She is the author of the stage play now then again, which premiered in Chicago, won a Joseph Jefferson Citation for Best New Work, and was published by Broadway Play Publishing. Her screenplay adaptation, Love is Brilliant, received the Sloan Award at the Tribeca Film Festival. Her short film One in a Million, starring Carrie Coon, was produced by Fulton Market Films.
Penny's plays and scripts have received productions, workshops, and commissions from theaters including Portland Center Stage, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Theater Wit, Shakespeare's Motley Crew, Bailiwick Repertory, Stage Left Theatre, The Old Globe, and Lookingglass Theatre. A former Adjunct Professor of Playwriting at Northwestern University, she has lectured internationally on dialogue writing and is the author of Talk the Talk: A Dialogue Workshop for Scriptwriters.
As an advertising copywriter, Penny created national television, radio, and print campaigns for brands including Red Lobster, Clearasil, Metamucil, Hardee's, Hoover, and Ameritech. Her work also included brand strategy, market research, and corporate communications for organizations ranging from Rush University Medical Center to international manufacturing and technology companies.
For the past decade, Penny has worked in animation, visual effects, and virtual production, helping creative teams bring stories to life through emerging technologies. The experience deepened her understanding of visual storytelling, collaboration, and the many disciplines involved in turning an idea into a finished work.
Working across theater, film, advertising, and visual effects has convinced Penny that technology, style, and medium may change, but human nature rarely does. We remain hopeful, contradictory, ambitious, self-deluding, and endlessly capable of surprising ourselves. Those tensions, and the stories they create, continue to inspire her work.