Joan Moran

Joan holds two master’s degrees: Theater and Education. It was her desire to teach in the theater department at UNLV that led to her being offered a position at UNLV, where she taught acting and theater history. Five years later, Joan founded and was the artistic director of the Meadows Playhouse, Las Vegas’s first year-round theater. Her interest in film led to her admission to the American Film Institute in Los Angeles as a producing fellow. Before she graduated, Joan wrote her first screenplay and continued writing for film for the next 15 years in Hollywood.

During this time, Joan also pursued a career as a motivational speaker and blogger. As a keynote speaker, Joan commanded the stage with her delightful humor, raw energy, and wealth of life experiences. She shared her knowledge and energy, drawing on 15 years of theater experience and over 13 years teaching yoga and meditation at UCLA. 

Joan began her writing journey with her memoir, 60, Sex & Tango, Confessions of a Beatnik Boomer. Other books followed: I’m the Boss of Me: Stay Sexy, Smart & Strong at Any Age, a compilation of her most popular blogs, and An Accidental Cuban, a thriller set in modern-day Havana. The novel is currently in development for a streaming series. Her recently published book, Once A Homecoming Queen, is a darkly humorous take on senior alcoholism. Joan also adapted Once A Homecoming Queen into an award-winning screenplay. Joan followed her screenplay with a memoir of her mother: Suddenly Jewish, The Life and Times of My Jewish Mother. Her desire to write crime novels led her to Central Texas in the 1970s and to corrupt police departments in small Texas towns. Up From Hell, Echoes of the Past: Crime in Central Texas is Book 1 in a trilogy. Book 2, What Lies Beneath, will be out in late fall.