Suzanne C. Johnson
Acting
Biography
After years of devoting her life to her family, and to nursing, Suzanne Johnson listened to her heart and made the leap from being a mother and nurse to following her dream of an acting career. She began her journey by enrolling in acting classes and combing the internet for casting announcements, gamely submitting herself for every part she thought would be a good fit. In her first feature film, Empty Space, a powerful drama, she was cast as a waitress in a rural diner trapped in an abusive relationship. After that role, she was hooked. A series of parts followed in several shorts, student films and features. Suzanne played a range of roles, including a mother to a dying girl in a faith-based film, the love interest of a sheriff in a rural town, a hippie psychic, and a Southern socialite with a poker fetish. It was a solid start to her film career but she wanted more. What would be the next big step? Working with her acting coach, Damon Shalit, they brainstormed how she could further her career. They decided that one great course of action would be to not only act but to produce a film in which she could star. Damon suggested she read some screenplays, and also recommended Joshua Henkin’s best-selling novel The World Without You. She immediately connected with the powerful material, and the character of grieving mother Marilyn deeply resonated with her. Apart from great similarities in their personalities, Marilyn’s trajectory as a mother who loses her only son to a terrorist act was an emotional journey that Suzanne felt compelled to fulfill.
Known For
The Frankel family copes with the death of son Leo, a journalist killed on assignment in Iraq. During a weekend memorial service marking the one-year anniversary, old hurts and dark secrets emerge that threaten to tear the fragile threads holding the family together.
The World Without You
When a talk show relationship expert with her own romantic hang-ups gets stranded at a ranch before Christmas, the charming rancher reminds her that love is always worth the risk.
Christmas on the Ranch
When an idealistic TV producer is assigned a puff piece about a Christmas toy manufacturer over the holidays, a charming toymaker inspires her to search her heart to find true happiness.
Reporting for Christmas
Growing up, Jenny and Autumn were best friends. However, a choice tore them apart. Now it will take an unthinkable sacrifice to reunite them.
Redemption Way
Tom, an overweight young man, takes refuge at his grandmother's cabin in rural Illinois in an attempt to bury the years of being bullied and feeling rejected. While in town, he meets a precocious blind girl named Lilly, who shows him how to be accepted and loved.
Empty Space
A struggling young baker in no mood for the holidays returns to her small hometown, where her festive family and a handsome farmer try to get her back in the Christmas spirit.
Christmas with Felicity
A relentless documentary filmmaker struggles to unravel the mystery of his uncle's death as an unknown adversary threatens to destroy the project and his family.
Silent as the Grave
Akira is a high school transfer student with a deteriorating relationship with his father. When he arrives at his new school, he stumbles onto a classmate being bullied. His intervention triggers two new friendships — one with the victim Scott and the other with Elizabeth — the classmate who aids him after he is knocked out. Scott has a worse problem than the bullies — he has not come out at home yet. But Elizabeth may have an even bigger problem: she is a social pariah because she keeps acting as though someone or something is after her. Meanwhile, Akira’s home front situation is going from bad to worse.
Another Yesterday
An entrepreneur brokering a sponsorship to build the city zoo's new penguin habitat finds herself caught between business and romance after falling for a compassionate zookeeper over the holidays.
Christmas at the Zoo
Darcy's all-woman poker night is thrown into chaos by the return of her prodigal daughter.