Amy DePaola
is five-foot-one director, writer and producer, with a tall personality.
Her work features bold, colorful stories that tenderize dark times with humor and heart. Her characters are quirky, sometimes overlooked but, yet, they are resilient in the face of the personal and worldly adversaries.
During Amy’s early career days, while working backstage at a New York Fashion Week men’s underwear show, a run-of-the-mill conversation with Carmen Electra motivated Amy to re-pursue acting, marking a return to her roots as a child actor where her most significant credit was a screen-test with Michael Keaton. Nowadays, Amy uses her acting training and experience to direct grounded performances within awkward situational comedy, and elevated worlds. Meanwhile, Carmen still needs to learn about her impact on all this.
Amy’s directing career began when a traumatic event led her into a boxing ring, and she decided to make a film about it. Turning lemons into lemonade, she starred in and fought her first amateur fight for the film, "AmyDee," – keeping all her teeth in the process – proving that as a director, she's ready to take all the punches and will do whatever it takes for the shot.
Amy is a 2023 Blackmagic Collective Future Women of TV Directing Fellow, 2023 Yes And Laughter Lab Finalist, and Stowe TV Writers Lab Alum. She is a producing member of the Television Academy and now has the accounting skills to prove it. Her credits include working with Participant Media, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and The CW, to name a few. She has an MFA in Film from Emerson College and currently studies at The Groundlings. Ask her about her integral role in Joe Jonas’ first-ever stand-up comedy show.
Originally from a land laden with white table-cloth Italian restaurants (Jersey), Amy has spent time living, working, and studying in New York, Boston, and Moscow. She now resides in Los Angeles, where to soothe her penchant for the east coast listens to 90s hip hop and cozies up to the company of her husband and their pup, Ruby.
