Biography
Abby Berendt Lavoi is a multiple award winning director, producer and writer. She is the co-creator, showrunner, and executive producer of My Amazing Cheap Date: New Orleans, as well as director and executive producer of the Roots of Fire project. She has received honors and awards from the New Orleans Film Festival, Hot Springs Doc Fest, SFIndieFest, Indie Memphis, Oxford Film Festival, SIFF, Promax/BDA, and many others. She is a member of Film Fatales, Free the Bid / Free the Work, Women in Film & Television (WiFT) and Cinefemme. She has worked with various media companies, which have spanned the industries of TV, Film, Tech, Publishing, Radio, and Music.
In 2023, she was awarded the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Documentary of the Year for her feature Roots of Fire. The documentary has won multiple awards across several film festivals including: Jury Award for Best Music Feature, Best Director, Best Film, Audience Award (Best Film), and Best Documentary. Her screenplay, Saving Yourself, was a finalist in the WeScreenplay 2021 Feature Contest. She won Best Editor at Mockfest for the film Rolled. Her series It's a Rough Life was a finalist for the New York Television Festival History Channel Unscripted Development Pipeline. Her short, Always There won Best Film and Best Actress at the San Francisco 48 Hour Film Festival. She has earned five Telly Awards for short documentaries and branded content.
Her television & staff credits include MTV, MTV2, mtvU, TV Land, Nick@Nite, and Current TV. Since 2008, she has successfully run Lavoi Creative, LLC (TeamJADED Productions), a full service creative agency and production studio. She has created video work for Google, YouTube (Corporate), Pandora Internet Radio, Netflix, Autodesk, Squarespace, MindBodyGreen, Vox, MindBodyGreen, Bank of America, SFMOMA, YouTube, TuneIn Radio, Discovery Channel, Google Play, COMPLEX, Marriott, Mastercard, as well as many other companies and various political campaigns.
Abby also has an in-depth background in marketing & promotions, spearheading campaigns for HarperCollins Publishers, working in the Sony Music Alternative Marketing Department, and writing and producing promos for TVLand, Nick@Nite, and Current TV. She has a degree in Technical Journalism and Video Communication from Colorado State University. She was born and raised in Greeley, CO and has lived in New York City, San Francisco, and New Orleans.
