Obsessed with Clark Gable, Frank Capra and the black and white happy endings of the thirties, Nicole Conn has been a die-hard romantic from the age of ten.

Throughout her life Conn never paused in her love affair with old movies. But as with many young romantic artists, Conn fell prey to a bohemian lifestyle, confusing intoxication with inspiration, the excesses of which crop up thematically in her work, as well as her novel, 1995's Passion's Shadow. (Simon Schuster)

Born in 1959 in Mesa, Arizona, Conn attended Elliott Business College in Portland, Oregon. She graduated with a 4.0 GPA and became a Business Manager and Controller. The experience served her well when she originated Demi-Monde Productions in 1987, a company dedicated to making films that resonant with the viewer's heart. The company provided the arena for Conn to return to her first love: writing and creating stories about women, their issues, and in turn using strong female characters to deliver each story's theme.

She single-handedly raised the financing, and wrote and directed Claire of the Moon, the maverick film about a woman's journey to her sexual identity. The film garnered rave reviews and paved the way for lesbian themed cinema. Conn also created a first for lesbian cinema: ancillary in the form of a novelization, making-of documentary, soundtracks, posters, t-shirts, etc. She followed this project with the award winning short film, Cynara: Poetry in Motion. Angel Wings (Simon Schuster), a new age love story, published in 1997. The script adaptation for Angel Wings won the 2001 Telluride Film Festival's Best Screenplay Award. In another pioneering effort The Wedding Dress was chosen by TimeWarner/AOL for its new internet endeavor ipublish in June 2001. She Walks in Beauty was published in September 2001 and is her favorite lesbian-themed novel.

Conn achieved industry recognition with her film Claire of the Moon and was a finalist in the prestigious Academy of Motion Arts and Science's Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship. She has written five novels, a teleplay, eight screenplays, produced two soundtracks and produced and directed the most successful lesbian documentary ever made, Moments. Conn's most recent film, the 12-time best documentary winnerlittle man, is based on her son's premature birth and subsequent 5 month hospital stay in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She and her partner, Gwendolyn Baba, a political activist, share a home in Los Angeles with their precocious daughter and new son.

Conn believes in giving back to the community and has sponsored the Claire of the Moon Scholarship since 1998 awarded to second time novelists through the ASTRAEA Foundation.