235: Giovannie Espirtu is an actor, director and P.G.A member

Giovannie Espiritu's identity is inherently political: A bisexual, once-undocumented immigrant Filipina mom who spent time in a Biblical doomsday cult as a teen. Her first short film, “Ultra-Feminist,” got an Honorable Mention at Outfest:Fusion, and her second film, “ALLY 3000,” won over 12 awards at film festivals mainly in scriptwriting and social justice. Her newest short doc film, “Legacy,” won the Hyundai Evolve Innovation Award is in the film festival circuit. It has exhibited at the OutMuseum, and will be showing in the New Americans Museum in San Diego. Most of her work has taken aim at dismantling the patriarchy, healing generational trauma, and exposing systems of bias with humor. Her IRL and reel life mantra is to “Break Hearts Wide Open and Create More Moments of Joy.” As an actor, she was once nominated alongside Academy Award nominees Alfre Woodard and Amy Irving for Best Supporting Actress, but she didn’t know what to do with that information other than put it on her business card. Her primetime credits include a recurring role on Young Sheldon, ER (NBC), Bones (FOX), Gilmore Girls (ABC), and Trauma (NBC). She can be seen as the lead in the Amazon series, “Dyke Central,” which was featured in After Ellen, BuzzFeed, Bust Magazine and Curve Magazine as a top LGBTQ series to watch, Nancy on the Tubi Original “Titanic 666,” alongside AnnaLynneMcCord and will be on Season 4 of 911 Lone Star as Joni. In her spare time, she rock climbs and advocates for Domestic Violence Awareness/Prevention and LGBTQ equality. She has served on the Board of Directors for C.O.R.A. (a Bay Area domestic violence hotline and agency) and been awarded a Certificate of Recognition from the Senate and California Assembly for her community service. She was recognized as one of 23 "Most Influential Filipina Women in the World" in the Innovator & Thought Leader category by the Filipina Women's Network. She is a proud member of the Alliance of Women Directors and the Producer's Guild of America.