Film maker, Performer, General Mover and Shaker. If im not making something I'm not happy!

Elissa Rosati is a graduate with honors from New York University’s TISCH School of the Arts with a degree in film and television production. She is a graduate from New York's famed High School of the Performing Arts in dance. After years of experience as a professional performer in places such as New York, France, Italy, Germany, and Taiwan, she comes to Hong Kong where she has made a name for herself producing and directing theater and video. Her innovative productions such as “The Last Five Years” and “Oklahoma!” have been well reviewed and were commercially successful. Her recent partnership in Silk Purse/RDR Productions has already produced music video and several critically acclaimed shorts. This cutting edge production group has put the feature BoBi in development. "BoBi" a romantic gangster musical, shoots in Hong Kong and New York and is slated for principal photography in fall of 2009.

As a performer Elissa continues a career started in New York with the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble. Dancing and singing professionally since her teens Elissa has appeared on stages world wide and on film in Sir Richard Attenborough's "A Chorus Line". In Hong Kong alone she has taken on main roles in productions as varied as her background: Elizabeth Proctor in “The Crucible”, Little Red Riding Hood in “Into the Woods”, Sheila in “A Chorus Line”, Joanne in “Godspell”, and she has recently developed the characters Polly and Dawn for Lindsey McAlister Productions original musical: “Flesh”. Elissa contributes actively in the Cantonese Musical Production scene appearing in cameos in local productions and she donates her time to amateur theater groups as well.

Elissa has taught in conservatories world wide and continues to teach at such prestigious institutions as the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts for dance and drama and the Youth Arts Foundation where she directs and develops curriculum; perhaps most notably Shakespeare Express, which she designed to bring the Bard to local students through creative performance.

In order to bring together all of the many facets of a professional directing, performance and teaching career spanning several disciplines, Elissa recently founded FOCUS ON FILM. This non profit arts organization brings the art of film making to youth. The mission of Focus on Film is to empower youth creatively giving them the tools to express themselves through visual media and providing them with a platform to show their work. http://www.focusonfilmhk.com