CrazyHeadSpace Team
Elisabeth Davis - Creator, Composer, Lyricist
Liz Davis fell in love with performing, creating theatre and writing songs from the time she lay her fingers on a toy piano. She began writing, performing and directing in the early 90s; her satirical, irreverent works often addressing issues focused on mental health, institutionalization, political inequity, and interpersonal isolationism so prevalent in today’s culture.
Crazy Head Space was created in 1995 as a celebratory musical tribute honoring those who are labeled, othered, and stigmatized because they happen to be living with a mental illness. Liz, a woman who has bipolar disorder herself, views mental illness as one of the last human conditions still kept in the closet and observes that those living with psychiatric disorders are often the least prioritized and cared for in our culture. She hopes Crazy Head Space will serve as a bridge, unifying people wherever they are on life’s wobbly spectrum of sanity.
Since 2005, Elisabeth has worked as a creative arts therapist in psychiatric hospitals, prisons, medical facilities, and specialized schools. She holds a doctorate in Chinese medicine and currently practices in New York City, where she lives with her Boston Terrier, Nino.
Michelangelo Sosnowitz - Composer, Music Producer
Chances are, you may have already heard Michelangelo Sosnowitz' music in the form of a film score, commercial jingle, teaser, media logo or pop song.
Notable credits include music for HBO's Generation Kill and the opening theme to Battles BC and The Works on the History Channel. Michelangelo has written music for programs on ABC, CBS, PBS, Style Network, USA Network, Lifetime Network, Yes Network, VH1, Univision, ION Television, as well as films on Amazon Prime and most other streaming platforms. He wrote the music to the award-winning comedy series Cop Show, written by and starring Colin Quinn and produced by Jerry Seinfeld. Notable feature film scores include the Dan Fogler directorial debut ‘Hysterical Psycho’, the Deborah Kampmeier films ‘SPLiT’ and ‘Tape’, the Allie Dvorin film ‘A Novel Romance’ and the Julia Verdin films ‘The Lost Girls’ and ‘Maya’.
Along with film and television music, Michelangelo has written commercial music for Animal Planet, Chiller Network, Garnier Fructis, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, SK Energy Drink, Mercedes-Benz, Acuvue, Coke Energy and many more. He has also written music for short films, plays, musicals, ballet, documentaries, video games, podcasts, elevator muzak (seriously!), industrial films and the Jumbotron at MSG. He has won awards for original music in film and theater including Best Score at the First Run Film Festival and Best Score at the Midtown International Theater Festival.
Michelangelo is also a prolific recording artist, writing and producing albums and songs for several artists across different styles of music. He has placed songs high on the CMJ charts as well as satellite, domestic and internet radio.
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Deborah Twiss - Director, Creative
Deborah went to New York City to study acting when she was 17 and quickly got involved in also writing and producing indie films. Her first feature, A Gun For Jennifer (1997), went to over 27 film festivals and is a European cult hit. She then produced and starred in the indie Molotov Samba. Shortly after, with her eighteen month old son in a stroller and her baby girl on her chest in a Bjorn, Deborah wrote, starred in and directed In-Between, a supernatural 9/11 thriller.
She also wrote, starred in and directed A Cry From Within starring Eric Roberts, Cathy Moriarty and James McCaffrey to be followed by Confidence Game featuring Sean Young, James McCaffrey and Robert Clohessy.
In the last couple years, Deborah has begun the dive into the exciting world of episodics and wrote, produced and starred in the supernatural thriller pilot A Beautiful Distraction (starring Sean Young, Adrian Paul and Vivica Fox). In fall of 2022, her first season of Crazytown (a dark comedy about the strip club world), premieres on streaming platforms globally.
Sapiosexual, a dark sexy thriller, is her most recent feature, debuting fall 2022. Deborah is also in pre-production for Fragmented, a thriller she is starring in and producing, shooting in spring 2023.
