The Tiger Killer

M. Vanessa Coto was raised between Costa Rica and Boyle Heights. A graduate
of Loyola Marymount University, she worked her way through college as a teacher’s
assistant in an inner city grammar school and as a LMU staff photographer, eventually
running the department, before graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts/ Film Production.

She has worked extensively in the entertainment industry for over 20 years. She worked her way up the ranks in roles ranging from production assistant to line producer and everything in between. Her work has included high profile commercial spots such as Spike Lee’s Beyoncé spot for Pepsi to feature films such as Real Women Have Curves. She has worked with talent across film, music, and television industries including Snoop Dogg, Xhibit, and Carlos Mencia, as well as networks including Nickelodeon, HBO, Comedy Central, Telemundo, Mun2, VH-1 and The Weather Channel.

She also served as Project Manager for Yahoo! Screen where her duties included supervising the production and postproduction for Paul Feig’s Other Space, Dan Hartman’s Community, and Sin City Saints. She also supervised the writing of the Production Delivery Manual. Her extensive knowledge of running a set makes her a production savvy and cost-conscious producer/writer/director with a keen eye for detail.

As a writer, projects have included teleplays for Telemundo and the adaptation of a
Spanish- language book for young adults, La Sirenita Sin Voz, into an English-language
screenplay entitled Anai and the Turtle for Puerto Rico based Isla Films. She has forayed
into directing including a short film entitled My Sweet Fifteen, based on a feature film
script, and a music video titled Wisdom.

Currently she is pitching a series entitled High Hopes, a reality show entitled My Quince Empire, and a feature script entitled The Tiger Killer.

Her experiences as a first generation immigrant bring the unique stories, realities and points of view of her community to screens of every size. Her stories reflect the multi-ethnic society we live in. It is truly important for her to create entertaining intellectual properties that will generate long running interests as well as profits, all the while maintaining the highest quality and creative integrity.