“Isa is the most honest and genuine person I've ever worked with in my many years in the movie business. He is compassionate, determined and intelligent. As a director, he has great comedic timing that had the audience rolling in the aisles with laughter and a sense for drama that left not a dry eye in the house.”
Lou Digiaimo
Casting Director/Producer
The Godfather, Thelma and Louise, Donnie Brasco, The Gladiator
Growing up in San Francisco’s Sunset District, it became apparent at an early age that Isa had a deep passion for all things artistic — whether it was sketching on napkins, building Aurora models of the Creature from the Black Lagoon, or taking pictures on his second hand camera he bought at the Treasure Trove around the corner from his home. By high school age, he had upgraded to an SLR which he would use to shoot the hang gliders at Fort Funston’s windswept headlands along the Pacific. He sold his first photo at age eighteen to Hallmark cards to be turned into a poster.
His college years found him diverted by a dose of parental practicality when he took their advice to study business at San Francisco State University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and a Master of Business Administration. But even in the midst of budding accountants and executives, he found a few creative outlets such as writing and acting in commercials for his advertising courses and in the few liberal arts classes that were part of the program.
Nevertheless, he found the business world too limiting in the creative realm. And a year after graduating, on a whim, he enrolled in an acting class with renowned acting coach, Jean Shelton. One class later, he knew he had found home. He put his business resume in the shredder and his MBA certificate in storage and embarked on a new career as an actor, director and writer. Ms. Shelton recognized his talent not only as an actor but as a director and invited him to assist her in directing projects and eventually hired him to direct her students in plays.
Nine months after setting foot in his first acting class, he got a random call to audition for an original play about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Despite never having auditioned before, he decided the experience would be useful. He prepared a monologue, headshot and blank acting resume and gave it a shot. To his surprise, he got the job as both an actor as well as a member of the writing team.
What followed was a burst of creativity. He did another iconic play with the Troupe as both writer and actor, and several other productions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Upon hearing of legendary acting teacher/director Milton Katselas, he decided to make his way to Los Angeles to study under him, where he remained for well over a decade. Katselas took a special interest in Isa mentoring him as both an actor and director. Over the years, Katselas allowed Isa into the delicate sanctuary of his private directing rehearsals, where Isa got to witness first-hand the process of pulling out spectacular and personal performances, as well as watching him choreograph the actors to bring the stories into kinetic life. Those sessions were invaluable to Isa, as were the two occasions when Katselas directed him in the original plays, Visions and Lovers and Gibran.
In recent years, Isa turned his focus on screenwriting and directing. His feature script, America, is being produced by Academy Award winning producer, Mark Johnson and legendary casting director/producer, Lou Digiaimo. When Variety asked Johnson to name his next Oscar contender, he chose to talk about America. The film is slated to go into production in 2013 with Isa attached to direct.
Isa’s newly formed, LA based, Studio 9 Entertainment has a number of other projects in development including two other features and a graphic novel series.