Jan Reesman's bio

Jan Marlyn Reesman was born, sometime in the last century, in Trenton N.J.
She was born Janice Marilyn DiNatale.

Her Italian American family was dysfunctional but fun. Her father owned racecar tracks and he was also a stock car driver. Her Mom was a housewife most of the year and a stunt car driver, Lucky Lucy, in the summers.

As a plan to escape Jersey, Jan entered beauty pageants. Proud to say she won many including Miss New Jersey. She lost her crown when they found out that she was only 15.

Jan was a terrible student but somehow managed to learn the 3 R’s and how to manipulate the system. She passed!

On a summer vacation at 16, Jan’s Mom took her to visit family in Miami. They encouraged her to try to become a Bunny for the summer. Using what she learned in school, Jan was able to get the required police card (stating her age as 23) and she became a Bunny. During Bunny training, she was given a hundred dollar bill to purchase a pack of cigarettes with bunny lighter and told to keep the change. Jersey was never like this.

Joe Torre, then a baseball rookie, was a Playboy member along with his brother Frank. Jan dated him for a while. Note: Heard that he later married a Bunny.

Jan’s true age was found out. She left Playboy with an offer to return when she became of age. Before going back to Jersey, she finished out the summer being a “Lamb Chop” at the Lambs Club. When she turned 18 Jan went to Chicago and worked there for a summer. HATED IT! Dated Joe Torre in Chicago.

Opened the NY Playboy club, working days. (Had to be 21 to work nights) Great years.

Left Playboy to become a Jersey housewife, a “bookie” and to have a baby.

Her son is a person everyone should aspire to become.

Age 21, finally legal. Left the current husband and back to NY Playboy Club to work the showrooms. Big bucks. Studied method acting 5 days a week.

Met Gabe Kaplan at The Improv (before he was a Playboy comic). They had some fun years.

Off to Los Angeles for a summer, which turned into a permanent move. Became a veterinarian technician. Oh, Jan went to Fordham University at Lincoln Center, which made her eligible to take the test to become an Animal Health Technician. Jan was always an animal lover.

Flash forward; she became a very successful Animal Behaviorist. Clients included, Whoopi Golberg, Calvin Klein, Billy Crystal, James Caan, Diane Cannon and more…

Simultaneously Jan became part of a theater company and over the next ten years or so and three different theater companies, Jan left acting, and became a theater producer and then director. Opportunity moved her into casting and then personal management. All these Jan considered “day jobs”.

The management was a success monetarily but actors were harder to house train then dogs. Actors that Jan found while directing and teaching acting at Tracy Roberts Theater and Actors Alley became stars. Really! Okay, I’ll drop more names, John Corbett and Cynthia Stevenson.

Film called. Jan’s first directorial film was the “USA’s Up All Night” classic, “Bikini Car Wash”. Onto a TV pilot. After being accepted into the “American Film Institutes Directing Workshop For Women” Jan wrote and directed several award winning shorts.

Along the way Jan started writings plays and then film. This and directing were her real passion.

Jan’s and her actor husband (who she met while directing him in a play) opened a coffeehouse and theater in North Hollywood. It was called “The Kindness Of Strangers”. It had a successful five-year run. During that time, Jan wrote TV sit coms and was hired as a staff writer on an NBC sitcom that was snuffed out by the network.

Jan has observed as a director/writer on Seinfeld, Coach, Suddenly Susan, Renegade, the wonderful West Wing and CSI Miami.

She oil paints and taught art classes and now is an avid photographer.
Her passions are Apple Computers and most gadgets.

Jan is featured in the book, The Bunny Years.

Apple computers, the Internet and all “gadgets” are an obsession.

Jan is on the board of directors of Alliance Of Women Directors.

She lives in the hills of Beverly with her husband. They have been married twelve wonderful years. Over the years Jan had tested out several other husbands but cut them loose.

Every morning this final husband, brings to her in bed, coffee, newspapers and her Mac Book Pro as she watches morning TV that he has Tivo’d for her.

They have 7 cats, a Doberman, a Collie and an eighteen-year-old African Parrot name Huey. Jan cast Huey in a TV show when he was a baby. She went to court to keep Huey. She lost but kept him anyway. A Jersey thing.