Mangas Dam

Suzanne Birrell started her career in the entertainment business as a child when she wrote, produced, and directed comedy skits for the neighborhood kids. She stumbled into the professional world as a bareback and gymkhana rider where she landed doing stunts in Hollywood and fell in love with the movies.

Raising a family took her out of California into rural America and primitive life on a farm: cutting logs, hauling them with a horse to the saw mill, building a house with a hammer and saw. No electricity, gravity fed water, wood heat, farm raised food, making bread and wine, canning and slaughtering. Meanwhile she punched out stories on an old Remington and got involved in local theatre where she apprenticed as a director.

Later she went on the road as a bass player/singer with a traveling band, lost her brakes on a high Colorado mountain, was a main witness for a national murder trial, and started writing scripts.
After landing in San Francisco, she worked production manager with the Fringe of Marin and honed her skill as a scriptwriter by seeing her words up on stage.

A writer needs to experience life and Suzanne has lots to write about. She continually re-invents herself: as a bartender, camp cook, wrangler, baker, waitress, hotel maid, taught Intro to Opera and Shakespeare at Junior College, naturally certified paralegal, artist in residence on the Navajo Nation, jailed as a political activist and took the case pro-se to the state supreme court. Back in rural New Mexico, she the currently teaches middle school band and hosts a screenwriter/actor group.

An avid backpacker, she has trekked through southern Europe, Suzanne has been face to face with a mountain lion and almost knocked off a cliff by a large white owl. Survived going over a waterfall. Sailed lakes and oceans. SCUBA through kelp and sunken vessels. History is also a hobby and she loves listening to stories people tell about their own lives and families.