When Terese Met Bill…
At fifteen, she wrote to him directly, asking him to take her on as her manager and launch her acting career — the beginning of what she now calls the Genecco-Shatner Space-Time Continuum, a decades-long, real-life parallel between her own path and his.
Meet Terese.
As a child, Terese Genecco discovered Star Trek — and while she enjoyed the adventures and the optimism of the show itself, what captured her imagination went deeper. It was William Shatner, the actor: his rhythm, his timing, the sheer range of work he built across decades.
So begins their story.
That connection recently came full circle: Shatner personally selected her as one of a small group of fans featured in his book William Shatner...And You (co-authored with Joshua Brandon), after interviewing her himself. She's now chronicling the whole improbable story — from that first letter to their eventual in-person meeting — in a memoir, Shatnered, serialized on Substack, and developing it into a one-woman stage show of the same name.
Terese is also a singer, bandleader, comedian, and actor currently based in the Finger Lakes region of New York. For five years, she and her 8-piece Little Big Band headlined a monthly residency at The Iridium Jazz Club in New York City — billed as "The Longest-Running Nightclub Act on Broadway." After winning the title "Entertainer of the Year" in the San Francisco-Bay Area Cabaret Competition, Genecco went on to create and tour her one-woman show, Drunk With Love: A Tribute to Frances Faye! — beginning with a five-week run at San Francisco's New Conservatory Theatre Center, then on to the Plush Room and the Rrazz Room in San Francisco, The M Bar in Hollywood, the Peppermill Casino in Reno, Nevada, and the Basement Jazz Club in Sydney, Australia. In New York City, she has held multiple engagements at The Metropolitan Room, as well as performances at The Cutting Room, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. She has also co-headlined tribute shows to composer/arranger Russell Garcia — created by jazz singer Shaynee Rainbolt — which toured throughout New Zealand and the US, including a stop at Yoshi's Jazz Club in Oakland, California and a sold-out, one-night-only concert event at The Iridium in NYC featuring Billy Stritch on piano and vocals with a 10-piece, 4-trombone band. Her work has been recognized with multiple MAC, Bistro, and OUT Music Awards and she has been a headliner at New York City and San Francisco Main Stage PRIDE events.
