Christina Grace (nee Prousalis) McDowell
Born
Christina Grace Prousalis

March 14, 1985
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Occupations
  • Author
  • actress
  • filmmaker
Websitehttps://www.christinamcdowell.com/

Christina McDowell (Born March 14, 1985[1]) is an American author,[2] actress, and filmmaker,[1] best known for her debut novel, After Perfect.[3]

Early life

McDowell was born on March 14, 1985, in Washington, D.C., to Gayle L. (née McDowell) Prousalis and Thomas T. Prousalis, Jr., a prominent Washington, D.C., securities attorney and former decorated Air Force fighter pilot. McDowell had a privileged upbringing as the middle of three sisters, and the family resided in the wealthy Washington, D.C., suburb of McLean, Virginia[4] around the corner from "Hickory Hill," the well-known Kennedy Estate.  McDowell was an honors graduate of St Andrew's Episcopal High School[5] a private school in suburban Washington, D.C. McDowell attended Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, but did not graduate, withdrawing from the university after her freshman year due to her father's legal troubles, resulting in her family's financial collapse.[6]

Writing

On December 26, 2013, McDowell penned an op-ed for the LA Weekly[7] criticizing the Hollywood film The Wolf of Wall Street and lambasting Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese for glorifying greed and "psychopathic behavior" that destroyed families like her own. Her LA Weekly op-ed went viral receiving more than 3.7 million page views[8] and generating international coverage, including a piece in The Guardian calling international attention to her personal strife and family drama.[9] Less than a month after McDowell's op-ed was initially published, several publishing houses expressed interest in McDowell writing a novel about the events of her life, her father's legal troubles, and her subsequent downward spiral.[10]

Her 2015 memoir, After Perfect, details her family's implosion and her personal experience with poverty, depression, drug addiction, and redemption.[11] One critic wrote that it was "a brutally honest, cautionary tale about one family's destruction in the wake of the Wall Street implosion," and it has also been described as "a rare, insider's perspective on the collateral damage of a fall from grace[12]". The book was listed as a must-read in publications and digital journals including the Village Voice, PopSugar,[13] Oprah's O magazine, and People Magazine.[8] In numerous interviews, McDowell discusses the transformative power of writing and how crafting her memoir was a form of catharsis[14][15] in the wake of much pain and loss.

After Perfect was published by Gallery Books[16]—an imprint of Simon & Schuster—in 2015[2] and is currently being adapted for the screen by writer/director Elizabeth Chomko.

McDowell's second book, The Cave Dwellers, an examination of high society in Washington, D.C., was released by Simon and Schuster in 2020.[17]

Awards and accolades

The Village Voice: 15 Books You Need to Read in 2015[18]

PopSugar: Best of June[13]

O Magazine: Season's Best Biography and Memoir

People Magazine: Twelve Best Summer Beach Books[19]

Bliss, Beauty, and Beyond: Bachelorette Poolside Picks

Brit and Co: 15 Must Read Books Coming Out This June[20]

Other work

In the years since her author debut, McDowell has become an advocate for restorative justice and criminal justice reform.[14] Alongside Oscar-nominated producer, Matthew Cooke, McDowell is the co-producer of the documentary, "Survivor's Guide to Prison" about America's mass incarceration crisis, released in 2018. Additionally, she is involved with the non-profit InsideOUT Writers[21] (an organization that helps incarcerated youth by leveraging creative writing as a catalyst for personal transformation), and POPS (an LA-based non-profit that provides support for kids and teens with family members in prison).[22]

Miscellaneous

McDowell owns a small Havanese dog named Zelda Fitzgerald.[23][8]

References

  1. 1 2 "Christina McDowell". IMDb. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  2. 1 2 "Christina McDowell". Simon & Schuster. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  3. ↑ "'Wolf of Wall Street' Victim Signs Book Deal". The Hollywood Reporter. 4 February 2014. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  4. ↑ "After Perfect". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  5. ↑ "The Story Teller: Christina McDowell '03". St. Andrew's Episcopal School - MD. 2019-08-15. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  6. ↑ Loftus, Lauren (2015-07-13). "Their family ties were defined by money. Suddenly, the money was gone". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  7. ↑ "An Open Letter to the Makers of The Wolf of Wall Street, and the Wolf Himself". LA Weekly. 2013-12-26. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  8. 1 2 3 Farabee, Mindy (2015-07-21). "The Woman Who Stood Up to The Wolf of Wall Street Has a Memoir About Her Downward Spiral". LA Weekly. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  9. ↑ Child, Ben (2013-12-30). "The Wolf of Wall Street criticized for 'glorifying psychopathic behaviour'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  10. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (2014-02-03). "'Open Letter To The Makers Of 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' Writer Christina McDowell Gets Book Deal". Deadline. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  11. ↑ "Christina McDowell". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  12. ↑ "After Perfect: A Daughter's Memoir | IndieBound.org". www.indiebound.org. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  13. 1 2 Meyers, Laura Marie (2015-06-15). "After Perfect: A Daughter's Memoir". POPSUGAR Entertainment. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  14. 1 2 "A Conversation with Christina McDowell". Spirit of Story | Karin Gutman. 20 October 2018. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  15. ↑ Palmer, Nancy Doyle (2015-06-01). "After Perfect -- Christina McDowell Rediscovers Wealth and Worth". HuffPost. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  16. ↑ "After Perfect". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
  17. ↑ "Who's Next". washingtonlife.com. Archived from the original on 2019-10-09. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  18. ↑ "Village Voice 0729 Page 13". digitalissue.villagevoice.com. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  19. ↑ McDowell, Christina (2016-04-19). After Perfect: A Daughter's Memoir. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781476785417.
  20. ↑ "The 15 Must-Read Books Coming Out This June". Brit + Co. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  21. ↑ "Christina McDowell on Her Life After Perfect". www.metro.us. 3 June 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-04-03. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  22. ↑ "Casino Masquerade to Support POPS". The Good Men Project. 2018-10-14. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  23. ↑ anna (2015-07-20). "Interview with Christina McDowell, author of After Perfect". NewInBooks. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
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