Charise M. Studesville is an award-winning writer and director who hustled her way into the entertainment business via an internship after a chance meeting with producer Debra Martin Chase, resulting in a weekly commute between Chicago and LA, where she was free to roam the inner workings of development, movie deals, and scripts from the vaults of both Denzel Washington’s and Whitney Houston’s companies that Debra had run.

Charise then landed in a Warner Brothers/USC directing and producing program, and convinced a band of USC Film School grad students to crew her first film which went on to 60+ festivals around the world, winning awards along the way.

Since then, Charise founded Hollywood Chick Mafia, a community of creative rebel chicks in Hollywood, supporting each others' badassery. She currently has several writing projects in film, television, stage, and publishing, including a rom-com in development with producer Gaylyn Fraiche, who was the first development exec she worked for in that commuter internship.

Charise is also a USA Today bestselling author, with two new titles released in 2023, as well as the upcoming first-ever mixed-media memoir, a tale of a biracial girl’s coming of age amidst the circus of 1980s New York City zeitgeist, that includes 50+ of her original mixed-media art works alongside the music of the time.

Charise was chosen as a 2022 WIF Multi-Hyphenate Mentee, under mentors Marta Cunningham and Alissa Bachner. In 2023, she was honored as a featured artist in Kente Royal Gallery’s Black History Month art show in Harlem, released two new books, and co-founded theBUBBLY.Life, a lifestyle brand for women over 40 that. In 2024, Charise was chosen as a fellow in the Stowe Narrative Lab with her feature screenplay, THE WAVES.

In all of her creative work, Charise uses truth to illuminate darkness within the human experience, and loves stories and characters that speak to the human capacity to rise above the murkiest of waters in life without losing sight of the beauty that can bloom—like her lotus flower logo of Lotus Girl Films.
As a fierce advocate for women, Charise is a proud member of WIF, Film Fatales, Women In Media, and Alliance of Women Directors.