Visnja Clayton received an Associates Degree in Fashion Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology and worked as a Fashion Designer and Haute-Couture model for the next 10 years in New York, Italy, France and Tokyo. She speaks fluent Croatian, as well as conversational Italian and French. In 1990 she received a BFA in Film & Television Production from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
During her studies at NYU she wrote and directed several short films. Since graduation she has lived in Los Angeles and New York where most of her film experience has been as a Script Supervisor and Costume Designer for numerous feature-length films and the Cannes Film Festival award-winning short "The Room", directed by Jeff Balsmeyer. She also produced "Evil & Upside Down" with award-winning director Goran Dukic. Some of the other films she has worked on are "Eerie", directed by Phil Hartman, and "Cafe E", an HBO/Showtime special.
Her short film "Babushka" has received several prizes from the International Film Community including the Bronze Medal in the Experimental-Narrative division at the Charleston International Film Festival and Honorable Mention at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. "Babushka" also premiered in Denver at the Independent Denver Film Festival '97 and in Durango, Colorado, alongside "Breathless", by Jean-Luc Godard. It won Best Foreign Short Film at the Malescorto Film Festival in Italy.
She founded and directed Art Web, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving Central New Jersey arts education. One of the events held was the highly successful Independent Dover Film Festival, in Dover, New Jersey, 35 miles from New York City.