Before THE SHICKLES, Donna wrote and directed the short film ONE NIGHT STAND starring Joe Manganiello (MAGIC MIKE, TRUE BLOOD, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER. and WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING.) The film premiered at the Los Angeles International Shorts Festival.
Her plays have been produced at PlayGround, an emerging playwright's workshop at A Traveling Jewish Theatre, the Playwright's Performance Lab Showcase hosted by Black Box Theatre Company, and Unidentified Theatre Company, a non-profit theatre troupe that she co-founded in San Francisco. Her play FINDAMATE DOT COM, about two 35 year old virgins who meet online and fall in love, was originally produced for the Eureka Theatre in San Francisco. The play was later translated into Italian and had a two year run at the Teatro del Navile Cercasi in Bologna, Italy.
Donna Trousdale got her start in film production at Columbia College in Chicago and studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. She also holds an M.A. in Social Linguistic Psychology from Clark University. She worked as the lead research and evaluation analyst at the San Francisco School District before landing in Los Angeles to pursue screenwriting.
Starting out as an assistant-to-a-talent agent at Creative Artist Agency, Donna later went on to work for Barry Schindel, best known for executive producing the CBS hit drama, NUMB3RS and LAW AND ORDER as well as veteran tv-comedy writer, Michelle Nader--executive producer of the hit showsTWO BROKE GIRLS, KATH AND KIM, DHARMA AND GREGG and SPIN CITY.