Paul Richard Surace, LMFT

Paul Surace is a dramatist, producer, actor, and teacher and has been a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist working in Southern California for the past fifteen years. He's earned two Masters Degrees: One in Communication and the other in Clinical Psychology. In his younger years, he put in five years as a stand-up comic working the clubs in and around New York City and Long Island. As a Walt Disney Company Fellowship winner, he wrote and developed several screenplays with his writing partner, one of which (Bullies) went into development with Disney. A second screenplay (Grave Knowledge) also went into development with famed Hollywood producer Lynda Obst. 

Within the last ten years, Surace has written over 30 short plays, some of which have been produced in New York City- Including Grave Knowledge at the American Theater of Actors. His short play, The Last Call, was produced at the Stella Adler Theater in Hollywood. Paul has also written and produced three installments of his evening of original one-act plays called New York State of Mind to mostly sold-out audiences at the Actor's Workout Studio in North Hollywood. Surace's full-length Christmas dramedy, Merry Christmas, Miss Molly, was produced on Theater Row in New York City. Another full-length family drama, Homecoming, was produced at the Sherry Theatre in North Hollywood. He's also written and produced two fundraisers-one with Christmas-themed plays called Tinsel & Coal that raised money for Toys for Tots. The other is called Glimmer of Hope, where all money raised was donated to several suicide Awareness/ Prevention non-profits (i.e., Wounded Warriors, the Trevor Project, and The Society for Prevention of Teen Suicide). Also, Paul has recently collaborated with his writer buddy Matt Healy- to create a TV Sitcom pilot called Malibu Mental Health, which has been entered into several TV writing competitions in hopes it may end up as a possible sitcom series for television. 

As a teacher, Surace taught undergraduate students at St. John's University in Queens, New Yor,k and Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. He also spent several years teaching younger, middle school, and high school students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. As a therapist, Paul taught classes in Communications for Couples, Anger Management, and Work Stress Reduction while working for Kaiser Permanente. Paul's been counseling young teens and adults, couples, and families for several decades in Los Angeles. And is currently working in private practice in Los Angeles. Hearing More Voices is Paul's second published book of short plays, but he promises that there will be more books to follow.