Janet Greek grew up in Ohio, attended Wittenberg University, and married a week before graduating. Three years later she weathered her first divorce, losing everything in court in spite of solid legal representation. Her home, her business, even her dog went to her ex. Painfully she learned that the legal system is not necessarily interested in “justice” or “fairness”, and that trusting that system to take care of you can be perceived as naïve, a weakness to be exploited. Poorer, but wiser, she moved to California. After earning her Masters degree in directing from University of California at San Francisco, she headed to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film. Eventually, she married again.

Flash forward seventeen years. After ten years of marriage, she faced another divorce. This time, however, she was thirty-nine (forty-one by the time it was over) and determined to be smarter, tougher, and not repeat her previous mistakes. She did her research, gathered information, met with her lawyer, accountant and therapist regularly, and still lost her half of the community property in a community property state (California). Part of the problem was that extreme stress and emotional abuse took a huge toll. Furthermore, she had no idea how to hire a divorce lawyer, so ended up hiring one a friend used for a prenuptial. The recommendation: he was really nice and didn’t like to fight, which was exactly the opposite of what she needed.

Once the process was underway, she found it difficult to gather and organize information, remember conversations she’s had with her spouse (with their attendant threats and promises), and just function in life. If she discussed something important with her therapist, she couldn’t always remember to mention it to her lawyer, or she’d remember she needed to tell him something, but forget exactly what it was. After she met with her lawyer, she wouldn’t always remember to pass on the financial questions to her accountant, or take emotional issues that surfaced to her therapist.

She realized after the fact that she could have helped her lawyer mount a considerably more effective defense if she’d written down all her important financial information and subsequent meeting notes in a format she could cross-reference easily. Unfortunately, much of the strategy and decision-making was left up to her (by her lawyer), and she was in no emotional condition to recall all the details she often needed to make informed choices.

Over the next few years Greek was often asked to advise friends and friends of friends in similar circumstances, as a result of her own experience. She gradually developed a basic set of guidelines that have become the concept for her book The Divorce Planner.

Professionally, Janet Greek has worked as a feature film and television writer in Hollywood for twenty years. She has written seven feature films, three movies for television, and one series as a staff writer. Janet has also been a film director for nineteen years, with two feature films, one cable movie and over fifteen prime time television series to her credit.

As her own directing career gained momentum, she began to mentor other women who aspired to directing careers in Hollywood. In addition, she has taught directing seminars for women in the United States and Canada. These experiences have raised her awareness of the importance of supporting other women in their career struggles as well as in their personal lives. Often the two are inseparable.

Janet Greek is available for speaking engagements to professsionals and womens groups. Contact her if your group is interested.

Janet Greek is a member of the Directors Guild of America

Janet Greek Film Credits at IMDb

The SadGeezers Guide to Cult TV & Sci Fi: Babylon 5 Episodes (Janet Greek directed several episodes.)