Her Director's Cut of Sebastien (A Cry From Within), with 20 minutes of additional footage featuring Tom Pelphrey, premiered on TubiTV December 1, 2021 and is a top performer for distributor Breaking Glass Pictures.
Stann Nakazono - Assistant Director, Producer
Stann is a writer, editor, producer and director.
In 1997, he produced his first feature film, HANG YOUR DOG IN THE WIND. After screening around the world, it won the Special Jury Prize at the 1997 Florida Film Festival. He co-directed his next feature, 1999’s MUCH ADOBO ABOUT NOTHING, nominated for Best Independent Feature by A. Magazine.
He has produced and directed several award-winning shorts. He directed and screened a 16mm short documentary e-z rock: asian-american breakdancer in film fests across the country. His production of the acclaimed live action/animated short AN I WITHIN won the Best Cinematography Kodak Award at the 1999 Florida Film Festival, Special Achievement Award at the USA Film Festival and Best American Short at the L.A. Short Film Festival. He directed first love, a music video about the World War II Japanese- American internment camps, featured at the 2000 New York Asian American International Film Festival and the Directors’ Guild of America in Los Angeles in May 2001.
.After his move to the East Coast, he produced, shot and co-edited his next feature film, IN-BETWEEN, directed by Deborah Twiss which premiered in 2005 at Cannes in France. It screened at Germany’s Oldenburg Film Festival and the Global Peace Film Festival in Japan in 2006.
Along with his film credits, Stann has worked with The Actors’ Gang, an ensemble theater group in Los Angeles headed by actor Tim Robbins. In August 2004, he received the Ruby Yoshino-Schaar Playwriting Award, sponsored by the JACL (Japanese American Citizens’ League) for his play, buddhaheadz.com. Stann has also created film festivals: he gained worldwide notoriety when he co-founded the Slumdance Experience, the upstart alternative to the Sundance Film Festival in 1997 at Park City, Utah, and helped kick-start the Asian American 72-Hour Film Shootout in New York City.
Along with Deborah Twiss, as part of LucStar Productions, he co-produced feature films SEBASTIEN (2020), SAPIOSEXUAL (2022) and streaming series CRAZYTOWN (2022), among others.
Hilary Braunfeld - Executive Producer
Hilary is an experienced retail executive who has managed up to 5 billion dollars for companies such as Macy’s Inc. and Saks Off Fifth. Her ability to forecast and manage budgets of all shapes and sizes led to a natural transition to producing. She went on to produce the film Split, by Deborah Kampmeier in 2016 for which she was an Executive Producer. Hilary’s love for the arts started at an early age. Her mother was a professional ballerina, and exposed Hilary to the theater world in NYC. She was in the film, “Top Banana” (1954). Hilary met Michelangelo in 2002; soon after meeting, she heard a few songs from CHS and instantly felt connected to the musical and its subject matter as her mom suffered from mental illness. In 2009, Hilary played a pivotal role in the reprisal of CHS, in its off-off-Broadway debut in NYC. At one of the sold-out Crazy Head Space shows, Hilary sat next to Michelangelo’s cousin, Jeorjie, with whom there was an immediate bond while watching the performance.
Jeorjie Ornstein - Executive Producer
Jeorjie has spent her career producing live events for global clientele including movie premieres, store & hotel openings, and social gatherings. Skilled at evaluating and recommending innovative enhancements to projects to create industry exposure and increase business opportunities, Jeorjie has been able to maximize any budget to meet client needs and expectations. The daughter of an actor and model, she grew up in and around the entertainment industry and all that comes with it. Jeorjie’s biological mom, an artist, lived in her own fantastical reality, struggling with mental illness from a very young age. In 2009, Jeorjie went to see her cousin Michelangelo’s musical, CHS, which hit extremely close to home. Witnessing this incredibly moving story, she knew she needed to be involved in bringing it to the world, and why not start off on the big screen!