Podcasts about Humanitas Prize

It's not everyday we get a writer with the life and work experience of Charles Kipps to join our crazy podcast, let alone have a therapy session with Sadie and Jeanne.Yes, we talked about everything from Charles producing Aretha Franklin, to our struggles as writers, to Charles' decades of writing experiences ... and he's still selling screenplays to this day! You're not going to want to miss this one ... so much great advice from the legend that is Charles Kipps. (See below for Charles' full bio.)One note of correction: Charles inadvertently stated that Bill Cosby's agent helped him get his first book published, but it was actually Cosby's editor who did. Just wanted to correct that for the record.Resources from this episode: Charles Kipps website—be sure to sign up for his newsletter! Pipeline Podcasts:All OG Pipeline Artists podcasts can be found on pipelineartists.com/listen.YouTube:Watch full (read that as "most ... maybe not any" because Jeanne is tired) episodes on YouTube.Follow us on X:@recklesscr8tive@SadieKDean@jeannevb@pipelineartistsFollow us on IG:@recklesscr8tive@_thesadiedean@jeannevb_@pipelineartistsEnter Pipeline's Contests:Script Pipeline (Screenwriting, TV, First Look, Pitch Contest)Film Pipeline (Short Scripts and Short Films)Book Pipeline (Unpublished and Adaptation)*****Writer/producer Charles Kipps has won an Emmy, Peabody, Humanitas Prize, and Mystery Writers Edgar Award. Among his credits are Exiled: A Law & Order Movie and the 25th Anniversary Columbo special, A Trace of Murder. His film credits include Fat Albert: The Movie as well as independent films Frame of Mind, Zarra's Law, and Anatomy of the Tide. He is currently in preproduction with Someday Sometime, a music driven romantic comedy which he will also direct.Kipps is the author of the Conor Bard Mysteries. The first three titles are Hell's Kitchen Homicide, Crystal Death and Times Square Trouble. The novels chronicle the days and nights of Conor Bard, an NYPD Detective who, while a dedicated cop, considers himself a musician with a day job.  Kipps also wrote two nonfiction books: Cop Without A Badge, which details the exploits of a confidential informant who worked with both local and federal law enforcement; and Out of Focus, which goes behind the scenes of a turbulent year at Columbia Pictures. His new novel is Absolute Threshold, an espionage thriller. It is the first in a series about CIA psychiatrist Harvey Chatham as he combines psychology with spy craft. Kipps received numerous gold records and Broadcast Music awards while writing and producing songs for artists such as Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Melba Moore, and Temptations lead singer David Ruffin for whom he wrote the hit Walk Away From Love. He was a partner in McCoy/Kipps Productions with Van McCoy, whose recording of The Hustle topped the Billboard charts

We are honored to welcome back Emmy-winning writer Marilyn Suzanne Miller to the podcast. A vital creative force behind Saturday Night Live's original era, she is a three-time Emmy recipient for her work on both SNL and The Tracey Ullman Show (as well as earning the Humanitas Prize for her episode of Murphy Brown).From initially turning down SNL to becoming one of its defining voices, Marilyn shares her extraordinary journey that led to the creation of some of the show's most beloved characters, including The Festrunk Brothers and Judy Miller. She also discusses her significant contributions to the musical sketches of the show's original era and the importance of a character like Rhonda Weiss being showcased on television. Marilyn also delves into her subsequent returns to SNL, including writing for the 25th Anniversary Special that earned her a Writers Guild of America Award, and touches on her impressive work beyond the show.---------------------------------Subscribe today!Follow us on social media: X (Twitter): NR4PTProjectBluesky: nr4ptproject.bsky.socialInstagram: nr4ptprojectFacebook: The Not Ready for Prime Time ProjectContact Us: Website: https://www.nr4project.comEmail: nr4ptproject@gmail.com

This is an encore of our episode with the great director, Rob Marshall. He has made numerous films that have been honored with a total of 30 Academy Award nominations — winning 9 in all, including Best Picture for “Chicago,” which alone won a total of 6 of those Oscars. Also, for “Chicago,” Rob received the Directors Guild Award, and nominations for Best Director for the Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA awards. Additionally, he won Best Directorial Debut from the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Online, as well as the American Choreography Award.Most recently, Rob directed and produced the live-action feature, “The Little Mermaid” for Disney, starring Halle Bailey, Melissa McCarthy and Javier Bardem.Rob's other directorial achievements include multiple nominations for award-winning features like: “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Nine,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” which went on to gross over 1 billion dollars worldwide, “Into the Woods,” and “Mary Poppins Returns.”Rob executive produced, directed, and choreographed the NBC TV event “Tony Bennett: An American Classic,” for which he won his second Directors Guild Award. He's also won 3 Emmys for Direction, Choreography, and Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special. He directed and choreographed the Disney/ABC movie musical “Annie,” which received 12 Emmy nominations and won the prestigious Peabody Award. For choreographing Annie, Rob also received an Emmy and an American Choreography Award.He's received the Humanitas Prize for co-writing Mary Poppins Returns, and other awards from the Art Directors Guild, the Cinema Audio Society, the Costume Designers Guild, as well as the Annie Award, the Hamilton Award, and the Chita Rivera Award.Rob's extensive stage work includes the Broadway productions of “Cabaret,” “Little Me,” “Victor/Victoria,” “Damn Yankees,” “She Loves Me,” “Company,” and “Kiss of the Spiderwoman.” He's been nominated six times for the Tony Award, and he's a George Abbott Award winner.For the record, Rob and I are both graduates of Taylor Allderdice High School here in Pittsburgh. Rob is also an alumni of Carnegie Mellon University's top-rated School of Drama.

Georgia Jeffries is a writer of Emmy Award winning drama and critically acclaimed noir fiction. Honored with multiple Writers Guild Awards, Golden Globes and the Humanitas Prize, her work in film has been praised by the Los Angeles Times as “standing ovation television.” The Los Angeles Review of Books described her short stories in the national anthologies, Odd Partners and The Last Resort, as “firecracker tales” and “domestic tragedy brilliantly segueing into comic farce.” She has also written biographical profiles for HuffPost and UC Press, including “The Last Gun of Tibercio Vasquez,” which can be viewed on the KCET-TV website, Artbound. Born in the Illinois heartland, she worked as a journalist for American Film before writing and producing ground-breaking female-driven dramas, Cagney & Lacey, China Beach and Sisters. Her screenwriting career has been distinguished by extensive field research, from patrolling the mean streets of Rampart with the LAPD to crashing a Vegas bounty hunters' convention to reporting from a Walter Reed Army Hospital surgical bay, each investigation the basis for one of her many docudramas and series pilots for CBS, ABC, NBC, HBO and Showtime. A cum laude UCLA graduate, Jeffries is a professor at USC's School of Cinematic Arts where she created the first undergraduate screenwriting thesis program at an American university.  The Younger Girl is her first novel.

