Heather Sheridan Ferreira was born in New Jersey in 1968 to an ESOL schoolteacher and a federal careerist who later became an U.S. Army Corps engineer. She made Super-8 films and audio movies as a child in the 70s. She was brought on board by Warner Bros Pictures in November of 2019 and runs Temple, a new film company, in Los Angeles with Rodion Phillips, her former manager, now a rising gay male producer.

There were not many opportunities to make films in the small southern town her family moved to (to be nearer the base where her father worked), but Ferreira was rescued by NBC and United Artists who set up camp there to shoot In The Heat of The Night. She was selected as an extra but cameraman Peter Salim, (dec.), ASC, overheard her asking how to learn to operate a Panavision camera. Salim whistled "hey" and summoned her over to his operating chair to ask questions. This began her film career.

Ferreira and Salim devised a trade: after reading her action feature scripts, he offered to teach her cinematography if she would write an actioner for him to direct. When Heat wrapped, Salim suggested she move to Hollywood. Ferreira took the advice, drove to Burbank, got a job as a D-Girl at a talent agency and began writing and pitching screenplays. Sadly, the exact day Ferreira, then named Karen McCoy, was hired by Pepin-Merhi Entertainment, her salaried and first studio screenwriter job, Salim passed away of cardiac arrest "while cutting up tomatoes" in his Simi Valley residence, according to his widow. Ferreira phoned the Salim residence to announce the happy news and was devastated by Salim's wife's response.

This galvanized her to continue working in the film industry in the name of the DP and Coppola First Camera Operator who launched her career.

While on a typewriter on at Petite Patisserie (the former North End Pizzeria) in Burbank, she was spotted in its window by a post production supervisor for PM Entertainment who asked what she was writing. It was an action script, and since PM specialized in action the PPS requested a copy. After reading it he introduced her to Joseph Merhi, PM exec producer, and she was hired on the spot as senior screenwriter becoming the highest-paid writer in PM Entertainment's history.

Ferreira signed to management with Lee Daniels and Game of Thrones executive producer Vince Gerardis became her agent. Michael Chapman (dec.), ASC, Scorsese's cinematographer, mentored her while she was at NYU. Michael Biehn, Roshan Seth, Michael Madsen and Harvey Keitel became first-look fans of her work.

Ferreira attended NYU studying film then returned to Los Angeles. She directed and wrapped several episodes of Movieopolis, a series depicting Coppola and Scorsese as youthful director-detectives solving fictional 70's Hollywood crimes, and which won acclaim. Both directors learned of the series in 2014 but voiced no objections. Scorsese in fact, according to Michael Chapman, was "tickled" by her depiction of him.

In November of 2019 Ferreira was tapped by Warner Bros Pictures to work for "the Warner family" and began submitting feature projects for their consideration. Upon client winning the Filmmatic Short Screenplay Competition of 2023, Ferreira's representation (then me) became her co-producer. The two run a new film studio following Hays Code and inspired by the Golden Age studio system. Our first feature was greenlit in early 2024 and is now in production.

Ferreira is an enthusastic supporter of use of robots and A.I. alongside human actor talent. She is currently redeveloping an audience favorite, Movieopolis, using Lora model versions of young Francis Coppola and Martin Scorsese, and the series plus three more different A.I.-powered shows of hers are on slate to premiere in late 2025. Original debut was 2026 but the Lora has produced results so good she and the team are moving forward earlier than expected. Ferreira says of the A.I. Movieopolis "This is a goal we've wanted for decades but never knew possible. First gen footage is, so far, outstanding. I'm simply pleased. I couldn't be more. I can't wait to show this to both directors but I am sure they already know."