Deadly Beauty: Horror’s Scream Queens and Rising Talent: Penny Maple
“Penny Maple is a blogger, art model, burlesque performer and actress who grew up in rural West Virginia. She lives in Charleston, West Virginia, with her lovely wife, blogger/model/actress Elle Xohmbeah. She completed her B.A. in French at Marshall University. Penny spent a year teaching English in Douai, France, where she also modeled for L’Ecole d’Art de Douai. Her first film was Eamon Hardiman’s ‘Porkchops’ in summer 2011, the same summer she made her stage debut as Nora in Kanawha Player’s production of Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’. Winter 2012 was spent filming David and Alexis Smith’s ‘Ladybeard’. With Charleston musician Pepper Fandango, she founded Wayward Girls Burlesque and has performed with touring groups like Dangerous Curves Ahead: Burlesque on the go-go! and Pretty Things Peepshow. She continues to work with Razor Sharp Studios, Apt 2B studios and models for Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School’s Charleston chapter.”*
Location: Charleston, WV. I grew up in rural WV, and while I have lived in other states and abroad, this is my home and I don’t see myself moving anytime soon.
1. How did you get into the industry?
I guess my start in the industry was in local director Eamon Hardiman’s Porkchop II, I had a small role (see Mac’s interview with me, I talk about this) and I went on to do wardrobe and costuming for Porkchop 3D, and I also shot a fake trailer with them that’s never been released to my knowledge. In addition to acting, I try to dip my toes into as many aspects of the genre as possible, especially as a blogger on my site, horrorfullife.com, and I recently did a podcast (with That Conversation with Patrick Felton on fb) and got a chance to wax poetic about horror films and feminist readings of them, I really hope to do more of that cause I love to yap and yap about women and horror.
2. What Scream Queen inspired you most?
My Scream Queen is now and probably forever will be Sheryl Lee as Laura Palmer, I’m obsessed with Twin Peaks and Fire Walk With Me – Lynch in general and but those works in particular!
3. What are the next couple projects you are working on?
Upcoming stuff for me? More great articles and interviews on my blog, an untitled short, and another local flick, this one about vampires, currently in production called ‘Where is the Sun?’. Also, my burlesque troupe, Wayward Girls School of Burlesque (check us out on fb!) is hard at work on our fall season gorelesque show (horror themed burlesque!) I’m a volunteer and coordinator for ShockaCon (wvshockacon.com), West Virgnia’s premiere horror and sci fi convention. I also model for Dirt Candy Photography (again, check us out on fb – and I’m PennyMaple on zivity!), a local photography group who loves to explore horror and dark fetish themes. In short, being chained to a day job in the heart of WV limits my options for acting, but I have a lot of other horror endeavors to slake my bloodthirst.
Official Website
IMDB Page
Official Facebook
Twitter Page
*Bio Courtesy of Penny’s IMDB Page
Photo 1 Courtesy of Dirt Candy Photography
Photo 2 Courtesy of Debra Rayhill Photography
Penny is such a pleasure to work with! She made my stay in WV great. She did a great job with wardrobe on Porkchop 3D! I’d recommend her to any filmmaker!