Matt Williams utilizes a character-centric approach in creating and developing iconic television series, including Roseanne and Home Improvement. The Humanitas Prize and 6-time Emmy nominated Evansville native received graduate degrees in directing and acting, and embarked on a host of television commercials, as an actor, before realizing his talent and bliss as the driving force behind impactful, relatable film and television projects. After cutting his teeth as an actor (and de facto writer and re-writer) on the CBN soap, Another Life, Matt produced and joined the writing staff of The Cosby Show during its premiere season. It was there where he learned the relevance of inviting the audience to the family table — a concept that bore fruit with regard to the development of Roseanne. In the years which followed, Matt co-created and executive produced a number of television shows under the umbrella of Wind Dancer, the production company he founded with Carmen Finestra and David McFadzean, the latter whom Matt first met at University of Evansville, which include Home Improvement, Buddies, Thunder Alley and Soul Man. He directed and produced the films Where the Heart Is, starring Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd, about a young woman who delivers a baby in a Wal Mart after being abandoned by the latter's father in the parking lot, and her journey of growth and self-discovery which follows; and Walker Payne, which he also co-wrote, and starred Jason Patric, Bruce Dern, Drea de Matteo and the legendary Sam Shepard and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Additional producing efforts include What Women Want, Bernie, As Cool as I Am and Wild Hearts Can't be Broken. The focus of our discussion was his latest book, Glimpses: A Comedy Writer's Take on Life, Love and All That Spiritual Stuff.Opening Credits: Lobo Loco - Room of Longing B (ID 2240) I CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; Anitek - Bricolage I CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US. Closing Credits: Útidúr - Grasping for Thoughts I CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Weekly shoutout: New music at Washingtones Records! -- Hi there, Today I am delighted to be arts calling award-winning writer Georgia Jeffries! georgiajeffries.com ABOUT OUR GUEST: Georgia Jeffries is a writer of Emmy Award winning drama and critically acclaimed noir fiction. Honored with multiple Writers Guild Awards, Golden Globes and the Humanitas Prize, her work in film has been praised by the Los Angeles Times as “standing ovation television.” The Los Angeles Review of Books described her short stories in the national anthologies, Odd Partners and The Last Resort, as “firecracker tales” and “domestic tragedy brilliantly segueing into comic farce.” She has also written biographical profiles for HuffPost and UC Press, including “The Last Gun of Tibercio Vasquez,” which can be viewed on the KCET-TV website, Artbound. Born in the Illinois heartland, she worked as a journalist for American Film before writing and producing ground-breaking female-driven dramas, Cagney & Lacey, China Beach and Sisters. Her screenwriting career has been distinguished by extensive field research, from patrolling the mean streets of Rampart with the LAPD to crashing a Vegas bounty hunters' convention to reporting from a Walter Reed Army Hospital surgical bay, each investigation the basis for one of her many docudramas and series pilots for CBS, ABC, NBC, HBO and Showtime. A cum laude UCLA graduate, Jeffries is a professor at USC's School of Cinematic Arts where she created the first undergraduate screenwriting thesis program at an American university. THE YOUNGER GIRL, available from Mission Point Press on October 22nd! ABOUT THE YOUNGER GIRL: Based on a true crime, The Younger Girl, (Mission Point Press, October 22, 2024) a debut novel by trailblazing, award-winning writer Georgia Jeffries, combines fiction and supernatural suspense to unravel a thrilling tale of family betrayal and redemption. On March 2, 1933, Chicago tabloids trumpeted the death of 20-year-old "town belle" Aldine Younger: "HEIRESS SLAIN, MARRIED MAN HELD." The son of the mayor of Pontiac, a rich farming community south of Chicago, was convicted of manslaughter. But the dead girl's baby brother, Owen, grew up in a broken family and suspected his beloved sister's killing was orchestrated by their wealthy uncle. In 1996 Owen is an old man desperate to make peace with the tragedy of Aldine's death. His daughter, Joanna, takes her still grieving father back home to claim his share of his sister's lost inheritance. Together, they are caught in a dark labyrinth of family betrayal crossing three generations. Owen is found raving during a violent thunderstorm and now believes his daughter is his sister, Aldine, returning to him. Joanna races against time to save her father and unearths damning secrets that threaten her own life. The guilty will be exposed at the psychic bridge linking past, present and future. But at what cost? And who will survive the revelations? “True-crime stories are difficult, and far more so, when the true crime is in your own family. Georgia Jeffries's triumphant novel tells the story of her aunt Aldine Younger's killing in 1933—a violent death that has cast a long and complex shadow over the family, the community, and far beyond. Viewing these events through the lens of fiction, Jeffries deploys clear-eyed research and lucid, evocative prose to craft a novel that will haunt long after the book is closed.” —Howard Rodman, novelist/screenwriter Professor, USC School of Cinematic Arts Vice President, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Thanks for this wonderful conversation, Georgia! All the best! -- Arts Calling is produced by Jaime Alejandro at the coalition. HOW TO SUPPORT ARTS CALLING: PLEASE CONSIDER LEAVING A REVIEW, OR SHARING THIS EPISODE WITH A FRIEND! YOUR SUPPORT TRULY MAKES A DIFFERENCE, AND THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO LISTEN. Much love, j

Rob Ulin joins me to discuss watching Gilligan's Island and Dick Van Dyke Show as a kid; wanting to be an actor; going to Harvard and being on Lampoon with Conan; writing a letter to Norman Lear who mentored him; writing the teleplay for a Married with Children; writing an episode of Hard Times on Planet Earth; how Ferris Bueller the TV series almost made him quit writing; Chloris Leachman; writing Dinosaurs made him enjoy writing; doing episodes poking fun at the elderly, religion; an episode in which homosexuality and vegetarianism are parallelled; "New Leaf" about drugs; and dancing as a metaphor for masturbation and wet dreams; joining the writing staff of Roseanne; writing emotional episodes that still had jokes; winning a Humanitas Prize; Ned Beatty; the famous writers T-shirt story; trying to edit the lesbian kiss episode; Shelly Winters; trying to get Shirley Jones & Florence Henderson for a TV mom's episode; getting fired; working with Dave Raether; going to Veronicas Closet and then Stressed Eric; working with Norm MacDonald on Norm; Norm was not able to be an exaggerated version of himself but could act; Jack Warden; Frank Sebastiano; working on Andy Richter Controls the Universe and George Lopez; tackling race on Roseanne; working on Malcolm in the Middle; writing a pilot, My Boys; writing Aliens in America the first post 9-11 sitcom featuring a Muslim cast member; working on The Middle, Anger Management with Charlie Sheen, The Carmichael Show & Young Sheldon; working on The Kids are Alright; Rami; writing his first play Judgement Day starring Jason Alexander; and future projects

The great director, Rob Marshall, has made numerous films that have been honored with a total of 30 Academy Award nominations — winning 9 in all, including Best Picture for “Chicago,” which alone won a total of 6 of those Oscars. Also, for “Chicago,” Rob received the Directors Guild Award, and nominations for Best Director for the Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA awards. Additionally, he won Best Directorial Debut from the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Online, as well as the American Choreography Award.  Most recently, Rob directed and produced the live-action feature, “The Little Mermaid” for Disney, starring Halle Bailey, Melissa McCarthy and Javier Bardem. Rob's other directorial achievements include multiple nominations for award-winning features like: “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Nine,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” which went on to gross over 1 billion dollars worldwide, “Into the Woods,” and “Mary Poppins Returns.”Rob executive produced, directed, and choreographed the NBC TV event “Tony Bennett: An American Classic,” for which he won his second Directors Guild Award. He's also won 3 Emmys for Direction, Choreography, and Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special. He directed and choreographed the Disney/ABC movie musical “Annie,” which received 12 Emmy nominations and won the prestigious Peabody Award. For choreographing Annie, Rob also received an Emmy and an American Choreography Award. He's received the Humanitas Prize for co-writing Mary Poppins Returns, and other awards from the Art Directors Guild, the Cinema Audio Society, the Costume Designers Guild, as well as the Annie Award, the Hamilton Award, and the Chita Rivera Award.Rob's extensive stage work includes the Broadway productions of “Cabaret,” “Little Me,” “Victor/Victoria,” “Damn Yankees,” “She Loves Me,” “Company,” and “Kiss of the Spiderwoman.” He's been nominated six times for the Tony Award, and he's a George Abbott Award winner.For the record, Rob and I are both graduates of Taylor Allderdice High School here in Pittsburgh. Rob is also an alumni of Carnegie Mellon University's top-rated School of Drama.

