Laura Terruso doesn't know where she'd be if she wasn't a director. From her time in journalism, to directing the comedy film About My Father starring Robert De Niro and Sebastian Maniscalco, Terruso has been all over the board. She shared a little bit about how she got to where she is with CNBC.
At a young age, she was interested in film, but had no way to get there. Her parents were social workers and teachers. “It just wasn’t in the realm of possibility,” Terruso said. “When I thought of a film director, I pictured, you know, Spielberg. I thought of a white guy in jeans and a baseball cap with a megaphone.”
But now she knows a film director looks like her. Her most recent film, About My Father, tells the story of the comedian Sebastian Maniscalco and his father, played by Robert De Niro, visiting his wife's family on a weekend trip. It's a comedy, and has elements of the comedian's own childhood. But Terruso didn't start out in film.
She studied journalism in college. Although she was always interested in film, directing short films, and she eventually enrolling in film school at NYU. “Those three years of film school were the best years of my life,” she said. “I loved every minute of it. I didn’t mind waking up at four in the morning to be on set at five. I was just so happy to finally be pursuing my passion.”
One day, one of her short films caught the eye of The Big Sick director Michael Showalter. He asked her to help write the screenplay of what would become 2016′s Hello, My Name is Doris.
“My advice to anyone starting out is to say yes to every opportunity and really learn from the people you’re working with,” she said. “Because that’s going to make you better when you’re eventually writing and directing your own projects.”
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