FILM + VIDEO
LAUREN MCDOWELL is a filmmaker, actor, artist, and writer.
Hi! Born and raised in North Carolina, I’ve spent my life cultivating a variety of creative interests in performing, writing, photographic, filmmaking, and visual arts. After receiving a Bachelors of Arts (B.A.) from the University of Southern California, I returned to the Carolinas and jumped headfirst into the arts: joining community theaters, artist collectives, nonprofit boards, acting classes, playwriting groups, improv troupes, comedy writing opportunities, and so much more. I’m an award-winning actor, a published writer and photographer, and above all a curious, multi-faceted creative deeply invested in my community with the perspectives of a global arts and entertainment landscape.
Since my USC education, I’ve continued to learn about filmmaking through NYU’s online offerings, MONO NO AWARE film center in Brooklyn, weekly film acting class at Dortch Acting Studio in Charlotte, study/consume a robust selection of films throughout history, and continued to polish my 10+ years of photography and storytelling skills through my creative and professional life. I have multiple film projects in preproduction, covering narrative, animated, and experimental works.
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SEE STILLS / SELECTIONS FROM FILM PROJECTS BELOW
BARK!
Hard drawnpainted 2-D animation film shot on 16mm film, through MONO NO AWARE Film. Premiered at MoMA Titus II Theater, June 2025.
2025 Brooklyn, NY
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY
video piece combining original text with images shot on 35mm film. screened at Midnight Movies III at Goodyear Arts, Charlotte, NC.
2024 North Carolina
WRITTEN ALL OVER US
Directed video comprising of a compilation of stills, interview, scripted audio revolving around the ways the visuality of natural history informs the anthropocentric hierarchy of evolution. Theatrical screening at a/perture cinemas, Winston Salem, NC. April, 2023
2019 Los Angeles, CA
RUNNING WITH CAMCORDER IN MOUTH
video/performance
2018 Joshua Tree, CA
LIGHT SLEEP
super 8 film
2017 Los Angeles, CA
WINDSHIELD
hand drawn on 16mm clear film leader, projected, scanned, digitized
2017 Los Angeles, CA
BIO
LAUREN MCDOWELL is a filmmaker, actor, artist, and writer.
As a high school student, Lauren was recognized for her creative work: receiving National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards at Carnegie Hall and the Department of Education in New York City and Washington DC, respectively, for her work in Visual Art/Photography. She also gained a valuable core theatre understanding in challenging high school productions like Sophocles’s ‘Antigone’ and Ionesco’s ‘Rhinoceros,’ and some early on-set experience doing Background work on some of the large productions (like Showtime’s Homeland) as they passed through the Carolinas.
Lauren then pursued her creative interests as a student at the University of Southern California. At USC, in addition to a number of technical skills in the arts and a holistic, critical education, she also gained valuable insights into the entertainment industry and the creative incubation at work in the hub and heart of culture in Los Angeles—completing coursework in performance art and experimental/analog filmmaking in the school of Art and Design, and media arts and production in the USC School of Cinematic Arts, as well as benefitting overall from firsthand access to the institution’s robust programming (and the talented industry professionals who shared their wealth of insights with the community). Lauren also studied abroad in Athens, Greece, and was able to study the ancient tragedies, like one of her first plays, ‘Antigone,’ in greater depth at the original sites of productions thousands of years ago.
Lauren received a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) from USC with a Major in Narrative Studies, and minors in both Fine Art and Classics.
After graduating, Lauren returned to North Carolina to continue building skills, experience, and community in the performing arts. She quickly got involved with a number of theatre arts organizations: community theaters, grassroots playwriting groups, improv comedy troupes, and artist collectives. She has served as a contributing playwright, a nonprofit board member and secretary, and a volunteer designer/social media manager for a number of local theatre organizations. In her debut community theatre production, Lauren was awarded the 2022 Metrolina Theater Association Award (“MTA”) for Best Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Catherine in David Auburn’s Pulitzer-winning play ‘Proof’ at the Fort Mill Community Playhouse.
Lauren has also continued her education in filmmaking by receiving a scholarship to complete an online NYU Introduction to Film & Television course, completing a 16mm 2D animation course at MONO NO AWARE, done some on-set BTS photography work (https://www.lrnwks.com/photowork). She is also continually polishing her craft in photography and the arts in the Goodyear Arts Collective and with The Light Factory here in Charlotte, and has a range of experiences in tech theater / scenic painting, the production of a weekly nonprofit podcast, one-act playwriting and producing, live-event production, marketing and social media management, gallery staffing, etc, and am involved in a number of arts/nonprofit organizations in the area.
Lauren is grateful for the embrace of community organizations here in the Carolinas, such as the playwriting incubator Main Street Theater of Rock Hill, the residency and artist collective Goodyear Arts, Queen City Comedy, XOXO Productions, among others, that encourage developing talent to write, perform, and shoot their own work. Lauren’s writing in comedy and satire, which she has also performed as monologues, has been published on McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Points In Case, The Belladonna, among others. She is also grateful for Freedom Models, the modeling agency with whom she signed in 2024, and the experiences she’s gained from being on working sets of an extremely high caliber, and global brand relationships she’s been able to form with clients like Smashbox Cosmetics, Thom Browne, and Tecovas, among others. She is currently a member of the 2025-2027 William C. Friday Fellowship for Human Relations, and the ASC Cultural Leadership Training program. She was recognized as a Picture Card Artist by a/perture cinemas in Winston-Salem, NC in 2022, and awarded a Residency at Goodyear Arts in Charlotte, NC in 2024. She has also continued her education with ACLU of North Carolina’s Clapback training program, was rewarded a scholarship for NYU’s online course in Introduction to Film & Television, and is a recipient of the ASC Artist Support Grant and the Charlotte is Creative’s H.U.G. Grant.