Orna was born is Seattle, raised in Dayton, Ohio,
and lived in Boston before finally making Los Angeles
her home. As a young child, she studied piano. At
the age of nine, Orna did her first audition ever
to become a member of her synagogue's choir. Music
became and still is an integral part of her life
providing a foundation for both her technical and
artistic inclinations. It was music that led her
to acting and filmmaking.
One
year after graduating from Brandeis University,
Orna realized one of
her greatest dreams since childhood:
to finally start studying acting. After studying
with various teachers in Boston, participating
in theatre, film, and commercial projects, Orna
finally
packed up an 11-foot Budget rental van with her
belongings and drove cross country in eight days
to move to
Los Angeles. A dear friend helped get her a job
at the Los Angeles Film School where Thom Mount,
former
president of Universal Pictures, hired her full
time to manage the Admissions Department outreach
efforts.
While there for a year, Orna participated in student
films and took classes in editing, film analysis,
and producing. She left the school to produce her
first feature film, "Sex Guns Money @ 20." This
experience proved to be her greatest technical and
artistic challenge, but it laid the foundation for "In
Plain View." This former experience didn't
make the new job any easier, but it helped take
the edge
off the next project.
Orestes
decided to move on into films so he wrote and
starred in two pictures he helped to produce.
Soon after,
he went behind the camera to direct his first
film "Fatal
Encounter" which he also produced, wrote
and acted in.
Then,
Orestes went to live for a while in Hendersonville,
North Carolina so he could raise the capital to
produce and direct his next movie from a screenplay
he had written called "Tainted". A
year and a half later the movie was completed.
Orestes
then returned to New York to plant the seed for
the greatest production of his life, Lawrence
Rafael, his beloved son.
Finally,
Orestes arrived in Hollywood for the first time.
It was a little disappointing for him. He had imagined
Tinsel town to have a greater nightlife than Paris
and New York put together, filled with movie stars
and beautiful people getting in and out of limousines
until dawn. He was astounded to see the entire
city of Los Angeles getting ready for bed by nine
o'clock at night. Always an optimist, he concluded
that movie stars aren't stupid, so, like them,
he should delay the wrinkles on his face by going
to bed early and having a good night's sleep. He
says it didn't work for him, unfortunately.
