Bio & Projects - Director/Producer, Facilitator, Songwriter,

Katie Strand is a Songwriter, Storyteller, Dancer, Director, Producer, Writer, Host, Consultant/Coach & Emmy-nominated Documentary Film Producer.

Strand's current & most recent projects are:
CACAO CONNECTION CONCERTS

lots more information on CCCs above!

 THE WIDOW LOVEMORE* 

A one-woman variety show about healing & transmuting grief through movement, connection, creativity and love... a LOVE story told through STORYTELLING, 

MUSIC & DANCE.

NEIGHBORHOOD FOREST, I LOVE TREES*

A mini-documentary video project Strand directed, narrated, wrote, produced and edited, and includes an original love song to trees and highlights the non-profit Neighborhood Forest.

Minnesota Mom on Sex & Stuff!

AKA SEX N STUFF FROM MN W/ LENA MERRYWEATHER

Lena is an educational/comedic character created by Strand. Lena embodies and explores personal growth on sex, relationships, and all kinds of stuff!

*Turning grief to gold &

Going viral with Neighborhood Forest:

Strand continues developing The Widow Lovemore on Rizzle, garnering more than 300,000 channel views. Plans are in the works to make The Widow Lovemore into a 18-minute TED-talk and expand it into an ensemble theatre performance, as well as create a documentary and feature film. Collaborators wanted! 

Strand also produced, wrote,  directed & edited the mini-documentary for Neighborhood Forest "I Love Trees.” Neighborhood Forest has been giving free trees to kids since 2010, but in 2021, they went viral and went from giving away an average of 5000 trees per year to 18,000! Strand's mini-documentary helped raise $50,000 for the non-profit. Neighborhood Forest gave over 18,000 free trees to kids this year!

More projects:

2018 Strand Directed/Produced Rock the Vote with the WNBA,  worked on a Deadpool 2 commercial and produced "Just One of Those Things," an Ella Fitzgerald documentary by Eagle Rock Films. in 2019, Strand produced The Catalyst Content Festival and hosted the official Catalyst podcast. Strand has worked on many projects for HBO, PBS, NBC, MTV, Fox,  BBC, including 4 MTV Music Video Awards, and over 20 national commercials including a Deadpool 2 commercial (featuring Deadpool/Ryan Reynolds & a Unicorn!), and an HBO/Time Warner Super Bowl commercial. 

In addition to the aforementioned film and creative endeavors, Strand also manages organic social media accounts for small businesses and non-profits that have a positive impact.

In additional to creative, music and film projects, Strand loves learning, creating, and movement. Strand plays sings, plays piano, guitar, sails, writes, practices MMA/Martial Arts, Aerial Acrobatics, Stand Up Paddleboarding, and dances Fusion, Swing, Tango, Salsa and Zouk. 

For the better part of 25 years, Strand has been studying & practicing personal growth, health and self-actualization via meditation, Kundalini yoga, movement, and personal growth seminars, which led her to earn a Master’s in Spiritual Psychology in 2008 and become a certified Hypnotherapist in 2010. She earned a Bachelor’s in Communications/Film from UCSD, graduating with honors/magna cum laude.

Hi! I was born in Duluth, Minnesota to a pair of demi-celebrity over-achievers. Both parents earned scholarships to university via academics and athletics, then went on to become prominent teachers, coaches, leaders and members of the Duluth community.

My childhood was full of singing for every family gathering & school concerts, playing piano, guitar, dancing, physical activity/fitness, and learning! My go-to hits to sing, starting at age 3, were famous movie songs, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow," "Somewhere Out There" and "Tomorrow". I loved movies growing up! I wanted to sing in  and make movies… The third of four children, I had the opportunity to learn from my older siblings as well as my parents, peers and teachers. 

