Ann Brebner is helping to change the face of downtown San Rafael through her successful efforts to renovate and restore the Rafael Theater as a permanent home for the Film Institute of Northern California, which produces the Mill Valley Film Festival.

As a past Board President and current member of the Board of Directors she has, by the strength of her vision, her sensitivity and integrity helped develop the Film Institute into a substantial, widely respected, broadly-based arts organization. She is a founder of the Marin Shakespeare Festival, Northern California Women in Film, has served as an advisor to Bread and Roses, and is a director of the Pickle Family Circus. She was also instrumental in the development of the College of Marin drama program and its theater.

A native of New Zealand, Ms. Brebner abandoned her pursuit of a career as a concert pianist and applied herself first to medicine and finally to theater arts. She studied all aspects of theater at London’s famous Old Vic Theatre School and has directed in New York and the Bay Area. She was President of Brebner Agencies Inc., a respected agency in San Francisco representing writers and actors. Ever fascinated by why we do, what we do and how actors function, she is the author of Setting Free the Actor: Overcoming Creative Blocks. She as two sons, Alexander and Jay.