Susan Isaacs

Susan Isaacs

Assistant Professor, Artistic Faculty
Lawrence and Kristina Dodge College of Film and Media Arts
Education:
University of California, Los Angeles, Bachelor of Arts
University of Southern California, Master of Fine Arts

Biography

Susan Isaacs is a writer, actor and Groundlings alumna. Her many film and TV credits include Seinfeld, Parks and Recreation and Planes, Trains & Automobiles, in which she acted opposite John Candy as his on-screen wife. Her memoir, Angry Conversations with God, was named a best book of the year by Publisher’s Weekly; as a solo show, it won the Best Adaptation award at the United Solo Theater Festival in New York. She has worked as a script doctor for many years, and co-wrote the rom-com feature Sun Moon, streaming on the Sony platform.

A member of Dodge’s screenwriting faculty since 2018, Isaacs enjoys teaching Feature I and II, where students write their first feature, and undergraduate and graduate thesis, where she shepherds students through their capstone scripts.

Isaacs earned her BA in film production at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, and her screenwriting MFA from USC School of Cinematic Arts. She also spent a year at the Royal Central School of Drama in London.

She loves improvisation, writing with a real pen and paper, outlining, and lives by the motto: “Get it wrong, faster.”

Recent Creative, Scholarly Work and Publications

Laity Lodge Women's Retreat, "Wonder." Presented paper in the "Stories" workshop on preserving the stories of loved ones who have died. Led two workshops on improvisation and listening.
Spoke at the worldwide premiere of "Sun Moon," which I co-wrote, at Nashville's Belmont Theatre. Film is now streaming worldwide.
Cowriter of the feature film, "Sun Moon," to be released by Sony in May 2023
Universal Studios' Jurassic World's news anchor. Universal Studios (Universal theme parks worldwide)
Susan Isaacs, “Millions,” Image Journal: Hope in the Dark, the Film Issue, no. 93 (July 2017): 80 – 82