Vivian Schilling is an accomplished novelist, screenwriter, actor and filmmaker. Born and raised in Kansas, she attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in Los Angeles and also studied under the legendary Stella Adler before embarking upon a multifaceted career. Working both in front and behind the camera, she began writing and starring in her own films at the age of 23.

With her first feature, the low-budget cult-classic Soultaker (1990), she became known for her original ideas and deft hand with complex supernatural subjects.In spite of its limited budget, the film earned Schilling the Saturn Award in 1992 alongside that year's The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).