Marie Pizano

Early life and education

Marie Valentina Pizano was born in Cook County Hospital, Chicago, Illinois, on May 15, 1970 to a single mother who often had to pay for food with food stamps. At the age of five, Pizano was sent to live with her grandparents while her mother looked for work. Her mother’s second husband is the man Pizano considers her father.

She graduated from T.F. North High School in 1988 where she served as water girl and manager for the varsity football team from 1986-1988 after challenging the school to allow girls on the team. She turned down a partial volleyball scholarship at St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois. Pizano attended junior college before transferring to Columbia College of the Arts. During her time in the financial industry in the 1990s, Pizano attended South Suburban College, where she pursued a degree in business

Pizano started her own business at age 13 taking out garbage in apartment high rises and then had newspaper routes then in high school. She worked at Bally Chicago Health Club in 1987 and was the youngest aerobic instructor. Pizano also modeled and entered pageants as a way to make extra money. In 1987 she was crowned Ms Calumet City. Her winning performance was a dance to the song, “Pleasure Principal” by Janet Jackson. She ended the dance with the moon walk. Plans to go to Hollywood to become an actress were sidelined by a motorcycle accident.

Life-changing accident

In the evening of June 21, 1988, Pizano was the passenger on the back of a motorcycle that was hit by a Dodge automobile. The knee of her right leg got caught in one of the headlights, centimeters from a main artery in her leg. It took over 280 stitches, combined internally and externally to close the wound. The injury ended Pizano’s career as an aerobics instructor along with her acting dreams. She could no longer fulfill her modeling contract.

Career

As her leg healed, she worked with a talent agency who got her cast as an extra in movies. A photographer helped her develop a portfolio that he used to help Pizano break into commercial print. Pizano’s also began working in the financial firms in downtown Chicago. She worked at Refco as a compliance assistant from 1996-1997 before going to work at First American Discount Corporation and Mesirow Financial. Pizano briefly worked at the Ross Perot Company. In 1997-1998, she worked in a financial firm under Richard Sandor, who Time Magazine called one of the “most influential of finance and the father of futures.”. To this day, Pizano considers him a mentor. From 1992-1998, Pizano was in the financial industry on one form or another.

In 2005, after a Poison concert in Nashville, Pizano met the Mulch Brothers at a bar where they were performing. She was doing a fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis called “Rock for Hope” and asked them to perform. They then asked her to manage them. She got them signed at Savannah Music Group in Nashville. After signing The Mulch Brothers, Pizano met songwriter Billy Falcon, known for hits with Stevie Nicks, Cher, Meatloaf, Bon Jovi. He co-wrote a song for the movie, “Country Strong” starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Tim McGraw. She worked with Falcon to go on tour as he opened for Bon Jovi.

At Savannah Music Group, she met and became friends with her future business partner, Jeff Cohen. Cohen is the owner of Voyage air guitar. She also connected with Dave Gibson who is known for songwriting for the Miller Band. She invested in the Savannah Music Group where she identified the difference between music in Nashville and Memphis. Nashville is the music business end while Memphis hold the music scene. Pizano traveled back and forth between the two cities in hopes of building a bridge. At the same time, she started her own publishing company, UROC Records and Publishing Company which is now under her main company, MVP3 Entertainment Group. She is presently partnering with Savannah Music Group to combine catalogs of music and get them licensed into her films. Pizano wants to partner Savannah Music Group with a label in the United Kingdom as a stepping-stone to taking her company global.

In 2006, Pizano met producer Nicholas Celozzi when he was filming a movie in Memphis. The movie fell and Pizano and Celozzi co-produced a movie he already had in the works called, “MOMO: The Sam Giancana Story”. Becoming an executive producer on the film was a turning point in Pizano’s career. She learned many aspect of film production, including: wardrobe, music, casting, anything she could learn to further her career in the entertainment industry. The movie was released in 2011 and went on to win awards for best documentary at the Monaco Film Fest, Hollywood Reel, and the Bel-Air Film Festival.

Prior to the film with Celozzi, Pizano wanted to find a musical artist she could develop in Memphis – where she saw a need for artists. She worked with a female country music artist. Right before the release of her album under Pizano’s label, the artist got an attorney involved who was unsure of the music business, causing the contract to fall apart. Pizano’s company released this artist. At the same time, she met singer Chris Hill. Impressed by Hill's knowledge in business and his eagerness to further his career the right way, she signed him and began helping him fast-track his musical career. His first cd is titled “A True Story”. His songs can be heard on Rock 103 Memphis and US51 Country. Under management with MVP3, Pizano was able to open doors and get Hill seen among the industry's top songwriters. Hill recently won "Most Promising Artist of the Year" at the 30th Music Pioneer Awards. Future plans include touring and getting Hill’s songs into her films and to take him national first, then global.

During this time, Pizano wrote her memoir, “From Barefoot to Stilettos; it’s not for sissies”. Her story of triumphing over adversity and conquering anything life threw at her. The book is published by Balboa Publishing and is now in audio book format. The recording took place at Royal Studios with Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell, the first audio book to be recorded at Royal. The book of Pizano’s life will soon be made into a major motion picture, with filming set to begin in Memphis in the fall of 2015. Recently, Pizano optioned the rights to the book, “The All American Boys” written by NASA astronaut, Walter Cunningham about the Gemini and Apollo missions, with the main focus on the Apollo missions. Filming will take place in Texas with music provided by Memphis musicians.

Personal life

Marie married her husband, Gregory, on May 30, 1998. In 1999, he was offered a job in the financial industry in Memphis and they couple moved. The couple divorced in 2010. Pizano is the mother of a boy and a girl. During her marriage, Pizano suffered panic attacks, that ended after her divorce. In 2011, she met holistic health practitioner, Keith Hill, LMT, who she credits with helping her to live a more holistic life and to help her heal from her panic attacks.

Fundraising

Other facts