Craig Miller's career may be a bit hard to categorize, but there's geeky goodness around every corner! He started as a Hollywood publicity and promotion guy, working with a who's who of studios (Lucasfilm, Disney, Universal, Warner Bros, Henson Associates, etc.) and on an amazing array of projects: Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Superman II, The Dark Crystal, and The Muppets Take Manhattan, to name but a few. He then went into animation, tackling a number of favorites, like The Smurfs, Transformers: Beast Wars,The Real Ghostbusters, and Curious George. His crowning achievement might be Pocket Dragon Adventures, which ran for 104 episodes and was a finalist for the Humanitas Prize!_____________________Check out a video version of this episode on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/dollarbinbandits.If you like this podcast, please rate, review, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts. And if you really like this podcast, support what we do as a member of the Dollar Bin Boosters: buzzsprout.com/1817176/support.Looking for more ways to express your undying DBB love and devotion? Email us at dollarbinbandits@gmail.com. Follow us @dollarbinbandits on Facebook and Instagram, and @DBBandits on X._____________________Dollar Bin Bandits is the official podcast of TwoMorrows Publishing. Check out their fine publications at twomorrows.com.Support the show

Act One Podcast - Episode 39 - Interview with Screenwriter, Karen Hall.In her career as a screenwriter, producer and creative consultant, Karen Hall has worked on numerous television series, including M*A*S*H, Hill Street Blues, Moonlighting, Roseanne, Grace Under Fire, Northern Exposure, Judging Amy and The Good Wife. She has received seven Emmy Award nominations, as well as the Humanitas Prize, the Women in Film Luminas Award, and the Writers Guild of America Award. Her novel, Dark Debts, was a Book of the Month Club main selection when first published in 1996 and has been translated into French, German, and Japanese. She rewrote some of the book and re-released it in 2016.The Act One Podcast provides insight and inspiration on the business and craft of Hollywood from a Christian perspective.Support the show

Lisa Hendey sits down with Fr. Tom Gibbons, CSP, at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Religious Education Congress to chat about his work with Paulist Productions.  In addition to his work as Vice President of Paulist Productions, Fr. Tom serves at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Los Angeles, California.  Paulist Productions was founded over 50 years ago to create thought provoking entertainment that explores the human condition, and has produced award-winning documentaries, feature films, television, and TV movies addressing pressing social issues and important moral questions. Paulist has provided programming for Paramount, Warner Bros., CBS, ABC, A&E, the History Channel, Hallmark Hall of Fame, and UPtv. In a time of rapid change and declining options for family viewing, Paulist is dedicated to developing positive programming with meaningful content. The HUMANITAS Prize, one of screenwriting's most prestigious awards, was founded by Paulist Productions.  Show Notes Link:  Paulist Productions - https://www.paulistproductions.org/   hollywoodpriest.com serrastatues.com  

With decades of experience in entertainment and reality TV, Brady Connell's career might seem incredibly different than your own. But today on The Business of You, Brady shares just how similar his life lessons have been to those of any entrepreneur and freelancer! Brady Connell is an Emmy-award-winning Executive Producer, Showrunner, and Director with vast television producing experience. Connell's work has propelled the success of popular reality programs such as Survivor, The Amazing Race, and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.  Brady is a two-time Emmy recipient for The Amazing Race, an NAACP Image Award recipient for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, a DGA Award nominee for The Great Christmas Light Fight, and a Humanitas Prize winner for writing in children's programming. While Executive Producer/showrunner of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition at ABC, the United Nations recognized Brady and his team with the prestigious Peace Award: “The Most Positive Television Show in the World.” A graduate of UCLA, Brady Connell is a member of the Directors Guild of America, the Hollywood Radio and Television Society, and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Currently, Brady is working on two primary projects: The Great Christmas Light Fight and Secret Celebrity Renovation.  Pursue your interests and the path will become clear When Brady Connell started working in television, he took a variety of short jobs in order to jumpstart his career. He wasn't passionate about it and even considered leaving production altogether.  That's when the makers of Survivor noticed his resume and connected the dots! Although Brady's resume looked like “a mess” to him, it was an amalgamation of experiences in game challenge creation and social experiments. The creators of Survivor realized early on that Brady's unique resume made him perfect for the role, and he went on to be one of the first producers of reality television in history.  The beginning of his career serves as inspiration that no matter how unusual your experience is, there is a perfect role waiting for you - you just have to work hard, develop your skills, and network.  Be customer service-centric While the entertainment industry is saturated with people trying to “make it in Hollywood,” Brady shares one thing that makes you stand out: Work ethic. It's a common belief that if you are a great performer, writer, or producer - or entrepreneur - that people will want to work with you, even if you're challenging. However, he points out that in a saturated market, your interpersonal skills are what set you apart from the crowd. Whether you're on set of a show and displaying a positive attitude, or an entrepreneur going out of your way to make your clients happy, your energy and attitude will define your career success.  Stick to your values In the world of reality television, Brady stands out: He has a firm commitment to working on life-affirming content (in a genre that doesn't always make it easy), with principled teams and reputable partners. He chooses his projects wisely, which he learned early in his career.  In the early years of his work in television, Brady got work wherever he could find it. Despite laughing when he refers to certain projects, he knows that his early work led him further toward success. Doing what he had to do early on led him down an illustrious path - and now, he gets to create television that has a major effect on the audience it serves.  Inspire to standards When managing others, Brady Connell has a technique we all can use: It's called inspire to standards.  When he begins work on a new project, he makes  a speech and sets expectations for the staff and crew. He shares the mission and vision of the show, what is expected of their time and energy, and how they will work together in collaboration. This is ultimately the source of his success - motivating people to be self-driven so that he doesn't have to manage them; he only inspires and encourages.  Inspire to standards works when we're creating a team, and even when we're managing ourselves. Brady uses this mantra for himself when he chooses projects - asking himself, what will drive my mission forward? What will be the most fun? What is the expectation, and is it a good use of my time? As entrepreneurs, we should be asking ourselves the same questions.  Enjoy these life lessons from a reality TV entrepreneur - and apply them to your own career, no matter what industry you're in.   Quotes “The decision to be a freelancer is a major, major career and life decision. If you're a freelancer-type person, you have to be okay with not knowing where your next paycheck is coming from and you have to be looking for work on a regular basis. That takes your career in one direction. On the other side of things, if you want stability and consistency, that takes your career in another direction. Nobody told me that when I was starting out.” “I was trying to get out of tv…until Survivor came along. They were putting resources into this really interesting social experiment. I happened to meet the right person at the right time. My resume, which looked like a total mess, actually made a lot of sense for this game show adventure experience. I had experience coming up with challenges for games.” “The Amazing Race - I felt like it was pure. It was like, go here and get there as fast as you can. And we'll give you a clue. Win the race around the world and we'll give you a prize. We just documented their story. Historically speaking, it was impressive. It is all real.” “You follow your gut along the way. In the freelance world, you're making choices all the time, daily. I love that, that I'm faced with that choice. I consider the impact and whether it will be fun; it makes me think about my day-to-day work!” “If you just want to crank out a product, it might as well be nuts and bolts. But telling stories is another thing. You're touching peoples' hearts. People in charge of projects have to have certain standards, personal standards, a commitment to the content, and elevating those standards so that everyone involved is self-motivated.” “Hire the right people, then set the standards - what are these expectations and what is the commitment. Everybody becomes really self-motivated. That's my operating procedure.” “There is a certain collaboration in business; it is the key to everything. Everybody has different jobs and skill levels. You don't want a bunch of egos just running around trying to prove themselves. I try to lay it out, this is how I want this production to run.” “A lot of people come from around the world to work in this industry, But you'll get called back if you have strong interpersonal skills. That'll stand out. If you have a good attitude and you're a hard worker, you will stand out.” Links mentioned in this episode: Visit Brady Connell's website at https://www.bradyconnell.com/  Connect with Brady on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradyconnell/ Read Brady's case study at https://thebrandid.com/portfolio/brady-connell/

Sandy and Terry hang out and discuss Sandy being sexually harassed and bullied but still pitching a Humanitas Prize-nominated idea to Disney/ABC/ RECESS with her former writing partner.

