Vanessa McMahon

Vanessa McMahon was born in San Diego, California. A first generation American with parents from Canada and Scotland, she grew up living between southern California, Canada and Scotland. Her passion for storytelling and letters was ignited by her witty journalist father, known as "The Flying Scotsman," who wrote for many years for US-based British newspaper, The Union Jack. During her university career, she took four years of acting classes and dramatic arts; she later went on to achieve a degree in Letters (English, French and Brazilian Portuguese) from UCLA and a postgraduate degree in Writing for Film and Television from Royal Holloway University, London. Since university, she spent a decade living in multiple countries in Europe and seven years residing in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She holds a career in the international film industry as a producer and writer.

As a film producer, she has worked for various international film production/finance companies between Australia, Singapore, Germany, Brazil and the USA. As a writer, she is a published novelist (The Road to Tataouine, A California Girl, Bosphorus) and a screenwriter. Aside from her TV series “Hotel Carnival”,currently in development, she has also written multiple screenplays and most recently a documentary, which she directed and starred in, entitled “Purple Gold: A Legacy of California Wine”. Since making her film on the subject, Vanessa is also a California wine historian and works as a wine professional in the Napa Valley.