Jenna Payne
Jenna Payne is a writer, director, producer, and unapologetic genre enthusiast whose work explores what happens when ordinary people are pushed to extraordinary limits. Drawn to horror, dark comedy, crime, and action, she uses genre as a vehicle to interrogate power, inequality, and the absurdity of modern life. Her stories are fueled by righteous anger, a sharp sense of humor, and the belief that monsters – and the systems that create them - are human.
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10 Trivia Facts
- I used to DJ all vinyl sets in bars in New York, mostly post-punk and new wave.
- I have dabbled in 3 languages badly (Spanish, German, and Portuguese) and used to be conversational in French and Russian.
- I bake an excellent Southern-style pecan pie, but I prefer Trisha Yearwood's Sweet Potato Souffle recipe. (I make mine with non-dairy milk & gluten free flour)
- I co-created a science fair project in the third grade that measured kids' blood pressure after playing Sonic the Hedgehog vs Mortal Kombat. We were able to confirm that violent video games do indeed get the blood up.
- I studied journalism and interned at an international wire agency, a renowned newspaper, and a couple of well-known pop culture magazines but ended up graduating into the first internet media implosion and not working as a journalist.
- I have also lived in Belgium, Russia, and New Orleans.
- We have three cats, and one is the best cat on film I've ever worked with.
- I strong-armed my high school district into purchasing video equipment to start a morning news show and ran it.
- I passed the first desk at Harper Collins with a mystery novella when I was 12.
- I have worked many jobs in film from wardrobe to craft services to post coordinator to production accounting, but if I had to choose something that I don't do already, I really love foley artistry.