Michele Spitz
A Woman of Her Word
By Noah Griffin
M
ichele Spitz’s business
card reads: “Woman of
Her Word.” As her story
unfolds you will understand why.
The bubbly, enthusiastic but
singularly focused youngest of
three, Michele Spitz found her
calling midway through life.
She’s a native San Franciscan,
whose parents were bi-
continental. Her father was
born in Los Angeles, and her
mother was born in England.
Her father came from a family
history rooted in classical music,
and her mother from a family
history rooted in stage theater
and cinema. Her parents met and
married in Los Angeles before
winding their way to the city by
the bay.
Spitz though Jewish, like Dianne
Feinstein, attended Convent of
the Sacred Heart High School.
She greatly valued the education
that she received, however she
jokingly admits that she made
peace with mandatory weekly
mass attendance by becoming
a full time singer in the church
choir. The Mass experience then
became more of an artistic
expression rather than a religious
one. Upon graduation, Spitz
spent a year at USC before
transferring up to SF State where
she graduated with a degree in
Broadcasting.
Her father was a successful
publisher having collaborated
with his father in expanding
their family owned magazine,
Guest Informant which originally
expanded from Los Angeles to
San Francisco, only to eventually
be published throughout 42
cities. Within the pages of
30
Marin Arts & Culture
this annual, luxury hardback
publication, the reader was
informed of events, plays,
shopping, restaurants, night
clubs and tourist attractions in
the vicinity of each city. Michele’s
parents were generous with their
time and philanthropy towards
various individuals and causes,
and instilled the same timeless
values in their children to carry
out their legacy of giving back.
Michele has continued to serve
multiple communities over the
past many years. Her desired
goal was to make the cultural
and performing arts world
accessible to, and inclusive of
all audiences. These audiences
consisted of individuals ranging
from veterans, seniors, children,
disabled and undeserved
communities. More specifically,
individuals with low vision or
blindness, and individuals who
are hard of hearing or deaf
are too often excluded from
audience participation. Spitz first
began to fill the gap by donating
large groups of tickets to be set
aside for audience members who
otherwise may not have made
their way to an event. She then
also afforded individuals with
various disabilities to participate
in multiple performing arts
classes and venues. This enabled
individuals to express themselves
freely (on and off) the stage, as
well as (in front of and behind)
the camera. Ultimately, Michele
was able to actually make an art
form accessible herself, by virtue
of lending her voice to narrate
supplementary audio tracks,
called “Audio Description” that
complement film and television
programming. These specific
audio tracks which are typically
heard via a (theater provided
headset) allow for low vision and
blind audiences to experience
media via the cinematic
experience. Television, video on
demand and DVD/BluRay rental
or purchases can be experienced
similarly in the privacy of
one’s home via (open audio
description, minus a headset.)
After 25 years of a marketing
career in the Real Estate
industry, she departed from
this previous path to embark
upon her new journey returning
to the voiceover industry. This
led to a new full time career
providing audio description for
the film industry, inclusive of also
selectively offering a number of
grants annually to sponsor the
accessibilty deliverable assets.
This was the perfect marriage of
her philanthropy and voiceover
talent. Her first venture was
underwriting and narrating the
audio description asset for a full-
length documentary film titled
“Driving Blind.”
A true-life story of two brothers
who potentially may lose their
vision due to a degenerative eye