Hannah Bos, co-creator and showrunner of HBO's Somebody Somewhere on landing a series with HBO, her journey as a storyteller, how she navigates collaboration, and her approach to change and character development when writing for the stage and screen. *ABOUT HANNAH BOSHannah Bos is a Brooklyn-based writer who, along with her writing partner Paul Thureen, is the creator/showrunner of HBO's Somebody Somewhere. The first season of the show received an AFI Award and Peabody nomination and Hannah and Paul were nominated for a 2022 Humanitas Prize for Comedy Teleplay for the pilot episode. Season 2 is available now and the series was recently picked up for a third season. Together they have also written for HBO's High Maintenance and Amazon's Mozart in the Jungle. *RESOURCESFollow Hannah Bos:InstagramWebsiteOther links:The Debate SocietySomebody SomewhereMiroFractured Atlas*For show notes, and transcripts and to attend our live podcasts, visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.comFor free writing sessions, join free Writers' Hours: writershour.com*FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS' SALONTwitter: twitter.com/​​WritersSalonInstagram: instagram.com/londonwriterssalonFacebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalonIf you're enjoying this show, please rate and review this show!

George Stevens, Jr. - My Place in the Sun: Life in the Golden Age of Hollywood and Washington. This is episode 585 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast. George Stevens, Jr. has achieved an extraordinary creative legacy over a career spanning more than 60 years. He is a writer, director, producer, playwright and author. He has enriched the film and television arts as a filmmaker and is widely credited with bringing style and taste to the national television events he has conceived. As a writer, director and producer, Stevens has earned many accolades, including 15 Emmys, two Peabody Awards for Meritorious Service to Broadcasting, the Humanitas Prize and 8 awards from the Writers Guild of America, including the Paul Selvin Award for writing that embodies civil rights and liberties. In 2012 the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted to present Stevens with an Honorary Academy Award for “extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement.” Stevens served for eight years as Co-chairman of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities following his appointment by President Obama in 2009. Stevens is Founding Director of the American Film Institute and during his tenure, more than 10,000 irreplaceable American films were preserved and catalogued to be enjoyed by future generations. In addition, he established the AFI's Center for Advanced Film Studies, which gained a reputation as the finest learning opportunity for young filmmakers. Stevens was executive producer of The Thin Red Line, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. He co-wrote and produced The Murder of Mary Phagan, starring Jack Lemmon, which received the Emmy for Outstanding Mini-Series. He wrote and directed Separate But Equal starring Sidney Poitier and Burt Lancaster which also won the Emmy for Outstanding Mini-Series. He produced an acclaimed feature length film about his father, George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey and in 1994 produced George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin, which depicted the wartime experiences of his father – one of the most highly regarded directors of all time. In collaboration with his son and partner Michael Stevens, he produced the feature length documentary Herblock – The Black & The White on the famed political cartoonist Herbert Block for HBO. Stevens made his debut as a playwright in 2008 with Thurgood, which opened at the historic Booth Theater on Broadway. The play had an extended run starring Laurence Fishburne as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Fishburne received a Tony nomination and returned to the role in the summer of 2010 with runs at the Kennedy Center and the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. Thurgood was filmed while at the Kennedy Center and shown on HBO in 2011. In 2006, Alfred A. Knopf published Stevens' Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age – the first book to bring together the interviews of master movie makers from the American Film Institute's renowned Harold Lloyd Master Seminar Series. Conversations with the Great Moviemakers – The Next Generation was released by Knopf in April 2012. Stevens resides in Washington, D.C. For more information, please consult: https://www.georgestevensjr.com I enjoyed talking with George. What an awesome impact he and his father have had on our world. So much to learn. Enjoy! Before you go... Could you do me a favor? Please go to my website at https://www.stevenmiletto.com/reviews/ or open the podcast app that you are listening to me on, and would you rate and review the podcast? That would be so cool. Thanks! If you are listening on Apple Podcasts on your phone, go to the logo - click so that you are on the main page with a listing of the episodes for my podcast and scroll to the bottom. There you will see a place to rate and review. Could you review me? That would be so cool. Thank you! Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you! Thanks for sharing! Thanks for listening! Connect & Learn More: https://www.georgestevensjr.com/ Length - 52:24

George Stevens, Jr. has achieved an extraordinary creative legacy over a career spanning more than 60 years. He is a writer, director, producer, playwright and author. He has enriched the film and television arts as a filmmaker and is widely credited with bringing style and taste to the national television events he has conceived.As a writer, director and producer, Stevens has earned many accolades, including 15 Emmys, two Peabody Awards for Meritorious Service to Broadcasting, the Humanitas Prize and 8 awards from the Writers Guild of America, including the Paul Selvin Award for writing that embodies civil rights and liberties. In 2012 the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted to present Stevens with an Honorary Academy Award for “extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement.”Stevens served for eight years as Co-chairman of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities following his appointment by President Obama in 2009.Stevens is Founding Director of the American Film Institute and during his tenure, more than 10,000 irreplaceable American films were preserved and catalogued to be enjoyed by future generations. In addition, he established the AFI's Center for Advanced Film Studies, which gained a reputation as the finest learning opportunity for young filmmakers.Stevens was executive producer of The Thin Red Line, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. He co-wrote and produced The Murder of Mary Phagan, starring Jack Lemmon, which received the Emmy for Outstanding Mini-Series. He wrote and directed Separate But Equal starring Sidney Poitier and Burt Lancaster which also won the Emmy for Outstanding Mini-Series. He produced an acclaimed feature length film about his father, George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey and in 1994 produced George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin, which depicted the wartime experiences of his father – one of the most highly regarded directors of all time. In collaboration with his son and partner Michael Stevens, he produced the feature length documentary Herblock – The Black & The White on the famed political cartoonist Herbert Block for HBO.Stevens made his debut as a playwright in 2008 with Thurgood, which opened at the historic Booth Theater on Broadway. The play had an extended run starring Laurence Fishburne as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Fishburne received a Tony nomination and returned to the role in the summer of 2010 with runs at the Kennedy Center and the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. Thurgood was filmed while at the Kennedy Center and shown on HBO in 2011.In 2006, Alfred A. Knopf published Stevens' Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age – the first book to bring together the interviews of master moviemakers from the American Film Institute's renowned Harold Lloyd Master Seminar Series. Conversations with the Great Moviemakers – The Next Generation was released by Knopf in April, 2012.Please enjoy my conversation with George Stevens Jr.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/2881148/advertisement

