Maria Burton (Director, Producer, Actor)
Recently, Maria directed "Stephen Kanner: A Retrospective," a short film about visionary architect Stephen Kanner for the A+D Museum. She directed commercials on the recent "Faces of Ford" campaign for Ford Motor Company. Director on the feature films, JUST FRIENDS (AMC/WE), TEMPS (Netflix), and MANNA FROM HEAVEN (MGM/Sony), she also co-directed SIGN MY SNARLING MOVIE -- a documentary about the popular a cappella singing group, The Bobs, and produced THE HAPPIEST DAY OF HIS LIFE and Julia Sweeney's LETTING GO OF GOD (Showtime). Maria graduated from Yale University with a degree in theater and filmmaking. Her original play, THE LITANY OF THE CLOTHES was chosen for the prestigious Yale Dramat 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, NY. In L.A., Maria has produced, performed in, and/or directed numerous theater shows, including the acclaimed and long-running A...MY NAME IS ALICE. 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." Variety said the "entertaining romantic comedy [JUST FRIENDS]É reveals director Maria Burton as talent to watch" and "[TEMPS is a] dead-on take of a generation at the crossroads." NPR called MANNA FROM HEAVEN, "Capra-esque...Charming, charming, charming!" Maria continues to act as well (RAISING THE BAR, STRONG MEDICINE, etc.). She has lectured on independent filmmaking and distribution at many film schools including USC, AFI, and the Rockport Institute. Maria is Co-Chair of the Board of The Alliance of Women Directors and on the Board of Global Girl Media, an organization which celebrates and connects the voices of young women around the world through new media technologies to support social change. Her next feature film is a drama inspired by the "Mercury 13" women who were tested for the original astronaut program in 1961-62.

Jennifer Burton (Producer)
Norton recently published Jennifer's book, "Call and Response: Key Debates in African American History," co-edited with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. As a film and commercial producer, Jennifer brought MANNA FROM HEAVEN (shot with her sisters in their hometown of Buffalo, NY) to screen for the US Congress and be chosen by the Toronto Film Festival Group to open theatrically 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.

Ursula Burton (Director, Producer, Actor)
Ursula is an actor and producer who wrote and directed the award-winning comedy, THE HAPPIEST DAY OF HIS LIFE which won a Viewer's Choice Award on MTV's LOGO Channel and qualified for the Academy Awards. Working in London and Los Angeles, Ursula has had recurring roles on THE OFFICE, THE WAR AT HOME, and the hit BBC sitcom MY FAMILY. Her other TV work includes roles on THE GHOST WHISPERER, THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS, THE ELLEN SHOW, THE PRACTICE, STRONG MEDICINE, SHAKE IT UP!, WHAT ABOUT BRIAN?, and THE WEST WING. Film roles include SGT. BILKO, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, MAFIA!, DEATH OF A SALESWOMAN and THE DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD. Ursula can often be heard in audio drama productions including the BBC CLASSIC SERIAL "The Hireling," DOCTOR WHO, DARK SHADOWS, and STARGATE. She graduated from Yale University with honors, earning degrees in both Theater Studies and English Language and Literature. 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 commercials, PSAs, short films, and feature films including LETTING GO OF GOD, JUST FRIENDS, MANNA FROM HEAVEN, and the award-winning TEMPS. In addition, the specialty card deck she created, "52 Questions Before Marriage or Moving In," is being distributed by the Gottman Institute.

Gabrielle C. Burton (Writer, Director, Producer, Actor)
Gabrielle is a writer/director/actor whose current project as director is the documentary KINGS, QUEENS, AND IN-BETWEENS, on the fluidity of gender identity as seen through the window of drag queens and kings in Columbus, Ohio. She directed the grassroots success MANNA FROM HEAVEN with her sister Maria (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, the thought-provoking LETTING GO OF GOD, as well as commercials and PSAs. 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 is heavily involved in political grassroots activism, was a guest at the Columbus Arts Festival reading her poetry, and is presently also writing a children's book.

Charity Burton (Producer)
Charity splits her time between teaching in the Los Angeles city schools and being a producer on all Five Sisters Productions commercials, corporate creative workshops, and films, including JUST FRIENDS, TEMPS, MANNA FROM HEAVEN, LETTING GO OF GOD, and THE HAPPIEST DAY OF HIS LIFE. Recently expanding the company to include commercial work specializing in documentary-style storytelling, she worked with her sisters on corporate and campaign commercials, and she also managed the production of a recent PSA series with Julia Ormond, as well as a longer piece against human slavery in the U.S., for the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (www.castla.org). 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. Previously, Charity studied Bhratan Natyum dance in Malaysia while teaching at an Indian orphanage in Kuala Lumpur, as well as worked for Americorps, organizing and teaching literacy programs in New Orleans and in East Los Angeles.

Gabrielle B. Burton (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 most recent novel, IMPATIENT WITH DESIRE: THE LOST JOURNAL OF TAMSEN DONNER (Hyperion), was awarded the Western Heritage Award for outstanding novel. Her memoir, SEARCHING FOR TAMSEN DONNER (U of Nebraska Press) is part of Tobias Wolff's American Lives series. Her novel, HEARTBREAK HOTEL (Charles Scribner's Sons) was awarded the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writer's Award, and the Maxwell Perkins Prize, and was reprinted by Dalkey Archive Press. 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 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, a 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 (Actor and Co-producer)
Roger acts regularly in national commercials, films (including LARRY CROWNE, MANNA FROM HEAVEN, THE HAPPIEST DAY OF HIS LIFE, Trimark's CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD), and television shows (TORCHWOOD, THE JAY LENO SHOW, WILFRED, THE GEORGE LOPEZ SHOW, MONK, MY NAME IS EARL, HOUSE, AMERICAN IDOL). 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. He was a research psychologist at the Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md., from 1959 to 1974, and a professor in the psychology dept. at the Univ. at Buffalo from '74 to 2000. As an esteemed psychologist, Roger has lectured all over the world. After 26 years as a psychology professor at SUNY, Buffalo, he began working with Five Sisters Productions.