Melissa Ponzio is an actress best known for her iconic role as Melissa McCall, the dedicated single mother of Scott in the MTV's hit series Teen Wolf. Coming up, she’ll be returning to the screen in the second season of Apple TV+'s comedy The Big Door Prize, created by Emmy Award winner David West Read. Her recent work includes starring alongside Kevin Hart in the action-comedy series Die Hart and appearing in the Netflix original film Thunder Force with Octavia Spencer and Melissa McCarthy. In ...
Aug 21, 2024•26 min
Tom Hamling recently went out on his own, departing from Austin-based ad agency, GSD&M, to found Nashville-based ad agency, THE MAYOR. He's got quite the resume, having produced award-winning work in four straight Super Bowls for Avocados From Mexico and RadioShack. He's also a contributing factor in the famous Farmers Insurance jingle "We Are Farmers" and starting the infamous Popeye's Chicken Wars. Tom's work has been featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, Forbes, and the Guinness B...
Aug 20, 2024•29 min
Andrew Fleming is the executive producer and director of the hit Emmy-nominated series, Emily in Paris, returning to Netflix with part one of Season 4 on August 15. Fleming has been with the show since the beginning, executive producing and directing the pilot episode and directing at least half of each season’s episodes. Fleming is a screenwriter and director with a long track record of hits, including The Craft, the feature film Dick, starring Kirsten Dunst; and Darren Starr’s previous series ...
Aug 16, 2024•27 min
Attica Locke is an award-winning screenwriter, TV producer, and NY Times best-selling novelist. Her novels include: Heaven, My Home; Bluebird, Bluebird; Pleasantville; The Cutting Season; and Black Water Rising. Her latest book, Guide Me Home, marks the third and final in the critically acclaimed Highway 59 series. Her screenwriting/producer credits also include When They See Us, Empire, and the Emmy-nominated Little Fires Everywhere, for which she won an NAACP Image award for television writing...
Aug 09, 2024•31 min
“I’ve had a single-minded focus on it,” says Alex Saks, about her love for movies. She attended Wake Forest to study history but then quickly moved to Los Angeles and found an unpaid internship. “Then I just went from there.” She’s known for projects like Thoroughbreds, The Florida Project, Book Club, Poms, No Hard Feelings, Summer Camp, and most recently, the Blake Likely film, It Ends With Us. In this interview, she talks about the point of being a producer is to “not be noticed,” working with...
Aug 07, 2024•29 min
“I didn’t see it as a business,” says creator Alma Har'el. “It was a calling that was on my mind. I didn’t start as a filmmaker. I was many things on the way there — theater, video arts, music videos, documentaries — it just sort of unfolded over years until I got to make my first film.” Alma’s first writing credit is Lady in the Lake, but as a Director, she’s known for Bombay Beach, LoveTrue, Jellywolf, and the Shia LaBeouf inspired story, Honey Boy. “At first, it was just an attraction. I can’...
Aug 02, 2024•30 min
Niclas Larsson was a child actor who got interested in directing short films around age twelve. “I watched cheap American movies from the 90s,” says the Swedish writer-director, “And I loved them. I didn’t get into serious cinema until maybe 15-16, but I didn’t like them until I was probably 20.” Comedies like Freaky Friday and 13 Going on 30 shaped his thinking on cinema. “I deal with magical realism and surrealism and heightened reality.” In some ways, Larsson hopes to model Quentin Tarantino,...
Aug 01, 2024•45 min
For more than a decade, Micky and a band of talented misfits and creative minds have grown the agency from a small, digital-first shop to a thriving, 58-person agency that’s distinctive product-led approach has attracted partnerships with iconic brands like Shiner Beer, De’Lorean, Pepsi, Diageo, Nike, Audi, NatureSweet and others. Originally from the Dominican Republic, Micky immigrated to Austin in 2005, where he embarked on his career journey at Latinworks. Soon after, he launched Bakery, whic...
Jul 31, 2024•30 min
Jimmy Tatro is an actor, writer, director, and creator who began his career on YouTube and has since become one of the most sought-after young talents in comedy. Some of his credits include Sony's 22 Jump Street opposite Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, Grown Ups 2, and Modern Family. His latest project The Real Bros of Simi Valley: The Movie, follows his character Xander as he and his squad embark on a journey to become the dopest versions of themselves in time to flex on all of their old classma...
Jul 22, 2024•28 min
Janine Sherman Barrois is an award-winning writer and showrunner known for her work on Claws, Criminal Minds, ER, and Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madame CJ Walker starring Octavia Spencer. Her latest project, The Big Cigar, follows Huey P. Newton's life as he escapes to Cuba to avoid prosecution for murder with the help of Bert Schneider, the Hollywood producer behind Easy Rider, as well as a few other celebrity radicals. In this interview, we talk about her journey into becoming a screen...