Dennis is joined via Zoom by Rich Burns, the creator & star of the webseries The Disappointments, which is about three gay men in their late 50's who are dealing with the fact that their lives are not what they dreamed they would be, not even close. Rich talks about where the idea for the series first came from, the fun of writing Hollywood asshole characters, what fans can expect in Season 2 and how he came to act in the project after never having acting before in his life. Rich also talks about the thrill of winning a Humanitas Prize for the series, the importance of fitness in his--and his character Ray's--life and that time he scoped out actor Trevor LaPaglia at the bar that he worked at in Weho before offering him the role of his younger love interest. Other topics include: talking vintage cars with Jay Leno at Marix Tex Mex, creating fake vomit and fake cocaine for the shoot, Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now, how going gray changed the kind of attention he got from men, dreamboards, his most surprising fans and why there's no shame in cater-waitering.  https://www.youtube.com/@thedisappointmentsseries

This week on On Story, we're joined by writing partners Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue, known for their collaboration on projects such as the award-winning film based on the life of Mr. Rogers, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, their work writing and producing the Amazon series, Transparent, and co-creating and co-showrunning their upcoming Netflix series, Painkiller. Known for their talents writing stories based on true events, Painkiller is no different, as it's an honest exploration of the birth of the opioid crisis in the United States, starring Matthew Broderick and Uzo Abuda. Together, Harpster and Fitzerman-Blue have won the Peabody Award, the PEN award, and the Humanitas Prize for their collaborative work as screenwriters, in addition to receiving Emmy, Golden Globe, People's Choice Awards, and WGA writing nominations.  AFF moderator Harrison Glaser sat down with both writers during the 2022 Writers Conference to discuss what makes a successful writing partnership, the process of crafting stories based on real events, and how to build a career that includes writing across genres, and within both television and film. You know what they say - two heads are better than one, and the truth is stranger than fiction. Harpster and Fitzerman-Blue embody these timeless statements. Clips courtesy of Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. and Amazon Studios.

          George Stevens, Jr. has crafted an extraordinary creative legacy over a career spanning more than 60 years as a screenwriter, director, producer, playwright and author. He's enriched the film and television arts as a filmmaker and is widely credited with bringing style and taste to the high-profile, national television events that he has conceived. In doing so he's lived one of the most profoundly influential American lives ever.             As a writer, director and producer, George has earned many accolades, including 15 Emmys, two Peabody Awards, the Humanitas Prize and 8 awards from the Writers Guild of America, including the Paul Selvin Award for writing that embodies civil rights and liberties. In 2012, George received an Honorary Academy Award for “extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement.”             George served for eight years as Co-chairman of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities following his appointment by President Obama in 2009.            He's the Founding Director of the American Film Institute. During his tenure, more than 10,000 irreplaceable American films were preserved and catalogued for future generations.  He also established the AFI's Center for Advanced Film Studies, which gained a reputation as the finest learning opportunity for young filmmakers.            With Nick Vanoff, George created the annually televised Kennedy Center Awards in 1978, which he wrote and produced for more than 35 years.            George executive produced Terrence Malick's film, The Thin Red Line, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.  He co-wrote and produced The Murder of Mary Phagan, starring Jack Lemmon, which received the Emmy for Outstanding Mini-Series. He wrote and directed Separate But Equal starring Sidney Poitier and Burt Lancaster which also won the Emmy for Outstanding Mini-Series.  He produced two acclaimed films about his highly revered, Oscar-winning father, George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey and George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin.  In collaboration with his son and partner, Michael Stevens, he produced the feature length documentary Herblock – The Black & The White on the famed political cartoonist Herbert Block.             In 2008, George made his Broadway playwriting debut with Thurgood, starring Tony nominee Laurence Fishburne as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.            As an author, George has published: Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age, and Conversations with the Great Moviemakers – The Next Generation, featuring interviews with notable filmmakers from the AFI's Harold Lloyd Master Seminar Series. In 2022 he published his autobiography, My Place in the Sun. I've read My Place in the Sun and can tell you it's a truly entertaining memoir of his family's show business legacy as well as his own top-tier life in Washington, Hollywood and beyond. I highly recommend this most excellent book to you.          George Stevens, Jr. resides in Washington, D.C. For more information, please consult: www.georgestevensjr.com 

George Stevens, Jr. has achieved an extraordinary creative legacy over a career spanning more than 60 years. He is a writer, director, producer, playwright and author. He has enriched the film and television arts as a filmmaker and is widely credited with bringing style and taste to the national television events he has conceived.As a writer, director and producer, Stevens has earned many accolades, including 15 Emmys, two Peabody Awards for Meritorious Service to Broadcasting, the Humanitas Prize and 8 awards from the Writers Guild of America, including the Paul Selvin Award for writing that embodies civil rights and liberties.In 2012 the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted to present Stevens with an Honorary Academy Award for “extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement.”Stevens served for eight years as Co-chairman of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities following his appointment by President Obama in 2009.Stevens is Founding Director of the American Film Institute and during his tenure, more than 10,000 irreplaceable American films were preserved and catalogued to be enjoyed by future generations. In addition, he established the AFI's Center for Advanced Film Studies, which gained a reputation as the finest learning opportunity for young filmmakers.Stevens was executive producer of The Thin Red Line, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. He co-wrote and produced The Murder of Mary Phagan, starring Jack Lemmon, which received the Emmy for Outstanding Mini-Series.He wrote and directed Separate But Equal starring Sidney Poitier and Burt Lancaster which also won the Emmy for Outstanding Mini-Series. He produced an acclaimed feature length film about his father, George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey and in 1994 produced George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin, which depicted the wartime experiences of his father – one of the most highly regarded directors of all time. In collaboration with his son and partner Michael Stevens, he produced the feature length documentary Herblock – The Black & The White on the famed political cartoonist Herbert Block for HBO.Stevens made his debut as a playwright in 2008 with Thurgood, which opened at the historic Booth Theater on Broadway. The play had an extended run starring Laurence Fishburne as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Fishburne received a Tony nomination and returned to the role in the summer of 2010 with runs at the Kennedy Center and the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.Thurgood was filmed while at the Kennedy Center and shown on HBO in 2011.In 2006, Alfred A. Knopf published Stevens' Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age – the first book to bring together the interviews of master moviemakers from the American Film Institute's renowned Harold Lloyd Master Seminar Series. Conversations with the Great Moviemakers – The Next Generation was released by Knopf in April, 2012.Please enjoy my conversation with George Stevens Jr.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/2664729/advertisement

