Vivian Schilling

Vivian Schilling is an accomplished novelist, screenwriter and actress. Born and raised in Kansas, Schilling attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in Los Angeles and also studied under the legendary Stella Adler before embarking upon a dual career as a screenwriter and film actress. Working both in front and behind the cameras in television and motion pictures, she began writing and starring in her own films at the age of twenty-three.

With her first feature, the low-budget cult-classic Soultaker, she became known for her original ideas and deft hand with complex supernatural subjects. "A very intriguing premise distinguishes the thriller Soultaker. Young star-scripter Vivian Schilling earns high marks for this effort her innovation for horror/fantasy fans creating a new myth about potential afterlife," said Larry Cohn of Variety. In spite of its limited budget, the film earned Schilling the Saturn Award alongside that year's Silence of the Lambs and Terminator 2.

Schilling went on to star in a number of other films, including Niemcy, a World War II drama based on the renowned stage play by Leon Kruzchowski, directed by Academy Award Nominee, Zbigniew Kaminski. Schilling portrays heroine Ruth Sonnenbruch, a German nightclub singer who comes to the aid of a Jewish refugee. Her role as a gunslinger in the western, Savage Land, garnered her the Diamond Dove and the Blockbuster Rising Star Award.

Schilling has penned two novels, both released to critical acclaim. Sacred Prey (St. Martin's Press), earned Schilling the Golden Scroll for Outstanding Achievement in Literature.

While diligently at work on her next novel, Schilling maintains a presence in Hollywood. She recently starred in "Ambrose Bierce: Civil War Stories" opposite Campbell Scott, in which she portrays famed writer and feminist, Gertrude Atherton (b. 1857-1948). Schilling also recently completed a new screenplay which she plans to direct.