About STEFANIE KAY SPARKS

Stefanie Kay Sparks is a writer, director & actor based in NYC. She was classically trained as a musician beginning at the age of 5. She played the piano, harp, drums, and violin until she entered puberty. It hit the fan.

Stefanie grew up on a farm in Western Iowa where she intended to spend the rest of her life until her father told her she could not take over the family farm because she was a girl. She headed to Seattle to “sow her wild oats” at the age of 21 and found out it was also frowned upon for women to do this. She finally made her way to NYC to attend college, a place where anyone can do whatever they want, and considers it home. She is working-class (!!) and this heavily influences how she makes her films.

She has made 3 no-budget feature films (all with budgets under 100k) in the last 10 years. She graduated from the New School where she earned an MA in Media and Film. She was granted a Jerome Foundation New York Filmmaker Grant for her debut feature, CATHY COPPOLA, which was nominated for the audience award at Brooklyn Girl Film Festival and Best in Show at the Female Eye Film Festival (Toronto). Stefanie's 2nd feature film the gross-out girl comedy IN CASE OF EMERGENCY (starring Jenni Ruiza, Phoebe Robinson, Catherine Curtin, Lisa Haas) won the audience choice award at Bushwick Film Festival after being selected as the opening night film. IN CASE OF EMERGENCY was the feature film debut of 2 DOPE QUEENS star and writer Phoebe Robinson. The film went on to win audience awards at Broad Humor, New Filmmakers and screened along side some of the top female directors in the world as part of Citizen Jane Film Festival. In Case of Emergency was selected as a finalist in the Sundance Creative Distribution Fund and is available on iTunes & Amazon. Stefanie has taught filmmaking at the Ghetto Film School's Midwinter Institute, Bushwick Stories and Montclair State University. Her comedic web series SCREWED has screened at Citizen Jane Film Festival and UCB East. She has been a finalist for the Sundance Development Labs and the MOME & Winston Baker Finance Labs for her feature script RAT RACE. She received the New York Women’s Fund Grant for BLUEBERRY in March 2020. BLUEBERRY premiered at Sarasota Film Festival in May of 2021 in the Indie Visions Competition. BLUEBERRY was awarded a Special Jury Award for Performance. As of December 2023, CATHY COPPOLA, IN CASE OF EMERGENCY and BLUEBERRY have been distributed by Leomark Entertainment and are available to stream on most platforms including Amazon and Tubi.

Stefanie’s new short film THE DEMON OF DUMBO is currently on the festival circuit in 2024.

REEL

Photos by D Kelly

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