Bio

By age 3, Tessa was active in Girl Scouts, gymnastics and dance; and frequently found herself winning large scale public coloring contests. Tessa's adolescent years were spent attending public schools and staying active in hobbies like choir, ice skating, soccer, yearbook and dance. Tessa's acceptance into a competitive magnet dance program deepened her adoration for the art form which laid a foundation that would soon lead Tessa to her first professional role on a set. During high school, to survive the turbulent waves of a split home and an ever-changing zip code, when Tessa wasn't dancing, singing, or playing soccer… she was watching movies. A movie’s ability to magically transport her to a completely new world and shift her focus away from her own life to that of the characters in the film, lit a spark deepen within Tessa that would one day grow into a blazing fire.

After high school, Tessa's academic studies lead to a BA in film at The University of Texas. During college, while out dancing with girl friends at a local nightclub, Tessa was scouted and asked to perform as a principal model/dancer in NBA Player Tony Parker's debut French music video "Balance-Toi". Tessa fell in love with the thrill of being on set and went on to grace magazine covers and billboards as a model as she shifted her college academic focus from directing to acting. Her performance training rapidly evolved into attendance at 7 different acting studios in hopes to one day create her own "secret sauce." After her film degree and slot on the Dean's A-honor roll list was achieved, Tessa journeyed to Los Angeles where she initially embraced opportunities to play leading roles in indie films like "The First Born,” “Diamond” and "The Madness Within" while also lending her talents to commercials for brands like Apple, Nike, Dish Network and Dodge. As fate would have it, the traditional path for a new actress in Hollywood soon felt off to Tessa, inspiring her to let her acting talent manager go so she could free up her time and take a deep dive into the world of screenwriting. Tessa’s deeply rooted passion for cinema didn’t take long to open doors for her as a screenwriter and she was chosen to adapt Kate Adamson’s miraculous true story explained in her book "Paralyzed But Not Powerless" for the big screen.

While continuing to evolve as a performer, and now a performer/writer, Tessa honed her improv comedy skills by studying at UCB and showcasing her comedic versatility on the quirky show "Barbee Rehab." To make ends meet as she furthered her education in the world of entertainment, Tessa worked nights as a model/bottle server in prestigious Los Angeles nightclubs and found herself frequently tempted by dating proposals made from some of the biggest names in Hollywood. However, a voice deep inside Tessa’s heart, told her to refrain so she could build her career completely on her own.

It didn’t take long for the call to become a full-fledged filmmaker to find Tessa. With the advent of Apple’s first smartphone featuring a 4K camera, Tessa began crafting short films on her phone and quit working nightclubs to maintain purity of spirit and experience life in a reduced income bracket so she could understand what life is like for a majority of the population to better serve audiences. Now facing an entirely new set of challenges, Tessa responded by searching for the ultimate challenge and began competing in timed filmmaking competitions to polish skills as a filmmaker and discover how to create under extreme pressure. She thrived under the higher level of pressure and earned awards for each short film she created in these competitions as the star/writer/director.

Remembering what her Professors said in film school about the extinction of truly original films in today’s world, Tessa found herself becoming driven to go down in history and earn a spot in film textbooks. To simultaneously help others and bring the world an inspiring movie on the value of hard work, overcoming challenges, pushing beyond self-perceived limits and the power of giving 100% effort, 100% of the time, Tessa began her real life treacherous expedition to create her directorial debut feature film Cinema Rebel. She began crafting the movie essentially backwards by using her self-made short films as the movie’s foundation and committed to embodying the movie’s main character, Daisy Blaine, both in front of and behind the camera to bring audiences a cinematic experience like no other.

Legend has it that from 2017 to 2023, Tessa spent the majority of her time offline, in solitude, working passionately inside a studio where she slowly invented a new approach to the craft of filmmaking in order to discover if its possible to essentially make a full-length feature film by hand using the latest technology at the time. As she learned and executed all aspects of film production and post-production, Tessa patiently built, frame by frame, pixel by pixel, second by second… what could be the world's largest performance by a motion picture artist of all time. Tessa spent months adding effects like depth of field before iPhone cameras were able to. She created, recorded and edited original sound effects using every day items as her foley tools and even built the post-production audio editing suite by hand using metal poles, sound proof blankets, rubber sheeting and acoustic foam panels.

Tessa’s vision to empower audiences to believe in themselves helped her survive this seemingly impossible process and stay the course as the making of Cinema Rebel slowly became a creative obsession that took over her entire life. With her brain and body operating in overdrive for not just months, but years, many worries were expressed by Tessa's close friends and family. Despite their concerns, Tessa remained steadfast on this movie mission where she faced never-ending unknowns, chronic failures, relentless obstacles and the substantial period of time in total isolation. People even began nicknaming this time period as Tessa’s time in "movie jail".

Several years later, after confronting many moments where she was tempted to give up, Tessa finally finished the movie and successfully wore over 70 filmmaking hats. In this moment of triumph Tessa discovered the inextinguishable power of the human spirit and champions the idea that everyone deserves to experience the feeling of achieving a goal, no matter how big or small and no what stands in their way. As she puts it “the human spirit is stronger than technology. It will never glitch or break down... unless we give it direct permission too.”

After a short festival circuit around the world, Cinema Rebel went on to receive 18 award wins and nominations and is in queue for up to 6 world records certifications. This daring true tale on the making of Cinema Rebel seeks to inspire people to believe not only in themselves but reinstate the importance of coming together as a community to motivate each other to become the best possible version of ourselves. Tessa’s sacrifice of self displayed in this 6-year embarkment and achievement may even call for the dawn of the next era that reminds us to value true art over manufactured, artificial art.

To this date, Cinema Rebel has yet to be released to the general public. The movie is currently in process of being rebranded into a major motion picture titled Cinema Legend where new rounds of production will host one of the greatest A-list ensemble casts of all time. In addition to this upcoming picture, Tessa and the rest of the Vital Spark team are working passionately to bring 10 more movies to your screen to elevate creativity around the world through the power of storytelling.

TESSA FARRELL

who is Tessa farrell?

TURNING MOVIE MAGIC INTO REALITY

“My dream now is to encourage companies and creators worldwide to meticulously protect and sculpt their content with noble intentions… to forever push the envelope in the creative realm by creating potent dynamic material that feeds spiritual excellence.”