Maria Burton (Director, Producer, Actor)
After touring across the U.S. and Canada with the theatrical release of her third feature, MANNA FROM HEAVEN (now available on DVD from MGM/Sony), Maria co-directed a documentary about the popular a cappella singing group, THE BOBS, while producing Julia Sweeney's LETTING GO OF GOD, and developing her next film about the Mercury 13 women tested for the original astronaut program. Maria graduated from Yale University with a degree in theater and filmmaking. Her play, THE LITANY OF THE CLOTHES was chosen for the prestigious Yale Drama at Mainstage, and was then selected for production at the Harvard Loeb Theater. It went on to win first prize in the Earth Daughters' playwriting contest and was produced by Lorna Hills' UJIMA Company in Buffalo, New York. In Los Angeles, Maria has produced, performed in, and/or directed numerous theater shows, including the acclaimed and long-running A...MY NAME IS ALICE. Variety called her second feature film, TEMPS, a "dead-on take of a generation at the crossroads." Her first feature, the romantic comedy JUST FRIENDS, was sponsored by Deluxe, Kodak, and Panavision, and was distributed worldwide and on AMC and the WE Channel. Hollywood Reporter said, "Director Maria Burton's affection for the story's characters is infectious and gives the story its strength." Variety said the "entertaining romantic comedy...reveals director Maria Burton as talent to watch."

Jennifer Burton (Producer)
Jennifer produced MANNA FROM HEAVEN with her sisters in their hometown of Buffalo, NY. The movie screened for the US Congress and was chosen by the Toronto Film Festival Group to open in theaters across Canada on its Circuit Series. While producing FIVE SISTERS PRODUCTIONS’ previous film TEMPS, Jennifer completed her Ph.D. at Harvard in English and American Literature. She received a Mellon Grant for her dissertation on hope in American film and theater of the 1920s. As an undergraduate at Harvard/Radcliffe, she wrote, directed, and acted in the University’s first performance thesis. After graduation, she was awarded a Luce Fellowship to study Japanese Theater for a year in Tokyo. In addition to acting in TEMPS, MANNA FROM HEAVEN, and THE HAPPIEST DAY OF HIS LIFE, her theater and film experience includes leading roles in VIEUX CARRE, SPRINGS AWAKENING, THE PARTY, TRAVELER WITHOUT LUGGAGE, and RICHARD II. She has also worked as a jazz singer at THE HOLLYWOOD SAVOY in Paris and has been a Du Bois Fellow at Harvard. In addition to her filmmaking, she is currently co-editing a Norton Anthology of debates in African American History with Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Ursula Burton (Director, Producer, Actor)
Ursula graduated from Yale University with honors, earning degrees in both Theater Studies and English Language and Literature. She is currently playing recurring roles on both THE OFFICE and THE WAR AT HOME. Her previous theater, film, and television credits include Wanda in THE BABY DANCE, the title role in ANTIGONE, Nerrissa in THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, HEMINGWAY AND THE DOS PASSOS WARS, SAGE AND TIME, SGT. BILKO, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, MAFIA!, DEATH OF A SALESWOMAN, DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD, THE ELLEN SHOW, "THE PRACTICE," STRONG MEDICINE, WHAT ABOUT BRIAN?, and THE WEST WING. After producing and acting in the long running Los Angeles premiere of the musical, A...MY NAME IS ALICE, she founded FIVE SISTERS PRODUCTIONS with her sisters. Together they have produced three feature films (in which she has also acted): JUST FRIENDS, TEMPS, and MANNA FROM HEAVEN, and the short social commentary, THE HAPPIEST DAY OF HIS LIFE, which she wrote, directed, and appears in as the bride.

