Lisa Donato is a writer, director, and activist from Billings, Montana and based in Austin & Los Angeles. The first feature film that she co-wrote, Signature Move, world-premiered at SXSW and won the grand jury prize for Best U.S. Narrative Feature at Outfest (2017). It can be found on Amazon Prime, Google Play, and iTunes. Her short films have won many awards on the festival circuit, including best LGBTQ short at Cannes: Emerging Filmmaker Showcase (Spunkle, 2017) and the Ron Kovic Peace Prize at My Hero (Reclaiming Pakistan, 2017). She was one of 35 short film directors short-listed for the UK Iris Prize (The News Today, 2017).
Her magic-wand wish is to bring queer and marginalized stories to mainstream audiences around the world. Other story and directing credits include shows for National Geographic Wild, Oprah Winfrey Network, PBS, published personal essays in the LA Times, Self Magazine, Curve Magazine, Austin Women, Whole Life Times, 5280 Magazine and multiple short films and music videos.