…introduced by Evie Stewart.

Okay. So apparently I’m writing Jan’s bio because she doesn’t want to talk about herself, and they say it’s easier to write about someone else than about yourself. So here goes…

People describe Jan as a creative-thinker with stick-to-itiveness, tons of good karma to share, and the great ideas that made her Cover Girl for Entrepreneurial Woman magazine when the small fabric-covered accessory manufacturing business she started (with her ex) went from $3 to $12 million dollars in sales in only three years. Sold by all the right names (Pierre Deux, Laura Ashley, Victoria Secret, Estee Lauder), and all the big department stores, she named it “I Was Framed” (and now suspects it was a self-fulfilling prophecy!)

Then on her own, she created “Heartfelt by Jan Stanton,” designing hats for national stores (like Fred Segal, Barneys and Saks), TV shows like The West Wing and Once and Again, and even for features like Princess Diaries II and The Ladykillers.

She really is this color!

Hats, frames, businesses – what about the writing?

I know, but she’s packed a lot of life into her little frame.

Okay: Jan majored in journalism
(U of Oregon/Go Ducks!) to become a magazine editor, wound up in NYC for Fashion & Merchandising (another degree!) but was always writing. Fashion reporting, catalogue copy, NY Times, Daily News, she even published a little poetry. So… two businesses, a pair of girls, a husband or two later – did I mention a magazine cover? – and she decides to tackle screenplays and original series.

Might as well, everything else she does takes off.  Like her daughters: actress Molly Stanton and Sports Marketing Agent Amy Stanton both have credits I’d kill for (ask her, it’s easy to talk about them.) And she’s married to architect/builder Richard Holz, the go-to guy for the high-end market here in Brentwood. At the heart of four close-knit generations, Jan’s always got her finger on the pulse of her characters and their audience, across all quadrants.

Jan soaks up sound bytes everywhere — from the Cedars Sinai ER where she volunteers, to cheering the Tiger Tots at Karate Kids, always drawing from life for her stories and players. She’s a lot like her scripts: heartfelt but funny, and more complex than her laugh lets on.

Whether it’s an edgy one-hour drama like CRISIS CENTER, about a wrong-number suicide call sucking three strangers into a thorny triangle in a rehabbed Venice building, or a fish-out-of-water dramedy like #itSUCKS (where she’s got me finding the funny, even when it hurts), or her half-hour comedy series based on these adventures, EVIE FINDS THE FUNNY,  she’s always cranking on something. Her latest inventions include a cranky Christmas comedy for the family called A PAYNE IN THE XMAS, a sexy series of webisodes called ZIP IT that takes you to a place you’ve never been. And oh! Jan just wrote and produced a twisty short film, THINK FAST, starring Molly Stanton, T.J. Powers, and Jaz Sinclair that screened at major film festivals around the globe and is now on Amazon Prime.  THINK FAST is a springboard for her edgy one-hour, CRISIS CENTER and also a comic digital spinoff, SARA BETTER THINK FAST, currently in development. Wow! When does she sleep?

Jan’s message is always “up” – just what we need, right?  Lucky for me her rose-y shades lend a fresh point of view. Hey, um… you think she’d let me borrow them?