From Scratch

About the author:

As an actor, I started my onscreen career with the iconic comedy The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Today you can find me in roles on The Magicians, Proven Innocent, NCIS: LA to name a few or on the big screen in the upcoming feature film, The Obituary of Tunde Johnson (2019). I love my acting career and, at the center of my work on set, there is always a commitment to story and the complexity of being human.

My writing life took root at a very young age. In third grade, I wrote a short story about a girl with a magical blanket. My mom loved it and, well, I was off to the races. I journaled and I took writing classes for my own personal growth and expression. But when I lost my husband, Saro, after long battle with cancer, the narrative of my life and all that writing began to feel like a memoir. Now, my first book, From Scratch, comes to bookstores in 2019. I couldn’t be more thrilled
You might say my advocacy work began with my parents. They always tried to encourage me to do my part in realizing a more just and humane world. Today, my advocacy is grounded in the very personal experience of caring for and losing someone I love. I advocate for better care for caregivers and families. I speak on loss, resilience and connection when it matters most. I’ve given a TEDx talk, keynotes around the country and am an ambassador to organizations doing the vital work of changing our systems and society for the better.
When I’m not writing or working on set, you’ll often find me in the kitchen cooking with my daughter. Home is the place we reconnect, catch up on movies and books. And we cook lots of Sicilian food inspired by my late husband and our home away from home, Sicily. Each summer we travel there to power down, take long walks and eat a ridiculous amount of gelato seaside to the gorgeous Mediterranean. Because, as one of my favorite Sicilian writers, Leonardo Sciascia, said, “all of Sicily is a dimension of the imagination.”