of undergrad at CSULB, she had a dispute with her father about her career goals and paid the remainder of her own way through school. While enrolled at CSULB in her first acting class, the experience of watching Jessica Lange's stunning performance in the Oscar-nominated film "Frances" solidified her passion for creating a life in the motion picture industry. Needing one final unit to graduate, she took a Comp Lit Class over spring break. It was taught by world-renowned literary theorist and mythologist, Joseph Campbell, whose work famously inspired George Lucas in the creation of "Star Wars." Annette ended up earning an A in the class and a BA in Creative Writing.
Following graduation, she enrolled in an intensive language program at the Sorbonne University in Paris and bought a one-way ticket to France, wanting to distance herself from her parents. When she returned in 1986, she took a job at LA Louver, one of LA's premier contemporary art galleries. She was quickly put in charge of press relations and became a regular in the lively Venice Beach arts scene, keeping company with many well-known artists, writers and architects at The West Beach Café, Rebecca's, and 72 Market St. (then owned by Tony Bill and Dudley Moore). Tony Bill was the first to encourage Annette to pursue acting, but she had a false start. After being invited to tea at David Hockney's home studio in the Hollywood Hills, she was offered a management position at Louver New York and the chance to relocate to NYC, but the lure of filmmaking struck again.
In 1989, she left the art world for a volunteer position on an AFI Directing Women's Workshop project under the guidance of award-winning Documentary Producer Roberta Grossman ("500 Nations"), who later recommended her to work with Oscar-winning actress Faye Dunaway on TNT's "Cold Sassy Tree" (directed by Joan Tewkesbury). That film also starred iconic actor Richard Widmark, who was frequently heard calling Ms. Dunaway a "b!#%& on wheels" under his breath between scenes, but Annette was quite fond of her and learned an enormous amount from her time working with Ms. Dunaway. The TNT production also starred a young Samantha Mathis and a young Neil Patrick Harris, as well as Frances Fisher and Lee Garlington who kept Annette sane during the many humid weeks of production in Concord, GA. Fisher was the second to encourage Annette to pursue acting, but again her efforts faltered. She continued on briefly for Ms. Dunaway's Port Bascom Productions as a Development Associate but then moved into television on the 20th Century Fox lot with Emmy-award winning Writer/Executive Producer Alan Uger ("Family Ties," "Blazing Saddles") for a season of "True Colors" (starring Cleavon Little, Stephanie Faracy and Nancy Walker). After both Little and Walker's passing in 1992, she resumed working with Mr. Uger in television development for the next year.
She attributes her subsequent, nearly decade's long career at "The Simpsons" to a newly developed skill at making coffee, acquired while working for Mr. Uger in the Writers Building on the Fox lot. After multiple ideas had been pitched and rejected, Annette continued to answer Alan's phone in an empty office, but made full use of the time and space to attempt her version of "The Great Feminist Novel." Of course, she also continued to make coffee and a handful of "Simpsons" writers in the same building (including George Meyer, Jeff Martin, Greg Daniels, Dan McGrath and Conan O'Brien) befriended her over those free early morning coffees, ensuring multiple recommendations when Matt Groening suddenly needed a new Executive Assistant. Ironically, had Annette completed her illustration degree at Art Center and gone to work at Paper Moon Graphics, she'd have started working with Matt Groening in 1985 instead of 1993.
Annette worked for Matt Groening on the iconic television show "The Simpsons," the longest-running prime time scripted series in history, in a variety of roles: Executive Producer's Assistant, Manager of all "Simpsons" related publishing for Matt Groening Productions, Editorial Contributor to "Simpsons Comics," Development Associate on "Futurama," and Director of New Media for Matt Groening Productions. From 1994 to 2000, Annette also worked as both inker and proofreader on Groening's weekly "Life In Hell" comics. Annette eventually had her own designated office in the Writer's Building, where she shared an office wall with longtime friend, "Simpsons" Writer/Producer Dan Greaney, who famously predicted Donald Trump's presidency in an episode entitled, "Bart to the Future."
In 2016, Annette produced the independent film "Day of Days" along with Emmy-nominated Writer/Director Kim Bass (starring Tom Skerritt, distributed by Broad Green Pictures). Her career then came full circle in 2017 when she had the chance to produce on the Oscar-nominated film "Marshall" with veteran film producers Jonathan Sanger (who ironically had produced "Frances") and Paula Wagner. She raised the finishing funds for the film and earned a Production Consultant credit on "Marshall" (directed/produced by Reginald Hudlin, and starring Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, Kate Hudson, Sterling K. Brown, Dan Stevens and James Cromwell).
In 2016, Annette also finally began acting, after a friend suggested she try doing background work. Two weeks later, she had her first appearance as a guest star on television (doing improv no less). After that full day on set in Culver City, she drove back to where she was living in San Diego to audit a Hybrid Meisner class that same night. Within six months, she knew what it was like to make a room full of television executives laugh and landed a recurring role on a CBS-funded TV pilot. Since completing the two-year Hybrid Meisner program with veteran acting coach Andrew Benne in San Diego, Annette has appeared in over a dozen film and television projects including a co-star role in Bill Burr's "Immoral Compass," a supporting role opposite Dana Powell in "To the Grave," a guest star role in "Awkward Family Strangersgiving" (a special project for Evite) and an uncredited role in "Kevin Hart's Guide to Black History." She was also honored to be a presenter at the 2019 San Diego Film Awards (filmed live for KPBS).
Annette acquired theatrical representation in March of 2018 and continued her studies with renowned Los Angeles acting coach Joseph Pearlman, sitcom coaches Scott Sedita and Tony Rago, and New York acting coach James Ciccone, among others. In addition to acting, Annette continues to produce independent film and is developing a television series about feminism and the LA Punk scene of the early 80's.
