Vanessa Theme Ament is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author, academic, Foley artist

Foley artist

Foley is the reproduction of everyday sounds for use in filmmaking. These reproduced sounds can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass. The best foley art is so well integrated into a film that it goes unnoticed by the audience. It helps to...

, and musician, best known for her 2009 book The Foley Grail published by Focal Press

Focal Press

Focal Press is a publisher of media technology books and it is an imprint of Elsevier. It was founded in 1938 by Andor Kraszna-Krausz, a Hungarian photographer who immigrated to England in 1937 and eventually published over 1,200 books on photography....

 / Elsevier

Elsevier

Elsevier is a publishing company which publishes medical and scientific literature. It is a part of the Reed Elsevier group. Based in Amsterdam, the company has operations in the United Kingdom, USA and elsewhere....

 http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/bookdescription.cws_home/717359/description#description, the first mainstream academic text explicitly concerned with the history and development of, as well as the personalities behind, the art of Foley. Ament is well known also for her 1989 appearance on the television program Late Night with David Letterman

Late Night with David Letterman

Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...

 http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0024612/, the only Foley artist ever invited as a guest. Though she started her career as an actress, singer, and dancer, Ament achieved success in the world of Foley and post-production sound after gaining experience in television shows such as Knots Landing

Knots Landing

Knots Landing is an American primetime television soap opera that aired from December 27, 1979 to May 13, 1993 on CBS. Set in a fictitious coastal suburb of Los Angeles in California, the show centered on the lives of four married couples living in a cul-de-sac, Seaview Circle...

, Dallas, and Cagney & Lacey

Cagney & Lacey

Cagney & Lacey is an American television series that originally aired on the CBS television network for seven seasons from October 8, 1981 to May 16, 1988...

, working on such major films of the 1980s and 1990s as Prizzi's Honor

Prizzi's Honor

Prizzi's Honor is a 1985 American black comedy film directed by John Huston. It stars Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Robert Loggia and Anjelica Huston.The film was adapted by Richard Condon and Janet Roach from Condon's novel of the same name...

, Platoon

Platoon (film)

Platoon is a 1986 American war film written and directed by Oliver Stone and stars Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe and Charlie Sheen. It is the first of Stone's Vietnam War trilogy, followed by 1989's Born on the Fourth of July and 1993's Heaven & Earth....

, Predator

Predator (film)

Predator is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by John McTiernan, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, and Kevin Peter Hall. It was distributed by 20th Century Fox....

, Die Hard

Die Hard

Die Hard is a 1988 American action film and the first in the Die Hard film series. The film was directed by John McTiernan and written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. It is based on a 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp titled Nothing Lasts Forever, itself a sequel to the book The Detective, which...

, Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...

, Noises Off...

Noises Off...

Noises Off is a 1992 American comedy film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. The screenplay by Marty Kaplan is based on the 1982 play of the same name by Michael Frayn...

, Batman Returns

Batman Returns

Batman Returns is a 1992 American superhero film directed by Tim Burton. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is the sequel to Burton's Batman , and features Michael Keaton reprising the title role, with Danny DeVito as the Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman.Burton originally did not...

, and A Goofy Movie

A Goofy Movie

A Goofy Movie is a 1995 American animated musical comedy film, produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, Walt Disney Animation France S.A. and Walt Disney Animation Australia , and released in theaters on April 7, 1995 by Walt Disney Pictures...

. Her ex-husband, David E. Stone, is an Academy Award-winning sound editor, having won in 1993

65th Academy Awards

The 65th Academy Awards were presented March 29, 1993 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. This was the fourth consecutive show hosted by Billy Crystal.Unforgiven won four Oscars out of nine nominations including Best Picture.-Awards:...

 for his work in Bram Stoker's Dracula

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Dracula is a 1992 American Gothic horror-romance film directed and co-produced by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker...

 http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0831823/. Despite her success in the film industry, Ament has also taught in primary schools since 1978 and in universities (including DePaul University

DePaul University

DePaul University is a private institution of higher education and research in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul...

, Columbia College Chicago

Columbia College Chicago

Columbia College Chicago is one of the largest art colleges in the United States with nearly 12,000 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs...

, and Cuesta College

Cuesta College

Cuesta College is a public community college located in San Luis Obispo County near the Central Coast of California. It currently offers 76 Associate's degree programs and 96 certificate programs...

) since 2001, has an M.Div. from Starr King School for the Ministry

Starr King School for the Ministry

Starr King School for the Ministry is a Unitarian Universalist seminary in Berkeley, California and part of the Graduate Theological Union. Starr King School opened in 1904 as the Pacific Unitarian School for the Ministry...

 (1990) http://www.weblo.com/celebrity/available/Vanessa_Theme_Ament/579889/, and released a jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 CD in 2004 entitled Working Without a Net. http://cdbaby.com/cd/vanessaament She also lent her voice and songwriting to the 1999 film Foreign Correspondents, which featured her song "Every Other Night". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0123078/soundtrack

External links

• Official Fan Site | http://www.vanessatament.com/