Raised in Greenwich, CT, Diane took an adventurous detour in Brazil, upon which her screenplay, The Brazil Affair, is based. Diane currently resides near Cape Cod with her husband and has a blended family of five fantastic grown children.
Fresh out of college with a Public Communications Degree majoring in Broadcast Journalism, Diane found a seat in front of the camera as Co-Host of Movie Loft and Company, a popular program on WSBK-TV in Boston. While well-suited for the role, it didn't take long for Diane to find positions behind the camera more compelling than reading the studio Teleprompter. Researching and writing copy became her penchant. Film studies in college proved useful insight for Diane's on-air movie critiques, having also studied producing, directing, editing and writing.
Determined to find a role writing and producing, Diane studied the television market in the mid 80's and discovered a void of programming in the field of Interior Design. She then created and wrote a television pilot, Decorator's Open House, and garnered the interest of Oscar-Winning production house, Concepts Unlimited in Manhattan to direct the video and television series. Securing a renowned author and designer, the team set about selling the first television program on Interior Design to the Networks. At that time, however, executives felt there would be no interest in a decorating show. Now of course, there is an entire network dedicated to the field. "We were slightly ahead of our time", Diane observed.
With a television career spanning 10 years as Talent in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles in numerous pilots, movies, commercials and industrial videos, Diane's experience merited her membership in SAG. Diane also worked as a Decorating Authority on The Good Day Show with WCBV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Boston, for which she wrote and produced segments while serving as talent. When Diane chose to start a family, she built her own Interior Design firm and wrote a monthly Home and Garden column for New Hampshire Magazine for several years.
When Diane's husband had a disastrous experience in The Marion-Bermuda Ocean Race, Diane was asked by Ocean Navigator magazine to write an account of the ordeal. The article was critically acclaimed and it was then the writer's hook was really set. Diane turned her attention to her mother Marilyn Kelley's book, For Love and Money, The Brazil Affair - The True Story of a Family's Quest. In Diane's screenplay adaptation, The Brazil Affair, she embellished the perspective of herself and three teenage sisters, the Kelley girls, who compounded the action. Once in Brazil, having sold all earthly belongings for a bold adventure in gold mining with an alluring international entrepreneur, they discover nothing is what it seems and their lives are in danger. The Kelley girls grow from a life of privilege to a life of purpose when they learn they can trust no one, and must make a daring escape from South America with their single engine Cessna.
There is no question to anyone who's read the book or screenplay, it is truly a unique, fascinating true story that begs to be told. Diane looks forward to discovering a filmmaking partner in this next great adventure!
The Brazil Affair Budget: $30M+ | Action ⋄ Adventure After a successful New York Advertising Executive is unjustly fired and blackballed, he and his wife uproot their four teenage daughters to Brazil for a unique opprtunity with an international entrepreneur, until the venture takes a perilous turn.