Gabrielle C. Burton (Writer, Director, Producer, Actor)
Gabrielle directed the indie grassroots success MANNA FROM HEAVEN with her sister Maria, now available on DVD from MGM/Sony. She wrote, produced, and acted in the feature comedy TEMPS, co-produced the romantic comedy JUST FRIENDS, and produced the marital comedy THE HAPPIEST DAY OF HIS LIFE. As an undergraduate at Harvard/Radcliffe, Gabrielle wrote and directed the full length plays SAGE AND TIME and CLUB VENUS at the ART’s Loeb Ex theater, and was featured on the Voice Of America program and in the Harvard CRIMSON as a talented young artist. She was awarded summa cum laude for her creative writing thesis "Where The Best Is Like The Worst." A work-study scholar at the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Gabrielle was invited back as staff. She worked on the television program LAW & ORDER, where she trailed two directors in their director training program. After an Isobel Briggs scholarship to study music at Berklee College of Music, she won a Rotary Scholarship to study film at the Ecole Superieure d’Audio-Visuel in Toulouse, France, where she received a DEUP degree with High Honors for her work. SAGE AND TIME, one of the shorts she wrote and directed, was selected for the La Corrida International Film Festival in France. Gabrielle was invited as the opening night speaker to show MANNA FROM HEAVEN at La Corrida’s 10th film festival. She also writes and acts in films, plays, and commercials, is heavily involved in political grassroots activism, and is presently writing a film about death and its impact on our lives.

Charity Burton (Producer)
Charity produced MANNA FROM HEAVEN starring Shirley Jones, Cloris Leachman, Louise Fletcher, and Seymour Cassel, Ursula Burton, Shelley Duvall, Jill Eikenberry, Frank Gorshin, Harry Groener, Wendie Malick, and Austin Pendleton, which is now on DVD from MGM/Sony. At Denison University, Charity studied dance and theater, as well as anthropology/sociology. She has performed in numerous productions including 1776, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, BABY, and THE RESTAURANT, and she wrote, produced, directed, and performed in the well-received play VENUS ON THE HALFSHELL. Charity studied Bhratan Natyum dance in Malaysia while teaching at an Indian orphanage in Kuala Lumpur. She worked for Americorps, organizing and teaching literacy programs in New Orleans and in East Los Angeles, and currently teaches in the Los Angeles Unified School System. She is a producer on all Five Sisters Productions film, including JUST FRIENDS, TEMPS, MANNA FROM HEAVEN, and THE HAPPIEST DAY OF HIS LIFE, in which she also appeared.

Gabrielle B. Burton, Sr. (writer and co-producer)
Award-winning novelist and screenwriter, Gabrielle was named a Nicholl Screenwriting Fellow by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She won the Mary Pickford Prize from the American Film Institute (where she received an MFA in Screenwriting). She also won the Austin Film Festival’s top prize for screenwriting the same weekend she was selected as one of only eleven international writers to attend the Equinoxe Screenwriting Conference in Bordeaux, France. She has been the recipient of Arts Council grants and was selected to participate in the Independent Feature Project (IFP) Screenwriting Lab. Her screenplay, MANNA FROM HEAVEN, was chosen as a critics pick by the WASHINGTON POST and called "Capra-esque. Charming, charming, charming" by NPR. After national theatrical distribution, MANNA FROM HEAVEN was released on DVD by MGM/Sony. Burton's novel, HEARTBREAK HOTEL, published by Charles Scribner's Sons, was awarded the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writer's Award, and the Maxwell Perkins Prize for exceptional writing. It was recently reprinted by the prestigious Dalkey Archive Press, which selects a few books a year to keep in print in perpetuity. She wrote the non-fiction book, I'M RUNNING AWAY FROM HOME BUT I'M NOT ALLOWED TO CROSS THE STREET, a primer on the Women's Movement. Her articles, essays, and reviews appear in national and local publications including the Washington Post, Family Circle, Ms. Magazine, and The New York Times. She was a delegate for Shirley Chisholm's run for President and was an integral member of peace and equal rights groups, and continues to be politically passionate. She has worked as a public speaker, as well as judge for literary prizes. She has been a Member of the Ossabaw Island Project, a Yaddo fellow, a MacDowell Colony fellow, and the Bernard De Voto Fellow in Non Fiction at the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference. She is a member of The American Heritage Dictionary Usage Panel.

Roger Burton (co-producer)
From age 11, Roger was a professional jazz musician, playing with such legends as
Peggy Lee, Hoagy Carmichael, and Nat King Cole. He continued to work as a professional musician while getting Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Southern California, and a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Harvard University. As an esteemed psychologist, Roger has lectured all over the world. After 25 years as a psychology professor at SUNY, Buffalo, he retired to begin working with Five Sisters Productions. He also appears as an actor regularly in a number of commercials, television shows, and films, including Trimark's CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD and AMERICAN IDOL.