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Hi, it's me, Lori. I moved to Los Angeles from Michigan 39 years ago. As a kid, I lived with my family in Mogadishu, Somalia where I lived through the coup that brought down the country (I was held up by a machine gun and had a pet monkey who sat on my shoulder). I've held many positions within the entertainment industry. My creativity and hard core work ethic earned me the title of Vice President of NBC's print advertising at their agency at the age of 25. In that capacity, I traveled the world, organizing and art directing photo shoots with some of the greatest talent of film and TV. I once successfully negotiated a conflict over a scene where 2 actors had to face each other, but each insisted they had the same "best side". Shunning the film schools I couldn't afford anyway, I learned to direct on the job (can you do that anymore?) and became one of the most successful female commercial directors in history. I've also directed music videos, short films, promos, PSAs and would be directing episodic and films if I could figure out how to get hired. Using my success to pay it forward, I'm proud to say that I was one of the first DGA director members to take the issue of under representation of female directors to the ACLU and the EEOC and I was the spokesperson for CBS national news on this important issue. There's still a lot more work to do in feature films and commercials. East Africa remains a big part of my life and I've returned many times to visit and to live. I went alone to Tanzania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro (made it to the summit) and travel yearly to Ethiopia where I nearly died of fright after an alpha male hyena ran out of the bush and leapt over me. I work with tribes women in ancient Omo Valley, Ethiopia (the most remote part of Africa) to help them make an income from their art. The women I work with have earned enough money that one, Gaymo, has purchased a cow and named it Lori. Do you have a cow named after you? No, I did not think so. My lifeblood has always been my fine art. I'm an alum of Art Center College of Design and maintain a career as an artist with work shown in galleries, museums and is in many notable private collections. For a sordid chapteer of my life as an artist, google my name with "artist" Damien Hirst. www.loriprecious.com Though I don't own a single crystal, I live in Topanga with my family. This wild bunch includes my son who is currently blazing his own path at Cal Arts as a graphic novelist (he describes his new graphic novel, Aluminum Frontier, as "Fargo in space") and a high school aged daughter who was adopted from Ethiopia and is the self described Queen of Snark (impressive because she has a lot of competition for that dubious title). They both perform stand up comedy at Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade. Because you're wondering, Precious is my real last name. Seriously, it's the first question everyone asks--like my whole life. So I know. |