Biography
Marie-Françoise Theodore is an interdisciplinary artist of Haitian heritage, engaged in film, television, and theatre as a writer, actor, and filmmaker. Born in Chicago, IL, she currently lives in Los Angeles, CA with her son, Aaron. In 2006, Marie-Françoise received the Women In Film/General Motors Acceleration Grant for Emerging Filmmakers and was honored as a Film Independent Fellow – Project:Involve (formerly IFP/LA), where she was mentored by acclaimed director Neema Barnett. The following year, she was awarded the Frances E. Williams Artist Grant for Writing, enabling her to attend Natalie Goldberg's 'Old Friend, Far Away' Memoir Writing Retreat in Santa Fe, NM. Her debut feature-length screenplay, The Street—adapted from Ann Petry’s award-winning novel—was a finalist in several prestigious screenplay programs, including the Bush Foundation Fellowship, Tribeca All Access Connects, and was twice shortlisted by the Roy W. Dean Foundation. Additionally, Marie-Françoise was short-listed for the Sundance Screenwriter Labs three years in a row.
She is the writer, director, and actor of two experimental narrative short films: the multi-award-winning rebel in the soul and bloodmemory. Rebel in the soul has screened at over ten film festivals nationally and internationally, earning Best Experimental Short at the 2003 Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival in New York. Marie-Françoise also starred in the independent feature Strange As Angels (where she served as Associate Producer), distributed by Image Entertainment, as well as in Love Jones (New Line Cinema) and Small Metal Jacket (BBC Films). She holds an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from Columbia College, Chicago, IL.
Marie-Françoise is currently working on her memoir, Not A Proper Haitian Girl, which recounts her childhood in Chicago during the 1970s—from her placement in an orphanage at birth to her natural mother’s later marriage to the nephew of Marie-Françoise’s foster mother. The memoir delves into the intricate dynamics of her extended foster and biological family, exploring themes of memory and identity through the eyes of a young girl.
