about kristen

Kristen Vermilyea is an interdisciplinary artist focusing on themes of identity, transgression, aging, gender, sexuality, taboo and feminism. These themes come to life through means of film, theater, writing, comedy, curating, performance and installation art and, more often than not, a combination of several of these disciplines.

She began her acting career in local community theater at age 12, belting out show tunes and attempting to dance without breaking something. Upon graduating from the University of New Hampshire, where she studied English and Musical Theater, she spent the next decade working in film, television and theater doing everything from casting, acting and producing to directing, fundraising and location scouting. She even starred as the ‘Harley Girl’ in a series of Harley Davidson commercials.

She co-founded and was Executive Producer at gel films in Portsmouth, NH where she became familiar with the film festival circuit and the intricacies of co-productions and larger film budgets.

During this time, she landed the role of the mother (and served as Associate Producer) in the short film, CELEBRATION, which went on to win the Teddy Award at the Berlinale Film Festival in 2001.

In 1999, she moved to Manhattan to pursue an acting career which resulted in roles in films such as FUNNY VALENTINE with Anthony Michael Hall and a recurring role as Nurse Ginny on NBC’s Third Watch. She also originated the role of Emily Shackleton in the off-Broadway production of “Meet the Real Ernest Shackleton”.

Always an entrepreneur at heart, she couldn’t stay away from the business side of things and joined the film production /internet company MovieBacker and served as VP of Development and Acquisitions in 2000.

While in New York, Kristen met and became partners with Stacia Crawford and they began writing together. In the end, they produced a piece of Stacia’s entitled STRAIGHT FORWARD which was shot at Kristen’s family farm in New Hampshire. A 1940’s Film Noir Thriller, the film won Best NH Film at the 2007 SNOB Film Festival and was distributed by Echelon Films.

Kristen stayed in NH upon the completion of STRAIGHT FORWARD and worked for the NH Department of Cultural Resources as a marketing and PR specialist and worked closely with the NH State Film Office.

Since 2008, she has lived and worked in Zurich, Switzerland where she wrote and directed the short films SCHRIEBEBLOCKADE, and 57 STEPS, which is about women and laundry. While living in Zurich, she embarked on the journey of going back to school, and in July 2013, was awarded an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.

As a curator she created the ongoing Feminist Onesie Project, which focuses on themes of gender, identity, motherhood, labeling and the history of advice-giving.

She has written about everything from her run in with Sir Richard Branson in the Alps and the relationship between the lack of women’s pubic hair and porn to the word bitch and ex-pat motherhood.

In 2013, she created a performance/installation art project entitled “The Weight of Breasts”. She performed the piece at the Goddard Art Crawl and then was asked to come to NXNE in Toronto to perform the piece as part of the inaugural year of the arts portion of the festival.

Her 2018 debut feature documentary, “Beyond Boobs”, commissioned by Arte and SRF, has been shown in over 15 countries and can still be found on PlaySuisse.

Her TEDx Zurich talk, “It’s Okay to Look”, also about breasts, objectification and bodies has over 1.4 million hits on YouTube.

She has written two plays, one, a memoir solo show entitled A Very Good Bad Girl and the other, a character-driven one woman show, Bronwen Darling: My Breast Advice.

Previously, she was the host of ZFF Daily, the Zurich Film Festival daily television show., she reviewed movies and restaurants for www.mygirlfriendguide.com, co-hosted a movie review TV show, MovieTalk, with Robin Rehmann and was one of the women behind moviesbitches.com.

She is currently developing a hybrid documentary film, “Death Virgin”, about her experience of not having experienced death closely and how she can prepare herself for the inevitable.

In preparation for the film, she trained to become a death doula at INELDA, started the Zurich Death Salon summer of 2024, and launched a podcast - also called Death Virgin.

She is also in development on a coming-of-age feminist feature, “Go with the Flow”, an 80s homage ski “locals vs. corporate greed” feature, “Charley’s Snow Angels”.

Her artistic influences include Sophie Calle, VALLIE EXPORT, Spalding Gray, Judy Chicago, Annie Sprinkle, Tracey Ullman and Karen Finley.