Vanessa Vassar grew up in California and received degrees in Communication Arts and English from Loyola Marymount University. She began her professional career as a writer and editor at Rhythm Magazine in Los Angeles and Stagebill in New York City. She then moved into the world of film and television at MTV-NY, where she conceptualized and eventually directed image campaigns like Tomorrow Today and Reality Ruins Everything. 

With the opportunity to be based in Berlin just after the Berlin Wall came down, Vanessa relocated and worked as an MTV liaison for the first European MTV Music Awards. She co-founded a film/television production company, TRACKS, and directed several music videos featured on MTV- Europe for PolyGram and Warner Records. While Vanessa was immersed in the music industry, she was also inspired to write, perform, and record three albums with her band Phonoroid. Two Many Frames, Not on the Map and Craving Astonishment were all released by Intuition Music, London.

After ten years in Europe, Vanessa returned to the United States where she settled with her husband and young daughter in New Mexico. She worked in production at Mountainair Films for feature film producer Alton Walpole. She also wrote and directed the short film Billy featuring actor Jill Scott Momaday, based on an excerpt from author N. Scott Momaday, as well as the retrospective film Darren Vigil Gray: Counterclockwise for the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. Vanessa’s documentary films American Waitress and Cinderellas of Santa Fe combined her writing, directing and original Phonoroid music and were featured in many festivals as well as on the Sundance Channel, The Documentary Channel and Rialto-TV.

When Vanessa’s young daughter passed away, she retreated into the natural world for several years where farm goats unexpectedly became her primary healers and teachers. After her son was born, she was given three baby goats and was inspired to author the award-winning children’s book Evan and the Skygoats, illustrated by Ophelia Cornet and published by Leaf Storm Press. 

Vanessa most recently published her short story, Strangers, in The Sun magazine. She continues her love of storytelling through photography and writing. She often employs these skills in support of awarding music scholarships to youth in her role on the Sky Velvet Vassar Music Foundation’s Board of Directors.

Vanessa currently lives with her family in Albuquerque, New Mexico.