While earning her BA in theater at Loyola University, Kathleen studied directing under Jonathan Wilson. Since arriving in Los Angeles she has performed in and directed productions at The Attic and Spotlight Theatre Companies as well as the Women’s Playwright Outreach Project. She directed for MACHA Theatre’s Latina Arts Celebration at the Ford in 2003 and the award-winning production of Cake for the 2004 USC Masters Playwriting Program’s One Act Festival. She directed several staged readings for the Association of Los Angeles Playwrights (ALAP) where she was introduced to Mary Casey’s Unspeakable Acts first for its performance as the winner ALAP’s 2009 Gay and Lesbian Playwrights’ Festival. She directed the piece again for the LA Women’s Theatre Project at the Stella Adler later that year and, most recently to celebrate its inclusion in the collection of the Lesbian & Queer Plays from the Jane Chambers Prize in 2018.

Kathleen directed her first film, Pam, in 2015, which she also wrote and produced. It has screened at three festivals — the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival and the Lady Filmmaker’s Festival in Los Angeles, and the Midwest International Film Festival in Aurora, Illinois.