Joanna Pickering

Pickering began her acting career working in low-budget, cult, avant-garde, and experimental film,[3] making over 30 independent films. First, she worked as a fashion model[5] while taking bit roles in UK television, such as the Chris Morris show Nathan Barley, radio plays and theatre work.[6] She performed a minor role in the British comedy Svengali. In 2013, Pickering was cast as the principal role in an adaptation of the novel Mersey Boys centered around The Beatles, and in its Off-Broadway play.[7] Film news noted her as a "rising British film star"[8] and Down Town as "a standout talent."[9] However, the film ran out of post-production budget. In 2014, filming on location in Berlin, Pickering portrayed the dada artist, Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven.[10] The film contributed to The Filmballad of MamaDada screening at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City[11] as a directorial collective film about von Freytag-Loringhoven.[12] It had a world premier at Copenhagen International Film Festival.[13] Pickering then starred in a supporting role in Leave Yourself Alone selected for the 2016 official selection new filmmakers at Anthology Film Archives Theater in New York City[14] and released on VOD and Amazon Prime in 2017.[15][16]

In 2018, Pickering was cast for stage in Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues performing in New York to raise money for V-day organization.[17] In 2018, she performed on stage as Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth[18] sponsored by Pittsburgh Shakespeare in Park[18] in a televised series due for US Public-access television, as featured in British Shakespeare magazine.[18]

In 2018, Pickering was cast in a principal role in Pelleas co-starring alongside Alice Eve (Star Trek Into Darkness) and Benn Northover and directed by film maker Josephine Meckseper. The actors perform an adaptation of Maeterlinck's play from the Claude Debussy's opera.[19] In May 2018, Pelleas screened at Whitney Museum of American Art in The Incomplete history of Protest exhibition[20] featuring in Vanity Fair.[21]

In 2019, she completed shooting in a principal role co-starring alongside Emmy Award winner Blanche Baker and William Sadler (Green Mile) in a 1950s thriller Alice Fades Away with a United States theatrical release for 2020.[22] Pickering also filmed a day player role, as Mary, in Danny Boyle's executive produced movie Creation Stories, directed by Nick Moran and screenplay by Irvine Welsh.[23]

Pickering first performed her own creative writing airing on live radio for The Fall of Babylon show on Resonance FM in London.[24] She self-published her diaries from traveling nomadically between 2009 and 2012 under a pen name described as new beat in style.[10] Her pen name was exposed in press in 2012[25] and Pickering announced on her website she had removed her writing from the public domain.[26] In 2017, she published Nothing Dries Sooner Than a Tear with Burning House Press.

Pickering was selected for The Women in Film challenge as screenwriter.[27] Her short film Boardwalk was made with an all female cast and crew.[28] It screened at Anthology Film Archives Theater, September 2018.[27][29][28] It was described as "sensational, fluid and beautiful".[28] It was award nominated as best film and best mystery thriller at NY Web Fest in 2019.[30]

In 2018, her short play Beach Break was selected by Primitive Grace Theater to run at the Bridge Theater as part of The Duende Reading Series as a one act play.[31] It was a 2018 official selection by ScreenCraft Stage Plays.[32] As a radio play podcast it was selected as a top ten finalist for HBO's ITV festival broadcasting live in October 2018 with Pickering performing.[31] It aired in UK on Resonance FM in February 2019.[33] The full play Beach Break is awarded a scholarship from Rocaberti Writers to mentor with HBO's Vice President of Talent Development and Programing, Kelly Edwards, in an adaptation for screen in 2021.[34]

In 2018, she was a participant speaker and selected film maker at United Nations for Create2030, engaging artists in Sustainable Development Goals,[35][36] attending at UNNIGO 2018, and UNGA2018.[37] She has taught mathematics and English to asylum seekers and children with special needs.[37] She moderates the Imagine This Female Film festival,[38] Chelsea Film Festival,[39] and is on Female in Film panel for New York Independent Film Festival.[40] She was host and final juror for 2018 New York Web Series Festival[41][42]

Four Keys, a short film addressing issues of US immigration, in which she plays a supporting role as a mode of activism,[37] was nominated at the ITV festival, won LA shorts festival and Gold Award's best Independent short film.[43]

Pickering's modeling work has included editorial, bikini model for Rip Curl[10] and in Sweden for Ravishing Mad[44][45] and designer Cecilia Lundqvist.[26] Pickering has worked for Diane von Fürstenberg.[5]

Pickering performed as the lead actress for experimental feature film Kubricks directed by Dean Cavanagh and produced by Alan McGee.[46][47] She is mentioned in Alan Mcgee's novel Creation Stories: Riots, Raves and Running A Label.[48]

She is the actress for The Band of Holy Joy in a musical feature film City of Tales co-starring with Tam Dean Burn.[49] She is filmed as herself in Valerio Rocco's art film Lover's Discourse screening worldwide in museums of contemporary art.[50]

Pickering is the album cover model for The Band Of Holy Joy album City of Tales released in 2015.[51] For Spectorbullets she is the album cover model,[52] the actress in 2010 music video Goldmine and she wrote the lyrics for the song Drop on their album released in 2012[52] She has DJ'd with Alan McGee's club night Death Disco in Los Angeles and with BP Fallon, The Libertines, Lydia Lunch, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Bella Union Records in New York City.[53]