Gina Surles was born in Chicago, Illinois.  Pursuing an artistic path has always been a driving force throughout her life.  She has trained in ballet, modern dance and acting since childhood, and received her BFA in dance from the University of Illinois, Champaign.  As Assistant Director of Hawaii State Ballet for 34 years, Gina taught ballet to young children, teens and adults.  Her love of movies and screenwriting have led her to participate in screenwriting seminars in London, England, Los Angeles, and the UH Outreach program.  Her feature fantasy, The Contessa’s Leaf, won 4th place in the Red Inkworks screenplay competition.  Her screenplay, Haku, and stageplay, Paper Wall, have won table reads in the Wildsound competitions. Gina’s project, Triple Threat, was one of three projects chosen to participate in Creative Lab Hawaii’s Web Series Immersive in June 2017. The first two episodes were filmed in September 2017, with four more episodes scheduled to be shot in fall 2018.