Joni is a TV writer, journalist, author, award-winning playwright, and now, with The Secret Notes of Professor Thomas (co-written with Joshua Townshend-Zellner), an award-winning screenplay writer. The script was The Plaza Classic Screenplay Winner, 2022. Subsequently, Impossible Dream Ent. (‘Get Out’, ‘Black KKKlansman’, and ‘Dayshift’ with Jamie Foxx) and Johnny Arreola, CEO, Vision Studios, (‘Then and Now’ with Armande Assante) began actively supporting its development.
Many of her stage plays have won awards, been honored, extended, optioned, and performed across the US and as far as Australia, most notably “Beethoven and Misfortune Cookies,” “For Pete’s Sake” (as JR Sussman) and “The Green Grocer.”
After studying classical piano at The Interlochen Arts Academy during her early teens, Ravenna returned to LA where she sang in a band for a year, before attending and graduating from USC. She met her husband, Mitchell Reed Sussman, during the run of her first play, “A Brush With Fate” at the West Coast Ensemble Theatre. Together they created Raven Productions, LLC, producer of the ACE-Nominated 36-part TV series, “Great Sports Vacations” for The Travel Channel, (Later licensed to Fox Sports Net, STAR TV (Asia) & SKY TV (Great Britain); the 13 part eco-series, “EARTH TREK” (PBS), “Ticket to Adventure” (Outdoor Life Network) “The Donovan Concert, Live in LA“ (Apple TV), “Judy, Frank and Dean’ (PBS), “Latin Legends of Music with Julio Iglesias” (PBS). Ravenna has also written and produced select segments for E! and ESPN.
As a journalist, she has interviewed such athletes, artists and authors as Lindsey Davenport, Brad Pitt, Sugar Ray Leonard, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Jenny McCarthy, Sean Connery, and many others. But her most treasured memory is working with the legendary director, David Lynch, during production of “The Donovan Concert, Live in LA” which was shot before an SRO audience at the Kodak (Dolby.) “He’s one of the kindest men I’ve ever met,” she says.
Joni is co-author of, “You Let Some GIRL Beat You? – The Ann Meyers Drysdale Story,” which Forbes called, “A stunning portrayal of one of today’s legendary women’s basketball treasures,” and which was selected by The Pipeline Group, and then Walden Media in 2020 after placing runner-up to the winner from more than 1700 published books.