Originally from Chicago, Retta traded freezing cold winters for warm weather, traffic and smog shortly after she graduated from the two-year Second City Chicago Conservatory. Once she moved to LA, she expanded into sketch writing with Acme Comedy where she was a member of the Bravo Sketch Company performing in an SNL style show, creating new material weekly.

She has appeared in over 30 films. Her most notable lead was in the film Parthenabe, which garnered the film the Best Drama Award by the Academy of Television, Arts and Sciences (Emmys). She’s an alum of the Beverly Hills Playhouse and has worked with such significant teachers as Richard Lawson, Milton Katselas, Al Mancini, Wendy Davis, Scott Sedita, Brian Reise and Crista Flanagan.

As a producer, Retta associate produced the feature film Time Toys starring Ed Begley, Jr. Under her own production company, Multi-hyphenate Films, she produced the feature films Get Bossy and Me Three, which were distributed by Cinedigm (now Cineverse) and can be streamed on Amazon Prime. Me Three can also be seen on Apple TV. The most recent feature, Robin’s Hood, is currently in post. As a wearer of many hats, Retta had strong supporting roles in both Me Three and Robin’s Hood.

As head writer for the Los Angeles-based, award-winning production company Create Your Reel, which fully produces custom actor demo reels and independent films, Retta has written over 7000 Minilogues for clients, and penned several short films and a webseries for the CYR family.

For 13 years, Retta volunteered as a one-on-one mentor with the LA non-profit WriteGirl, as well as running their silent auctions. She resides in West Hollywood with her husband and Charlie, the best cat in the world.