Standardized tests revealed a proclivity for language and math, so at age 9,  I was ushered into the nerd-club (SAGE) and was introduced to brainstorming, French, advanced math (The Fibonacci sequence was my first foray into the art of math), creative problem-solving, competed in state-wide scholastic competitions, and was given the opportunity to produce, direct, set-design and costume design two completely original plays that we performed at the state scholastic competition. 

At the same pivotal time in my childhood (around 4th grade/age 9), I was assigned to be the AV-kid, another nerd-honor that gave me the opportunity to learn how to lace and run a film projector!... foreshadowing my career in film!

In high-school, I auditioned and applied for The Perpich Center for Arts Education in the music department, a highly competitive, residential arts high school in Minneapolis, MN, aka hometown of Prince! Only 10% of applicants are accepted.

For college, I ventured to San Diego and put myself through college (teacher-parents didn't have the budget to cover college & living expenses) so I got scholarships and grants, and worked as a personal trainer, Pilates & Yoga instructor from 1998-2002 to fund my education at UCSD. In 2004, I moved to Los Angeles to continue working in film and television. 

My partner/husband Marcus Lovemore and I met in 2008 and spent a few years in Mount Shasta, but my primary home from 2004-2018 was Los Angeles, where I worked on a bevy of film and television projects, played music gigs (Bill Murray came to one of my gigs & demanded an encore!), danced swing, salsa and tango, attended graduate school for a master's in Psychology (University of Santa Monica) and had a beautiful, diverse community. 

When I returned to Minnesota in 2018, due in large part to Marcus’s death, I was fortunate enough to produced/direct Rock The Vote with the WNBA and produce the Catalyst Film Festival. My father actually coached 3 owners/managers of the 5 primary event venues. Both parents continue to receive thank you letters and accolades from past colleagues and students. I owe and attribute many of my qualities (mostly good, but some, perhaps I'd like to trade-in) to my parents, both genetically and environmentally. They were both engaged, talented, loving and supportive humans and parents. 

Despite some turbulence and trauma in my childhood, due primarily to an older brother-bully, and some bullying at school, I remain grateful for how my childhood shaped me and taught me the kind of human I want to be.  

P.S. about my older brother who was a bully... He's a lovely man now. I did a ton of forgiveness and processing of those early childhood traumas, and it worked! We are closer than ever. Also, due to an accident in the family, he was the only family member who attended Marcus's memorial. He was simply awesome during that time -  loving and supportive. We're very close now!) My meditation and personal growth experience and training, spanning over 25 years, and my masters in spiritual psychology helped me process the trauma and forgive so that I have a loving, supportive relationship with my brother. 

For most of 2017, I took care of and held the hand of Marcus Lovemore, my love & life-partner, as he transitioned at the early age of 45. He was a healer, health/fitness expert, sifu/martial arts teacher, mindfulness master/teacher and artist. But more significantly, he was my favorite person on earth, who was on my side and in my corner for close to 9 years. His loss was devastating... but more importantly, transformational.

My solo storytelling & songwriting show, The Widow Lovemore, shares about the experience of Marcus Lovemore transitioning and how I felt connection and communication with him during his final hours and after his death. Every human will experience the death of a loved one... 

Grief is ubiquitous in every human life... it taught me how to do and be with the deepest depths of despair, transmute this intense sadness/loss and grief into creativity, connection, helping others/being of service, and love through curiosity, vulnerability, processing and a willingness to feel and learn from grief... within the galactic heights of love, connection and inspiration. 

Grief will transform us into the best versions of ourselves, if we let it... But it's also the most difficult thing, beyond anything I could've imagined... And it's made me uniquely ready and qualified to coach you through life's biggest challenges and transitions so you are the very best version of yourself.

In March-April 2023, I spent the last month of her terrestrial life with my beloved Mom. In many ways, she was my best friend & most trusted confidant. I miss her every day. Mom's memorial was beautiful & the livestream is available to view.

In July 2024, my father transitioned. He missed my Mom. They spent over 60 years together. After Mom died, Dad said, "I've loved her my whole life..." Dad's memorial was also inspiring & the livestream is available to view.