Episode 185 Notes and Links to Toni Ann Johnson's Work   *Content Warning-Please be aware of discussion of sexual assault*      On Episode 185 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Toni Ann Johnson, and the two discuss, among other things, her early reading and love for the theater and acting, her college and formative reading lists, the ignorance surrounding her film on Ruby Bridges, growing up in an almost all-white town, racism and ignorance, writing objectively when her fiction is heavily-based on her real life, as well as pertinent issues and themes discussed in her award-winning collection, like racism, ignorance, adultery, neglect, sexual assault, and class.      Toni Ann Johnson is a screenwriter, playwright, and novelist.  She won the 1998 Humanitas Prize and the 1998 Christopher Award for her script Ruby Bridges. In 2004, she won a second Humanitas Prize for her script Crown Heights. She was nominated for a 2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author.  Remedy for a Broken Angel also won a 2015 Beverly Hills Book Award for Multicultural Fiction and a 2015 International Latino Book Award for Most Inspirational Fiction Book. In 2020 her novella Homegoing won Accents Publishing's inaugural novella contest. She won the 2021 Flannery O'Connor Award for short fiction for her linked short story collection Light Skin Gone to Waste.   Buy Light Skin Gone to Waste   Toni Ann Johnson's Wikipedia Page   Toni Ann Johnson's Website   Los Angeles Times Article Regarding Story Collection- “For one award-winning Black L.A. author, light skin was no refuge”   Interview from Moria Online- "A Story Can Be Both: An Interview with Toni Ann Johnson"   Hawai'i Review of Books-"What Color Is Your Scapegoat?" with Dr. Stephanie Han    At about 2:00, Toni Ann talks about her early literary life, and how her earliest love was acting-plays especially-which led her to read a lot of plays   At about 4:15, Toni cites James Baldwin as the first writer whose complete works she read; Pete asks her about his fiction versus his nonfiction   At about 5:45, Toni relates her shared airplane flight with James Baldwin   At about 7:20, Toni talks about her time at the Lee Strasberg Theater and getting to know the founder and other legendary actors/directors   At about 9:15, Toni explains Monroe, New York's placement in the state   At about 11:20, Toni discusses influential writers and writing, including Bessie Head   At about 13:00, Toni gives background on her time as a student of Chinua Achebe and Stella Adler   At about 16:50, Pete and Toni discuss method acting, with Toni providing interesting commentary on her view of it, as informed by her career in entertainment and her mentors   At about 22:40, Toni responds to Pete's questions about muses; she references using memory as a muse   At about 27:20, The two discuss the state of book bans and historical manipulation happening currently, especially with regard to Toni's 1998 Ruby Bridges and its recent headlines   At about 32:50, Toni relates comments she's heard from teachers and parents over the years about feelings of empathy for Ruby   At about 35:20, The cover of the book is shouted out and Toni talks about seeds for the book and the balance between fiction and nonfiction in Light Skin Gone to Waste    At about 38:20, Toni responds to Pete's questions about any difficulties with objectivity    At about 40:15, Pete lays out the book's first story, exposition, and main character's/conflicts, especially with Phillip and Velma's lives   At about 42:40, Pete wonders about Phil's mindsets    At about 46:40, Pete and Toni juxtapose the naivete of children and ignorance and bias in adulthood, as seen in the fictional stories   At about 48:00, Toni replies to Pete's questions about how she sees her hometown's biases and how much can be blamed on personal choice vs. “society”   At about 52:15, “Lucky” and the story's throughlines and title and “turning point” events are discussed    At about 55:40, Toni gives background on help in revising “Lucky” from Roxane Gay   At about 1:01:50, Noble and ignoble actions by Phillip from the story are discussed, as well as the real experiences these events were based on   At about 1:02:20, Pete sets up the collection's only two-narrator story and he and Toni discuss the housekeeper Gertie and her pivotal action or inaction   At about 1:06:45, Toni discusses multiple meanings of “scars” as used in the book and any connections to optimism    At about 1:10:00, Toni connects recent years and Trumpism and how her optimism has been regulated   At about 1:11:55, Toni talks about an exciting upcoming project based on/culled from her recent collection, as well as the fascinating background on curating her award-winning collection     You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch this and other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode.    Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl     Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content!    NEW MERCH! You can browse and buy here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ChillsatWillPodcast    This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form.    The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.   Please tune in for Episode 186 with Stephanie Feldman. She is the author of the novels Saturnalia and The Angel of Losses, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, winner of the Crawford Fantasy Award, and finalist for the Mythopoeic Award. The episode airs on June 6.  

Doug McIntyre spent twenty-years as a television/screen writer and producer including the hit series Married… With Children, WKRP in Cincinnati, Mike Hammer – Private Eye, and the critically-acclaimed PBS series, Liberty's Kids, which earned Doug a Humanitas Prize nomination for excellence in television writing. Together with his wife Penny Peyser, Doug wrote, produced, directed the award winning film: Trying to Get Good: the Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon. McIntyre is also the page one columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News and the Lang Newspaper group as well as an accomplished book reviewer. In 2010 he was named “Best Columnist” by the California Newspaper Publishers Association. Additionally, Doug has written for American History Illustrated, LA Jazz Scene, the L.A. Times, Long Beach Press Telegram, Pasadena Star News and the Connecticut Post. He co-authored Cheap Advice for Time/Warner Books. Doug hosted McIntyre in the Morning on Talk Radio 790 KABC in Los Angeles, and the wildly popular Red Eye Radio. Doug appeared on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect over a dozen times, as well as, Real Time on HBO, The History Channel, the FOX News Channel's hit shows, The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes, and numerous appearances on CNN. The radio trade magazine Talkers consistently ranks McIntyre among the top hosts in the business. 

We meet so many accomplished and delightful guests on Mysterious Goings On. However, it is rare we get to meet a living legend such as our guest, Oscar and Emmy Winner George Stevens, Jr. His father directed incredible films, including GIANT, PENNY SERENADE, SHANE, A PLACE IN THE SUN, and perhaps most importantly, was there to film the liberation of Dachau. George Stevens, Jr. is the founder of the American Film Institute, creator of the AFI Life Achievement Award, co-creator of the Kennedy Center Honors, and a director in his own right. He has also served as Co-Chairman of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. He has won eight awards from the Writers Guild of America. In 1992, Stevens won the WGA's Paul Selvin Award for his screenplay SEPARATE BUT EQUAL. He also won a Humanitas Prize in 2012 for THURGOOD. In 2012, Stevens was awarded an honorary Oscar for his lifelong contributions to the film industry. He was presented the award by his friend and colleague Sidney Poitier. We're talking with Stevens about his new memoir, My Place in the Sun, which is chock full of anecdotes, little-known facts about celebrities, and the power of quality filmmaking. The book chronicles his family's history in show business, his father's work during World War II, and how it shaped his upbringing. Young Stevens was asked to help his father with two assignments when he graduated from high school: breaking down Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy into two notebooks and reading other books from the studio to look for potential films. His father also gave him the opportunity to tell him the story of Jack Shaffer's Shane, which led to his involvement in the film. Stevens was then recruited by Edward R. Murrow to join the United States Information Agency and later founded the American Film Institute. My Place in the Sun is chockablock of stories with his encounters with names you'd know, including Elizabeth Taylor, Sidney Poitier, Alfred Hitchcock, Maya Angelou, Fred Astaire, Robert and Ethel Kennedy, Yo-Yo Ma, Cary Grant, James Dean, Muhammad Ali, Bruce Springsteen, Barack Obama, and many more. It is available in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. This is truly a special episode, friends and film fanatics. You do not want to miss it! Website: GeorgeStevensJr.com Click to buy: My Place in the Sun Reviews: “As a deeply patriotic and proactive American, everything he has touched seems to have found a place in our collective history.” --Steven Spielberg “George Stevens' new book is a fascinating journey through his amazing life. He has been at the center of Hollywood for longer than he cares to admit and has the stories to prove it. You will even find out why I've always called him ‘Kingfish.' Movies, family, the arts, and politics – My Place in the Sun is quite a ride.” -- Quincy Jones “Elegant and engaging…this memoir delivers.” --Wall Street Journal “Once you start, you simply cannot stop reading this book. George Stevens, Jr.'s life has been a marvelous journey, as gripping and immersive as his father's films. Throughout his life, George Stevens, Jr. repeatedly encounters greatness, and finds his own greatness along the way.” --J. Alexander Greenwood, Mysterious Goings On podcast Visit Alex Greenwood's website: JAlexanderGreenwood.com. For show notes and more, visit the show website at MGOPod.com. Follow him on Twitter:  @A_Greenwood This Mysterious Goings On Podcast episode was recorded and mixed at Green Shebeen Studios in beautiful Kansas City, Missouri. Copyright 2023, all rights reserved. No reproduction, excerpting, or other use without written permission. We are an Amazon Associates seller, and some of our links may earn us a commission. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/j-alexander-greenwood/message

