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 the Brearley School on the Upper East Side. After attending boarding school at St. Paul’s in New Hampshire, Tessa graduated cum laude from Columbia University with a major in English and Comparative Literature. She also holds a master’s in modernist literature from Oxford.
Since 2012, Tessa has lived in Los Angeles. She worked briefly as an assistant at a boutique production company and then at Warner Brothers in feature film development. In 2014, after a lifetime of striving for achievement within the context of elite institutions, Tessa paradigm-shifted. She quit her job, sold or donated most of her possessions, and began an earnest search for a purpose-driven life (and more free time to spend painting in her underwear).
These days, Tessa teaches yoga and meditation, and leads teacher training programs and workshops. She is a literary analyst at United Talent Agency. She writes, paints, and makes music – to varying degrees of skill and talent. Her short-term goals are to spend less time on her phone, eat fewer animal products, and finish her unfinished creative projects. Her long-term goal is to stay in good mental, physical, and spiritual health so she can keep evolving as an artist, friend, and human being.
