Born and raised in Kansas, Vivian Schilling attended the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute in Los Angeles and also studied under the legendary Stella Adler before embarking upon a dual career as a screenwriter and film actress. Working both in front and behind the cameras in television and motion pictures, she found herself writing and starring in her own films at the age of twenty-three.

With her first feature, the low-budget cult-classic Soultaker, she became known for her original ideas and deft hand with complex supernatural subjects. "A very intriguing premise distinguishes the thriller Soultaker. Young star-scripter Vivian Schilling earns high marks for this effort her innovation for horror/fantasy fans creating a new myth about potential afterlife," said Larry Cohn of Variety. In spite of its limited budget, the film earned Schilling the Saturn Award alongside that year's Silence of the Lambs and Terminator 2.

Schilling went on to star in seven films, among them, Germans, a World War II drama based on the renowned stage play by Leon Kruzchowski, directed by Academy Award Nominee, Zbigniew Kaminski. Her role as a gunslinger in the western, Savage Land, garnered her the Diamond Dove and the Blockbuster Rising Star Award.

Schilling's love of storytelling led to a five year departure from the film business in which she turned to the literary world. "For the first time ever I could control elements of the story that were impossible on film," she told Mystery Scene Magazine in an interview. "There were no budget limits or worries about dwindling light, no schedules, or screaming assistant directors. I was suddenly in control of what my readers saw and heard and smelt. I became consumed with the possibilities and soon found myself caught up in the life of my story like never before. The film continued in my head but with it came a deeper dimension of sight, sound and sensation." Schilling's first novel, Sacred Prey (St. Martin's Press, 1996), was released to favorable reviews and earned the Golden Scroll for Outstanding Achievement in Literature. "Highly respectable writing," touted the Chicago Sun-Times. "Schilling shows deft storytelling ability," said Publisher's Weekly.

Schilling's second effort is the epic novel of suspense, Quietus, which was released by Penguin in 2003 with a mass market edition in September 2005. "A profoundly insightful and engaging thriller," said The Cleveland Plain Dealer. "Quietus is a great gothic raven perched somewhere between Anne Rice and Iris Murdoch. Schilling herself - in her deft melding of mythic animus and modern anxiety - seems like the bastard daughter of Carl Jung and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley," raved Time Out New York.

While diligently at work on her next novel, Schilling maintains a presence in Hollywood. She recently starred in “Ambrose Bierce: Civil War Stories” opposite Campbell Scott, in which she portrays famed writer and feminist, Gertrude Atherton (b.1857-1948). Schilling also recently completed the screenplay “Elixir” which she plans to direct. She divides her time between Los Angeles and Fayetteville, Arkansas.

NOVELS:
Sacred Prey - St. Martin's Press (Mass Market) 1996, Truman Press (Hardcover) 1994
Quietus - Onyx/Penguin Books (Mass Market) 2005, Penguin Books (Trade) 2003, Hannover House (Hardcover) 2002

MOVIES:
Toys in the Attic (2012)- English Adaptation Writer/Producer/Director - Lead Voice Talent
Civil War Stories - Lead Actress
Germans - Lead Actress
Puss In Boots (Animated Feature) - Lead Voice Talent
Savage Land - Lead Actress
Future Shock - Writer/Co-Producer/Lead Actress
In a Moment of Passion - Supporting Actress
The Legend of Wolf Mountain - Supporting Actress
Soultaker - Writer/Co-Producer/Lead Actress

AWARDS:
Golden Scroll Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature
Saturn Award from the Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy & Horror
Diamond Dove Award for contributions to family entertainment
Blockbuster Entertainment Rising Star Award 1998

ASSOCIATIONS:
PEN International
Author's Guild
Screen Actor's Guild/
A.F.T.R.A. - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists

EDUCATION:
Wichita State University (Theater Arts Scholarship)
Lee Strasberg Theater Institute