Tessa Sophia Rapaczynski was born and raised in New York City, the daughter of two crazy lawyers whom she loves very much. She began her formal education at Columbia Greenhouse Nursery School in Morningside Heights, before entering kindergarten at Brearley on the Upper East Side. For high school, she attended St. Paul’s School, a boarding school in New Hampshire. Tessa graduated cum laude from Columbia University with a major in English and Comparative Literature. She also has a master’s in modernist literature from Oxford.

Seeking sunshine, creative freedom, and fresh avocados, Tessa moved to Los Angeles in 2012. She worked at Warner Brothers in feature film development, after doing the assistant thing at a management/production company. But full-time office life was not her vibe. After a lifetime of striving for success within the context of elite institutions, it was time for a paradigm shift. She quit her job, sold most of her stuff, and became a certified yoga teacher.

From 2015-2022, Tessa taught hot yoga and meditation, while also working as a Story Analyst at United Talent Agency (UTA). These days, she writes for a mindfulness company called Open, based in Venice. Her short-term goals are finishing her pilot, swimming three days a week, and training her puppy to be a very good girl. Her long-term goals are to stay in good mental, physical, and spiritual health, so that she can keep evolving as an artist, friend, and human being.