Jul 19, 2024•30 min
“I want to pursue the industry. I don’t know what it looks like. I don’t have connections. But I knew I was interested in development,” thought Ashley Jay Sandberg while pursuing journalism. “I tell people to follow what you’re curious about because you don’t know where that’s going to lead.” Ashley’s latest film is Twisters, a re-imaginging of the original film, where a retired tornado chaser and meteorologist (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is persuaded to return to Oklahoma to work with a new team (Glen ...
Jul 17, 2024•43 min
From a young age, Jack Carr had two dreams: serving his country in uniform as a Navy SEAL and becoming an author. Following twenty years in the SEAL Teams, Jack shifted his sights to publishing and fulfilled his literary objective with the release of his debut novel, The Terminal List. Since then, he has captivated readers worldwide with the gripping tales of James Reece in his New York Times bestselling novels True Believer, Savage Son, The Devil’s Hand, In the Blood, and Only the Dead. The Ter...
Jul 12, 2024•29 min
Johnathon Schaech is an actor, writer, and producer, celebrated for his dynamic presence on both big and small screens. His breakout role came in 1996 when he starred as Jimmy Mattingly in Tom Hanks' directorial debut, "That Thing You Do!". He has appeared in numerous TV series, some of his credits include 'Ray Donovan' and 'Legends of Tomorrow,' where he portrayed Jonah Hex, a fan-favorite character from DC Comics. In his new show, Blue Ridge: The Series, he plays the sheriff, ex-Green Beret Ju...
Jul 10, 2024•20 min
Award-winning Mad Men writer Victor Levin recently debuted his latest TV series 'Alice & Jack' on PBS. The unconventional six-episode romantic drama stars Oscar nominee Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie, Birdman) and Domnhall Gleeson (The Revenant, Black Mirror). The series explores how love plays out between two very different people over the course of 15 years, and the story inspires questions of whether the bonds between us are stronger than the forces that would tear us apart. Levin made his...
Jul 01, 2024•30 min
“The idea really came from my own life because I am a person who had a lot of very close male friends in college and remained close to a lot of them,” says Francesca Delbanco, “but a moment happened when people started getting married and coupling up and having children, when I noticed I was getting becoming closer friends with my friend’s wives and Nick was becoming close to my friends and the world was calcifying into men being together and women being together.” Francesca noticed this in all ...
Jun 28, 2024•21 min
“Initially, I never thought film was an option. I grew up in Wisconsin,” says Michael Sarnoski, “and I didn’t have a lot of artistic, creative people around me or outlets to share in. I think storytelling, doodling, writing, and drawing comics — that was my hobby, my secret. It was very gradual.” Overtime, Sarnoski met other kindred spirits who shared his same passions. “I was never like, I’m going to go write and direct feature films. That seemed very far away from a possibility. Instead, it “s...
Jun 27, 2024•33 min
“I wasn’t looking to be in a business,” jokes Danai Gurira. “I really felt like I wanted to tell stories about things I haven’t seen.” The Zimbabwean-American saw a way to use the craft of writing to inspire others, even though she initially thought she was going to be an academic. “The focus is always around African women,” she says. “I was born in the midwest but we moved back shortly after Zimbabwe gained independence. I guess I came to a place of outrage.” She received education from America...
Jun 26, 2024•30 min
“I was a theater kid, so I started out writing plays,” says David Zabel. “But I started to think, what does a movie script look like or what does a play look like? Once I had access to those things to see how they worked, I started writing screenplays and had ideas for TV pilots. That pilot opened a few doors of me.” An agent helped him get his first job on the series JAG, which later led to Star Trek: Voyager, Dark Angel, and ER. “It came out of my love for drama and dramatic theory. All of thi...
Jun 25, 2024•33 min
You know her best as Maggie Greene (later Maggie Rhee) on The Walking Dead, but additional credits include Chuck, The Vampire Diaries, Archer, The Boy, The Mindy Project, Mile 22, and Whiskey Cavalier. She described the acting bug as follows: “I have this muscle memory of being on stage and losing all sense of space and time. It was like swimming. Once you taste it, it’s so intoxicating to disappear and be present at the same time.” The original The Walking Dead ended in 2022 and branched out in...
Jun 18, 2024•27 min
Rhea Seehorn studied visual arts in college, but when she was asked to take an extracurricular, she took a technique and craft class on acting. “I was completely hooked,” she told me. You know her best as Kim Wexler on AMC’s Better Call Saul, but maybe you’ve also seen her in Trust Me, Whitney, House of Lies, Franklin & Bash, Veep and Bad Boys - Ride or Die. In her latest project, Cooper’s Bar, she’s listed as a Co-Creator, Performer, Screenwriter, and Director. The plot follows her characte...
