Renée A. Hermiz
Renée was born and raised around metro Detroit. Her mother owned a bridal boutique and her father worked as a teacher with both mainstream and foreign students. Growing up with parents who immigrated from Iraq, Renée's unique upbringing includes practicing the ancient traditions of her Assyrian and Chaldean heritage. She later discovering that her maternal grandmother was also Russian, among other mixes. Intrigued by the mysteries of the Middle East and the blends of cultures that traverse through the City of Peace, Renée was drawn to story-telling early in life. Her parents and relatives often gathered together, telling tales of their adventures in Baghdad, over tea or Turkish coffee, dried fruit and nuts.
Meanwhile, the early 1980s experienced a fitness and TV-series boom. Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons dominated the airwaves, as did the glamour of Dallas, Dynasty and Soap Operas. While Renée read voraciously and excelled in writing, she took the acting and fitness roads.
Her mother asked that she not pursue a career in show business until after earning a college degree. The very day Renée received her B.A. from Michigan State University, she contacted agents and regional houses. She taught English as a Second Language in public schools and to corporate executives and their families while performing in professional theatres, small films and modeling in print work. She earned her SAG, AFTRA, and AEA cards in her early 20s. The many gigs helped pay off her college loans and inspired her to move to Los Angeles.
It wasn't until she found herself on the red carpet for a movie she was not even in that she realized certain details of fame did not suit her. Ever a lover of stories, she redirected her path towards directing musicals and plays for an afterschool program in L.A. where she found greater fulfillment behind-the-scenes. Retreating to her apartment in Hollywood, she started to write seriously. She left L.A. for New York and got a job as a Spokesmodel for Land Rover/Jaguar, traveling the auto show circuit and promoting the brand at numerous events around the country while researching, interviewing and writing a historic fiction novel on her familial background. She took various writing courses and attended conferences where she learned that her technique needed refining. Pulling away from traveling and entertaining altogether, fitness became the dominant profession supporting her as she wrote. She managed a corporate fitness gym in NYC and honed her skills, blogging, taking more courses, publishing minor works through online magazines involving things she knew off the adage, "write about what you know" - fitness, cars, culture. When her poem was published in Minas Tirith Evening Star, she got a boost that she could accomplish this. In 2019, she married the love of her life and focused on family for some time, pulling away from the grind... still reading and writing but letting time mature her words.
In 2026, she completed her first major work - an upmarket fiction family saga about an Assyrian/Chaldean family's coming of age in America. With many stories in her pocket, this journey in her life is just beginning.