Today on the show, we have million-dollar screenwriter Diane Drake. Her produced original scripts include ONLY YOU, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Marisa Tomei, and WHAT WOMEN WANT, starring Mel Gibson. Her original script for ONLY YOU sold for $1 million, and WHAT WOMEN WANT is the second highest-grossing romantic comedy of all time (Box Office Mojo).In addition, both films have recently been remade in China, featuring major Chinese stars. And WHAT WOMEN WANT has recently been remade by Paramount Pictures as WHAT MEN WANT, with Taraji Henson starring in the Mel Gibson role.Diane, who is a member of the Writers Guild of America, recently authored her first book, Get Your Story Straight, a step-by-step guide to writing your screenplay.She has taught screenwriting through UCLA Extension Writers' Program and now offers story consulting and her own guided online course via her website.Diane has also been a speaker/instructor for The Austin Film Festival, the Atlanta Film Festival, the Rocaberti Writers Retreat in Dordogne, France, the American Film Market, Scriptwriters Network, Phoenix Screenwriters Association, Stowe Story Labs, Romance Writers of America, Oklahoma Writers Federation, University Club, Storyboard Development Group and the Writers Store, among others; and a judge for the Humanitas Prize, the Austin Film Festival and the UCLA Writers Program.In this episode, we get into the nitty-gritty of being a screenwriter in Hollywood. Diane is very open about her experiences, the good and the terrible. If you want to be a working screenwriter in Hollywood, then get ready to take notes.Enjoy my eye-opening conversation with Diane Drake.

Want to see the video version of this podcast? Please visit Youtube here: https://youtu.be/Gvw2xwGoIOM BUY THE BOOK - WRITING THE TV DRAMA SERIES: How to Succeed as a Professional Writer in TV https://amzn.to/3apqCsc Pamela Douglas is an award-winning writer with numerous credits in television drama. The Fourth Edition of her book Writing the TV Drama Series (2018) has been adopted by network mentoring programs, and foreign language editions have been published in Germany, Italy, China, Spain and used around the globe. She is also author of the 2015 book The Future of Television: Your Guide to Creating TV in the New World. She has been honored with the prestigious Humanitas Prize for "Between Mother and Daughter" (CBS), an original drama. Multiple Emmy and Writers Guild nominations and awards from American Women in Radio and Television went to other dramas she wrote. She was a creator of the PBS series Ghostwriter, Story Editor of the Emmy-winning CBS series, Frank's Place and wrote for A Year in the Life, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. She has also been a member of the Board of Directors of the Writers Guild of America, west. At the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts she is a professor in the screenwriting division where she specializes in television. CONNECT WITH PAMELA DOUGLAS https://amzn.to/3apqCsc MORE MICHAEL WIESE PRODUCTIONS AUTHORS https://mwp.com VIEWERS ALSO WATCHED How To Develop A TV Show In Less Than An Hour - https://youtu.be/ptN4nsZxyDc (Affiliates) ►WE USE THIS CAMERA (B&H) – https://buff.ly/3rWqrra ►WE USE THIS EDITING PROGRAM (ADOBE) – https://goo.gl/56LnpM ►WE USE THIS SOUND RECORDER (AMAZON) – http://amzn.to/2tbFlM9 ►WRITERS, TRY FINAL DRAFT FREE FOR 30-DAYS! (FINAL DRAFT) - http://ow.ly/Gz4w30rDSKt BOOKS WE RECOMMEND https://buff.ly/3o0oE5o SUPPORT FILM COURAGE BY BECOMING A MEMBER https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs8o1mdWAfefJkdBg632_tg/join CONNECT WITH FILM COURAGE http://www.FilmCourage.com http://twitter.com/#!/FilmCourage https://www.facebook.com/filmcourage https://www.instagram.com/filmcourage http://filmcourage.tumblr.com http://pinterest.com/filmcourage SUBSCRIBE TO THE FILM COURAGE YOUTUBE CHANNEL http://bit.ly/18DPN37 Stuff we use: LENS - Most people ask us what camera we use, no one ever asks about the lens which filmmakers always tell us is more important. This lens was a big investment for us and one we wish we could have made sooner. Started using this lens at the end of 2013 - http://amzn.to/2tbtmOq AUDIO Rode VideoMic Pro - The Rode mic helps us capture our backup audio. It also helps us sync up our audio in post http://amzn.to/2t1n2hx Audio Recorder - If we had to do it all over again, this is probably the first item we would have bought - http://amzn.to/2tbFlM9 LIGHTS - Although we like to use as much natural light as we can, we often enhance the lighting with this small portable light. We have two of them and they have saved us a number of times - http://amzn.to/2u5UnHv COMPUTER - Our favorite computer, we each have one and have used various models since 2010 - http://amzn.to/2t1M67Z EDITING - We upgraded our editing suite this year and we're glad we did! This has improved our workflow and the quality of our work. Having new software also helps when we have a problem, it's easy to search and find a solution - https://goo.gl/56LnpM *These are affiliate links, by using them you can help support this channel. Please subscribe to our Youtube channel. You can show additional support via our Youtube sponsor tab by going here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs8o1mdWAfefJkdBg632_tg/join or through Patreon here - http://www.patreon.com/filmcourage. Thank you for listening! We hope you've enjoyed this content.

Paris Barclay is one of television's most successful and honored directors. Throughout his illustrious career in television, Paris has directed over160 episodes of television, including episodes of NYPD BLUE, ER, THE WEST WING, LOST, THE GOOD WIFE, CSI, SONS OF ANARCHY, HOUSE, GLEE, IN TREATMENT, SCANDAL, EMPIRE, PITCH and STATION 19. He won two Emmy Awards for his direction of NYPD BLUE and has received six additional Emmy nominations for producing and directing, including three for directing episodes of GLEE, and one for THE WEST WING. Paris has also garnered ten Directors Guild nominations (for shows as diverse as IN TREATMENT, WEEDS, HOUSE, as well as GLEE and THE WEST WING), winning once for NYPD BLUE. He also became the first Director in the history of the Guild to receive a comedy and drama nomination in the same year, two years in a row (2008 & 2009). He's received three NAACP Image Awards, for producing, co-creating, and directing CITY OF ANGELS, and for directing COLD CASE and SMASH. In 2014, the NAACP inducted Paris into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame, joining such luminaries as Sidney Poitier, Oprah Winfrey, and Gordon Parks. He directed the feature film (and cult favorite) DON'T BE A MENACE TO SOUTH CENTRAL WHILE DRINKING YOUR JUICE IN THE HOOD, as well as telefilms for HBO (a western, THE CHEROKEE KID, starring Sinbad, James Coburn and Burt Reynolds) and THE BIG TIME for TNT (a drama with Christina Hendricks, Molly Ringwald, and Christopher Lloyd.) Further bulging his shelves, Paris has been recognized as a writer as well, receiving a WGA and Humanitas Prize nomination for his telefilm (with Dustin Lance Black) PEDRO, for MTV. He's shared two Humanitas Prizes, four prestigious Peabody Awards. He co-created the series CITY OF ANGELS (which ran for 2 years on CBS), co-wrote and directed the pilot HATE for Showtime, and has rewritten projects for Disney and HBO. Paris was elected President of the Directors Guild of America in June 2013 and is the first African-American and openly gay President in the history of the Guild. Before being elected President, Paris served four terms as the First Vice President of the DGA. Mr. Barclay first joined the DGA in 1992, and was elected to the Western Directors Council and the National Board in 1997. He and Taylor Hackford shared the 2007 Robert Aldrich Award, given for extraordinary service to the Director's Guild of America. Paris was enthusiastically re-elected in June 2015 to serve a second term as president before stepping down in June 2017. Paris directed the pilot of and currently works as the executive producer of the Shondaland show, STATION 19, which follows a group of Seattle firefighters that exist in the GREY'S ANATOMY universe and stars Jaina Lee Ortiz, Jason George, and Boris Kodjoe. Additionally, the show is executive produced by Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers, and Krista Vernoff. It premiered in March 2018 and is currently producing its fourth season for ABC. Paris got his start in advertising, working as a creative executive and then segued into directing music videos for some of music's biggest stars, such as: Janet Jackson, Bob Dylan, and LL Cool J. In addition to his service to the DGA, Paris has been recognized for his service and contributions to many charitable organizations, including Liberty Hill, GLAAD, and Project Angel Food. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erin-claimingdisability/message

