Lesley Harter

My real life frequently sounds fictitious to those who weren't there. My mom was an ex-starlet, my dad a politician, and yes, there was a lot of speculation about her past and his future. As it turned out, my dad wasn't going to have much of a future; he died when I was seven. A few months later, my mother changed the course of her future and mine by moving us to Europe and, eventually, marrying an Italian prince.

I was seventeen when I returned to Los Angeles to attend UCLA. I quickly dropped out, and with little funds and even less desire to get a job, I found myself living in the city’s grittiest neighborhoods; replacing my ‘finishing school’ friends with hookers, junkies and other members of the disenfranchised. My attraction to street life ebbed years ago, but the juxtaposition of extreme power and hand-to-mouth poverty still fascinates me and shows up in much of my writing.

After an abbreviated acting career and a one-year stint as a beachcomber (at the time, I didn’t realize that I was homeless), I scored a job working for a group of California radio stations where I learned the finer points of marketing, promotions, and Hard Rock. After more than a decade in radio, both on-air and off, I started JOEY, an experiential marketing agency. I’ve developed marketing campaigns and written commercials for over one hundred brands including McDonald's, Ford, EA, and HTC.

I’ve always wanted to be a screenwriter. In 2016, I graduated from ScreenwritingU's ProSeries and have been writing screenplays ever since. I currently have one feature film and two tv series in pre-production.