Cherise Pascual
I’m a 4’11" Filipina woman from Carson, California, who learned to read when I was 4 and have been writing poems and stories ever since, till I discovered boys and forgot about my calling in life. In my 20s, I decided I wanted to be a doctor, so I dedicated my undergraduate studies to the sciences with a focus on neurobiology. When I couldn’t get into med school, I whored myself out to the corporate world in the field of marketing research until one day I realized I’d rather be writing movies, so I attended the American Film Institute and earned a Masters Degree in Screenwriting. Somewhere in that timeline I was diagnosed with Herpes and it nearly killed me — not the Herpes, but the stigma; oh, and also a drug addiction. 6 years later I wrote a one-woman show about how having Herpes saved my life — it’s called, HERPES: A LOVE STORY — and I hope to spread the love at HFF17.
