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Yvonne Russo is an award-winning producer, director, and writer specializing in film, television, and animation. She directed and produced *VOW OF SILENCE: THE ASSASSINATION OF ANNIE MAE*, a four-part docu-series about Annie Mae Aquash, an activist with the American Indian Movement advocating for Indigenous rights. Russo is producing this project alongside Amy Kaufman and Caroline Waterlow for ONYX Collective/HULU. She is also a producer on *KELLY'S BAR*, an independent drama about a Mi'kmaq man and an Irish-American woman navigating love amid the poverty and racial tensions of 1980s South Boston, collaborating with Casey Affleck.
Russo is the creator, director, producer, and writer of *TINY TOT NATION*, an animated children's series currently in development. She also directs, produces, and writes the feature documentary *VIVA VERDI!*, which explores life at Casa di Riposo per Musicisti in Milan, a retirement home for opera singers and musicians founded by Giuseppe Verdi in 1896. This film, produced with Christine La Monte, premiered at the 25th Anniversary Woodstock Film Festival in 2024.
She served as a Production Advisor on *WOMAN WALKS AHEAD*, a period epic set in 1889 about Catherine Weldon (Jessica Chastain), who leaves New York City to paint Lakota Chief Sitting Bull. The film was written by Academy Award nominee Steven Knight and produced by The Bedford Falls Company and Black Bicycle Entertainment.
Recently, Russo entered a television development deal with Handmade Films to adapt the 1989 cult classic *POWWOW HIGHWAY*, based on David Seals’ novel. She is Executive Producing alongside Sterlin Harjo, Bobby Wilson, and Heather Rae. She also has a deal with Warner Brothers Television and Bad Robot to Executive Produce a new TV series in development with Steven Knight.
Russo directed, wrote, and produced the animated short *MINNIE'S WAR BONNET* for PBS, now used in K-12 educational programs across the U.S. As an independent producer, she has worked on national and international projects in the U.S. and more than 17 countries, including India and Rwanda. Her credits include *40 Under 40*, a documentary on America’s top visual artists under 40 (a CBS/Smithsonian Network production); National Geographic’s *Most Amazing Photos*, *Capturing the Deep*, *All Roads Film Project*, and TLC/Discovery’s *Bringing Home Baby* series, which she also directed; and *Nat Geo’s Top Ten Photos of 2010*. Russo has written for *The Other Milan*, an episode of *Most Amazing Photos*, and produced over 75 “Behind the Photo” segments syndicated on National Geographic International Channel and NGM digital studios.
Her feature film work includes co-producing the 2012 documentary *THE RESCUERS: HEROES OF THE HOLOCAUST*, nominated for Outstanding Documentary at the 2012 NAACP Awards. She produced the award-winning indie feature *NATURALLY NATIVE*, which premiered at Sundance, played in Landmark theaters, and was acquired by Turner Classics. Russo also produced the documentary *TRUE WHISPERERS: THE STORY OF THE NAVAJO CODE TALKERS* in association with Gale Anne Hurd’s Valhalla Motion Pictures.
From 1996 to 2002, she was Vice President of Production at Red-Horse Productions. Russo began her film career as a voice-over actor in the animated film *MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO* and transitioned into television and feature film acting, with credits including *Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman*, *Stolen Women, Captured Hearts*, *NATURALLY NATIVE*, and *AMERICAN INDIAN GRAFFITI*.
A member of the Directors Guild of America, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and the Producers Guild of America—where she served on the Board of Governors—Russo is also a long-standing SAG/AFTRA member. She sits on the board of New York Women in Film and Television (NYWIFT) and co-founded The Akatubi Film/Music Academy with Kimberly and Johnny Guerrero, focusing on teaching Native American youth about entertainment and new media production.
Her accolades include grants from Awesome Without Borders (a chapter of the Awesome Foundation) for *VIVA VERDI!*, The Redford Center grant for *VOW OF SILENCE: THE ASSASSINATION OF ANNIE MAE*, and the NIA TERO Grant for Indigenous Filmmakers. She participated in the Sundance Institute and Women in Film's Financing Intensive for Women Filmmakers (2014), was a Sundance Producers Lab Fellow (2004), a Tribeca All Access Program Fellow (2005), and a juror for the National Geographic Society’s All Roads Film Festival in Washington, D.C.
Russo has received the American Indian Film Festival’s "Producer of the Year Award" and the First Americans in the Arts’ "Outstanding Achievement in Producing." She has lectured at The Royal Film Commission in Amman, Jordan, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and the University of Miami. Additionally, she contributes as a blogger for The Huffington Post and as a columnist for Indian Country Today and Produced by magazine, covering media and entertainment. Yvonne Russo is a member of the Sicangu Lakota Tribal Nation.
