Jean Cress is the Big Fat Critic. “Big Fat” is an expression Jean has always used to describe things that are larger than life; things that average adjectives simply can’t describe.

Jean’s lifelong passion for the theater led her to perform in countless plays and musicals in Sacramento and Davis theaters, including the Eaglet, Eagle, Centerplayers, Major Gray’s, Jayrob Playhouse, CSUS and Davis Musical Theatre. In 1999, she came out of her theatrical “retirement” to perform in “Little Shop of Horrors”, the final production of The Walt Disney Company’s Flower Street Players.

Jean began reviewing films and delivering entertainment news as a radio personality at KRTH Radio in Los Angeles, XHRM Radio in San Diego, and KMFO Radio in Aptos/Monterey. She had a nationally syndicated radio program with Westwood One called “On the Move,” and hosted a weekly classic movie show on KRUZ-TV in Santa Cruz, California.

During the 1990s, Jean was a writer and executive in charge of promotional on-air productions at The Disney Channel, and was a writer for Walt Disney Art Classics, The Disney Catalog, and Disney Auctions.

Like everyone who ever worked in the entertainment industry, she has written several unproduced screenplays, and has a lovely stack of encouraging rejection letters from virtually every major motion picture studio.

Jean has been a print film critic since 2005, writing for Senior Spectrum in Sacramento, The Roseville Press Tribune, The Carmichael Times, American River Messenger, The Placer Mercury, and the Natomas Messenger.

If you run into Jean, do not ask her if she has seen any good plays, movies or DVDs lately, unless you are prepared to hear a very long answer.