“Safety Godmother” Ellen Snortland is the writer, director, and producer of the award-winning feature-length documentary film “Beauty Bites Beast — Revealing Missing Conversations about Ending Violence.” Ellen is an author, actor, attorney, radio and TV personality, columnist and writing coach. As a self-defense advocate and instructor, she’s worked tirelessly for decades teaching women and girls to fight back against violence.
Ellen grew up in Colorado and South Dakota and set out early in life to be a Renaissance Woman. She made her way to California by the time she was 17 and has never looked back. She earned a Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School, co-founded the first all-female theater company in the early 70s, acted in and directed several TV shows during the 80s, attended the 4th United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing, the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, and annual UN meetings as an NGO delegate and journalist, served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the National Women’s History Project, and much more.
Ellen’s work as an author, self-defense advocate and instructor has been featured on Dateline NBC. Her ground-breaking book, “Beauty Bites Beast,” is considered a classic in the violence prevention field and is now in its Third Edition. She also co-authored the 2015 book “The Safety Godmothers: the ABCs of Awareness, Boundaries, and Confidence for Teens” with Lisa Gaeta, founder and CEO of IMPACT Personal Safety of Southern California, a leading trainer in full-force, adrenaline-based self-defense. An LA Press Club award-winning columnist for the Pasadena Weekly and the Huffington Post, Ellen is a tireless advocate for women and girls and physical safety for all. Her acclaimed one-woman show, “Now That She’s Gone,” is a comic memoir about growing up Norwegian American; it has been performed all over the world. Ellen serves on several boards, including Consumer Watchdog, IMPACT Personal Safety, and 50-50 Leadership, a non-profit that envisions more women and girls in leadership positions. She and her husband Ken Gruberman, a Grammy Award-winning music supervisor, live in Altadena, California. For more information, visit www.BeautyBitesBeast.com