One Very Busy Mother Who Has Found Success … Doing It All
By Donald B. Kravitz
Along with her co-starring role in the television series Blue Bloods, her Scary Mommy commercial for Welch’s Fruit Snack has had more than 2.3 million views so far for Heather Brittian O’Scanlan, which is just one of the activities that have garnered her so much acclaim.
When do you decide what you want to be when you grow up? For some people, they really never know what they want to do or be, for others they know before they are five as it was for Heather Brittain O’Scanlon.
Who is Heather Brittian O’Scanlon? Well, I can tell you from personal experience that she is a very busy lady. She is a mother; a wife; film actor; producer and writer. She has two school age children, a son sixteen years of age and a daughter thirteen years old. She has been married ten years to Declan O’Scanlon who is a New Jersey State Senator representing the 13th Legislative District in Mommouth County, NJ.
Heather is an award-winning actor and filmmaker, who is becoming a regular fixture on the independent film scene. She is President of SOS Productions, a film production company and a member of the board of directors for the Garden State Film Festival, New Jersey’s Premier Independent Film Festival. She produced, co-wrote and co-stars in the award-winning short film “House Broken”, which is available to rent or own on Amazon and Amazon Prime as of October 1st!
When asked how and when she decided to become an actor, O’Scanlan replied with a giggle, “The first time I thought about it was when I was about three years old I was watching Donny and Marie on television and my dad had a microphone that he hooked up to our system so I could sing along and that was the first time I knew I wanted to perform.” From that day forward, O’Scanlon chased her dream, “I performed throughout my elementary, middle and high school days and even into college in every show the schools presented.”
However, her career did not blossom after college. “I moved to Los Angeles (LA) when I was 21 to pursue the dream, but at that age I was rather aimless so I was waiting tables hoping to be discovered. I was an extra in a couple of things and was in an Independent film but to be honest, I wasn’t truly pursuing it I was just enjoying being twentyone in LA.”
After a couple of years of chasing her dream things changed. “I wasn’t really enjoying it and felt the need to have a 401K and health benefits so I went and got a real job as a consultant for a wireless telecommunications company which I did for a number of years then finally moved back home. It was during that time that I met and married Declan and settled into, I guess you would call it …. that life …. homemaker, mother, wife, until I had my mid-life crisis,” recounted O’Scanlon.
O’Scanlon’s acting career was something that she always thought she would once again go after once she was done having children and raising their family. A few years later that thought process became a reality. “Declan and I decided that we were not going to have anymore children and things were going wonderful at home so I guess you could say I gave birth to my new acting pursuit. I started back in community theater here in Monmouth County. During my first audition I was so nervous and scared but the minute I stepped out on the stage and under the lights I knew this is where I belong. I knew I was home,” quickly adding with a burst of laughter “poor Declan did not know what he was getting into!”
O’Scanlon is on the Board of Directors of the Garden State Film Festival (GSFF) the premier film festival for Independent Films. GSFF was held in Atlantic City for a number of years but has recently moved to Asbury Park, NJ. “I got involved with the GSFF about four years ago when I was acting in a commercial. Lauren Concar Sheehy was the producer and we were talking about the festival and she said you should come, so Declan and I went to the last night and met some wonderful people and had a great time. You know, as a politicians wife, we go to a lot of fundraisers and you always hope it will be a good and warm experience. In the case of the GSFF it pushed all the right buttons for me. The people, the event were all wonderful and warm and I just felt like I wanted to be a part.”
It’s a balancing act trying to manage a family, home, support both her husbands and her own career at the same time. O’Scanlon admits, “I am better at it some days than others,” she said with a giggle. “It all begins with family … family always comes first. After the family is settled I divide the rest of my time with all those things that need to get done. I don’t get a lot of sleep sometimes, but I love my life even when my kids see me on screen or in a commercial and I get the … oh gee mom eye roll.”
Heather Brittian O’Scanlon recently filmed a co-star role on Blue Bloods (CBS) which is believed to air the last week of October. (It is the fifth episode this season). She will be making the festival circuit in several new films including, “Tom’s Dilemma”, a feature directed by Miguel Gluckstern, and produced by the Sundance award-winning Darren Dean (“The Florida Project”, “Tangerine”), “As It Seems”, a Nancy Menagh film, in which Heather has the lead role, the Vimeo Staff Pick “At The End Of The Cul-De-Sac”, a Paul Trillo film which was featured in TIME Magazine and premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival 2017, and “Therapy, Bro”, directed by John Hedlund and starring Francesco Nuzzi (“Star Crossed Lovers”, Wally Marzano-Lesnevich (“Almost Paris”) and Garry Pastore (HBO’s “The Deuce”).
She produced, co-wrote and co-stars in the award-winning short film “House Broken”, which is available to rent or own on Amazon and Amazon Prime on October 1st! She is currently in pre-production with the 1970’s thriller “Victim No. 6”, shooting Spring 2019!
**All Photos by Donald B Kravitz
