Jennesia is a multi-disciplinary storyteller who researches, teaches, writes and directs (in no particular order).

She grew up in the chilly Northwestern region of Ontario where she spent her days attending school, figure skating, reading Nancy Drew mystery novels and watching Italian soap operas at her nonna’s house.

After high school, Jennesia went to Carleton University to study journalism but completed a BA in English Literature and Mass Communication instead. Afterwards, she completed an MA in Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario and a PhD in Communication Studies at Simon Fraser University. During the course of her degrees she researched, published, and taught about things related to film and television.

Inevitably, Jennesia’s interest in film and television took her from research and teaching to writing and directing her own films. Jennesia’s first film, The Alderson Murder, is an adaptation of a dark and comedic short story written by Winnipeg writer, Gonzalo Riedel. Her second short film, Happily Ever After won an audience choice award at the 2023 Run N’ Gun Film Festival. She has written several more original short screenplays, including Next Stop, which placed first in its category at the 2023 NYC Midnight Screenwriting Challenge and placed in the Top 12 semi-finalists of Crazy 8s, the longest-running short filmmaking competition in Vancouver, BC.

The thing that unifies the multiple facets of Jennesia’s work is storytelling. She brings theory and praxis together through storytelling across her research, teaching, and filmmaking to create rich, engaging, and memorable experiences for a variety of audiences, using multiple media.