Jen Appel New York • United States of America

Jen Appel is an artist, educator, filmmaker, and founder based in Locust Valley, New York, with professional roots across all five boroughs of New York, including Long Island, New York City, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. She was born in Old Brookville, NY, to parents whose lives reflected the breadth of the city, with her father growing up in the Bronx and her mother coming from Brooklyn. These early ties to place and community shaped a lasting connection to culture, education, and civic life.

For more than 30 years, she has built a career spanning film, education, branding, and civic media. Her work includes theater, film, fine art, and music, while remaining closely connected to teaching advanced humanities subjects such as A.P. U.S. History, U.S. Government, Business, and Entrepreneurship. She has approached education as a space where creative thinking and academic structure support one another.

Alongside classroom work, she has founded initiatives rooted in service and storytelling. She is the founder of Somewhere I Read, a national initiative dedicated to renewing America’s civic imagination, and the creator of 16 Paws, a pet lifestyle brand and children’s book centered on kindness and animal-assisted service.

Jen Appel of New York began her artistic development early after discovering theater during high school, an experience that proved formative. This path led her to New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she earned a full acting scholarship and trained in the Experimental Theatre Wing and at Circle in the Square, building a strong foundation in performance and collaboration.

Jen Appel continued to expand her creative work during and after her formal education, working across acting, directing, music, writing, and fine art. She performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, appeared in film projects, and served as lead singer for multiple alternative rock bands and creative collaborations. Her fine art work has been exhibited in galleries in both the Hamptons and New York City.

These early professional years reflected a willingness to move between disciplines while remaining focused on thoughtful and socially engaged content. Appel explored themes related to identity, community, and responsibility through performance, visual art, and music, without separating creative work from lived experience.

In 1997, Jen Appel founded Risk Productions, a film, television, theater, and music company dedicated to projects that directly address social and cultural issues. Through this work, she wrote, directed, and produced Yes! Damn It, which played to sold-out audiences at The Producer’s Club in New York City.

She later co-produced multiple films and television projects, including the live-action segment of Blue’s Clues for Nickelodeon, one of the most influential children’s programs of its generation. This experience expanded her work into large-scale media while remaining aligned with educational and values-based storytelling.

Over time, she broadened her production efforts through Prinxessa Productions, extending into music publishing and multimedia storytelling. These projects reflected an ongoing interest in how narrative, sound, and visual media can support learning, connection, and public dialogue.

Jen Appel has maintained a sustained commitment to education for more than 30 years. She earned a Master’s degree in Education and English Literature from Long Island University as a Merit Fellow and Magna Cum Laude graduate, completed postgraduate studies, earned U.S. teaching certification, and holds New York State certifications in Secondary Education and English Language Arts, along with certification in the Hochman Writing Revolution.

She has taught across public, private, and independent schools, including Collegiate, City and Country, Stevenson, Friends Academy, Marymount, Trevor Day School, Buckley Country Day School, Dwight Global, and Fairfax County Public Schools. Her roles have included teaching, curriculum development, theater direction, learning support, and private education.

Since 2020, she has collaborated with Dwight Global Online School as a private humanities and arts educator and consultant. She has also completed advanced studies in differentiation and diversity at Harvard University and participated in programs with the Gilder Lehrman Institute under the direction of Professor David Blight of Yale University, continuing to integrate education, civic engagement, and service through her ongoing work.