Jun 17, 2024•31 min
“It was the magic of the environment that drew me in. The idea that you could tell a story, and the live audience follows it, and they could be a part of it, emotionally involved, if it was engaging,” actor Giancarlo Esposito told me about his childhood as an actor. You know him best as Gus Fring on Breaking Bad, Buggin Out in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, and Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian, but Giancarlo has over 200 credits as an actor. His latest series, Parish, “Follows a taxi driver whose...
Jun 16, 2024•33 min
Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne are a dynamic couple in the entertainment industry. Tig is a renowned stand-up comedian, writer, actress, and radio contributor, celebrated for her deadpan humor and unique storytelling style. She gained widespread recognition with her critically acclaimed album "Live" and her Amazon Prime series "One Mississippi." Stephanie Allynne is an actress, writer, and comedian known for her roles in "In a World..." and "Dream Corp LLC," as well as her writing and performi...
Jun 12, 2024•21 min
“Honestly, and I know it sounds sentimental, but when I became a writer, I held Pixar out as my beacon,” says Meg LeFauve. “At the time, I thought some of the best storytelling was coming out of Pixar and I had heard about the Brain Trust room. I thought the scariest, most thrilling thing I could do is be in that room as a writer with those Story Brains.” Everybody told Meg it was impossible and that “they don’t even hire writers.” She adds, “But, you have to do what your gut tells you and you d...
Jun 05, 2024•37 min
Geraldine DeRuiter is an acclaimed author, world-renowned public speaker, and the voice behind the award-winning Everywhereist blog. In her latest book 'If You Can’t Take the Heat,' Geraldine shares stories about her shockingly true, painfully funny (and sometimes just painful) adventures in gastronomy. In this interview, we talk about her blog, finding your voice as a writer, what makes a good idea, the stories behind her two books, and the origin of the incredibly clever tagline, an award-winn...
Jun 05, 2024•29 min
Ken Coleman is a career expert and #1 bestselling author of The Proximity Principle: The Proven Strategy That Will Lead to the Career You Love. At Ramsey Solutions, he hosts The Ken Coleman Show, a nationally syndicated radio show—part of the Ramsey Network—that airs in more than 35 cities across the U.S. every weekday. Ken is America’s Career Coach and has appeared on shows like Fox & Friends, Yahoo! Finance, and the Rachael Ray Show. In this interview, we talked about his first book, worki...
May 27, 2024•26 min
Stephen Camelio is a freelance writer and former editor at In Style magazine. His work has appeared in countless publications including ESPN The Magazine, Field & Stream, Entertainment Weekly, and Men's Journal. His latest film 'Mending the Line,' follows a Marine wounded in Afghanistan who is sent to a V.A. facility in Montana where he meets a Vietnam Vet who teaches him how to fly fish as a way of dealing with his emotional and physical trauma. In this interview, we talk about how he found...
May 22, 2024•26 min
“I always knew that I wanted to write in some way. My mother is a writer and I kind of just grew up around writing and literature,” says Lulu Wang. “But, it felt like such a lonely art form, so when I got to college, that was the first time I thought about filmmaking as a career.” Like many viewers, she hadn’t thought much about the writer behind her favorite shows and movies. “I took a 101 class and that’s when I started to really understand how films and TV are made. We got to make a couple sh...
May 21, 2024•24 min
“I didn’t really know I was allowed to be a screenwriter, so I didn’t consider that as a career or life option growing up Southeast of England,” says Drew Pearce. “People I knew didn’t go to University and they definitely didn’t work in movies.” “Throughout my life, I have shown a staggering lack of imagination in thinking I can do these jobs. But when I meet a person who does the job, I do think, ‘Well, if they can do it, I can do it,’” he jokes. After exploring paths as a musician, a magazine ...
May 20, 2024•29 min
Zainab Johnson is a stand-up comedian, actress, and writer. Her comedy is based on her unique point-of-view, shaped growing up in Harlem as one of thirteen siblings in a black Muslim family. Zainab debuted her very first one-hour comedy special 'Hijabs Off' on Amazon Prime Video, and is currently a series regular on the Amazon Original hit series titled 'Upload' from Greg Daniels. She is also one of the hosts for Netflix's show '100 Humans.' In this interview, we talk about the importance of con...
May 20, 2024•28 min
Adele Parks MBE is one of the most-loved and biggest-selling women's fiction writers in the UK. She has sold over 5 million plus copies and has been translated into over 30 different languages. She has published 21 novels, all of which have been London Times bestsellers. The film adaptation of her book 'The Image of You,' starring Sasha Pieterse, follows the story of two identical twins, Anna and Zoe. When Anna meets a stock trader, she thinks he's perfect, but Zoe doesn't trust him, so she sets...
May 15, 2024•19 min