Hi Everyone! I'm really looking forward to sharing this discussion with Toni Ann Johnson. I loved this collection! We will be talking about the story "Time Travel" winner of the 2021 Miller Audio Prize. Please listen to the story at the link below before you tune in to our podcast discussion. This is the last post of 2022. Thanks so much to the Grosse Pointe Public Library in Michigan and Pages Bookshop in Detroit for supporting us throughout the year. We will be on hiatus until February 2023. Please message me if there are any particular writers you would like to hear on the show. Happy New Year! Kelly Bio: Toni Ann Johnson is the winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her short story collection Light Skin Gone to Waste was published by the University of Georgia Press in the fall of 2022. She is also an accomplished novelist, screenwriter, and playwright. Having grown up in Monroe, New York, in one of the first Black families to live there, many of Johnson's short stories reflect her experience as a person of color. Johnson's essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Emerson Review, Xavier Review, and many other publications. Her first novel, Remedy for a Broken Angel, was nominated for a 2015 NAACP Image Award. Her novella Homecoming won Accents Publishing's novella contest and was published in May 2021. Johnson has won the Humanitas Prize and the Christopher Award for her screenplay of the ABC film Ruby Bridges, as well as a second Humanitas Prize for Crown Heights, which aired on Showtime Television. She also co-wrote the popular dance movie Step Up 2: The Streets. Johnson has been a Sundance Screenwriter's Lab Fellow, A Callaloo Writer's Workshop Fellow (2016), and she's received support for her writing from The Hurston/Wright Foundation, The Prague Summer Program for Writers, and the One Story Summer Conference. Flannery O'Connor series editor Roxane Gay says of the collection, “Toni Ann Johnson's Light Skin Gone to Waste is one of the most engrossing short story collections I've read in recent memory. These interconnected stories about a black family living in a predominantly white suburb of New York City are impeccably written, incisive, often infuriating, and unforgettable. At the center of many of these stories is Philip Arrington, a psychologist who tries to reshape the world to his liking as he moves through it, regardless of the ways his actions affect the people in his intimate orbit. With a deft eye for detail, crisp writing, and an uncanny understanding of human frailties, Toni Ann Johnson has created an endlessly interesting American family portrait.” Podcast host Kelly Fordon's latest short story collection I Have the Answer (Wayne State University Press, 2020) was chosen as a Midwest Book Award Finalist and an Eric Hoffer Finalist. Her 2016 Michigan Notable Book, Garden for the Blind, (WSUP), was an INDIEFAB Finalist, a Midwest Book Award Finalist, Eric Hoffer Finalist, and an IPPY Awards Bronze Medalist. Her first full-length poetry collection, Goodbye Toothless House, (Kattywompus Press, 2019) was an Eyelands International Prize Finalist and an Eric Hoffer Finalist and was adapted into a play, written by Robin Martin, which was published in The Kenyon Review Online. She is the author of three award-winning poetry chapbooks and has received a Best of the Net Award and Pushcart Prize nominations in three different genres. She teaches at Springfed Arts and The InsideOut Literary Arts Project in Detroit, as well as online, where she also runs a monthly poetry and fiction blog. www.kellyfordon.com

"Unapologetic in her due process, not waiting, not stopping, not pausing. If we don't do that, it won't get told. It won't get bought. We all know that we've submitted our various original pieces over the decades, mind you. Just sit down and do it ourselves, tell our stories and presume, not governed by the dollar but by the authenticity of the narrative, that there is an audience waiting."   Ambassador Shabazz               Coming of age born smack in the middle of the baby boomer generation means growing up in America during and following the Civil Rights movement. The children of that time lived through a country in turmoil. Aside from the battle against the disenfranchisement of African Americans, war and assassinations wreaked havoc on the collective social consciousness while culture evolved as culture does, despite the growing pains along the way. My guest, Toni Ann Johnson, is a baby boomer and award-winning author. Her latest work titled Light Skin Gone to Waste was awarded the 2021 Flannery O'Connor Award and features stories that “delve into how racist ideas burrow into black and white families and infect them for generations. This linked collection is inspired by Johnson's experience growing up in a middle-class black family, living in a white working-class town in mid-century upstate New York.” The stories begin in 1962 amid the tumult of desegregation, while detailing the divide between class, race, gender, and how they affect this family. I related to this excellent book on multiple levels. Toni Ann's meticulous development of these characters and her recall of cultural touchstones are rich and spot on. Previous works include the novel Remedy for Broken Angel, nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, and Homegoing that won Accents Publishing's inaugural novella contest. As a screenwriter, she is a two-time winner of the prestigious Humanitas Prize for her screenplays. Ruby Bridges and Crown Heights. I have admired Toni Ann's work for some time. It gives me, your host Brad Johnson, great pleasure to welcome her to Corner Table Talk. * * * Instagram: Corner Table Talk  and Post and Beam Hospitality LinkedIn: Brad Johnson E.Mail:  brad@postandbeamhospitality.com For more information on host Brad Johnson or to join our mailing list, please visit: https://postandbeamhospitality.com/ Theme Music: Bryce Vine Corner Table™ is a trademark of Post & Beam Hospitality LLCSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Toni Ann Johnson won the 2021 Flannery O'Conner Award for her linked story collection Light Skin Gone to Waste, selected for the prize and edited by Roxane Gray. Short fiction and essays have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Emerson Review, Hunger Mountain, Callaloo Journal, Xavier Review, and many other online and print publications. A novel, Remedy For a Broken Angel was released in 2014 and earned a 2015 NAACP Image Award nomination. In 2020, Johnson's novella Homegoing won Accents Publishing's inaugural novella contest. The book was released in May 2021. Johnson's screenwriting career began with a fellowship to the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab where she was invited to adapt her stage play, Gramercy Park is Closed to the Public. She went on to write assignments for studios, networks, and production companies including Touchstone, ABC, Warner Brothers, Caravan Pictures, Paramount, HBO, Lifetime, Showtime, Fox Television, and Summit Entertainment. She is a two-time winner of the Humanitas Prize: first, for her Disney/ABC screenplay, Ruby Ridges, the true story of a child who integrated the New Orleans public school system (for which she also won a Christopher Award). She won a second Humanitas Prize in 2004 for Crown Heights, another true story she developed and wrote for Showtime Television about the Crown Heights riots of 1991. Johnson wrote the TV movie The Courage to Love, as well as the FOX TV pilot, Save The Dance (based on the feature film on which she was a participating writer). She co-wrote the feature film Step Up 2: The Streets, the second installment of the successful Step Up Franchise. Light Skin Gone to Waste will be released on October 15, 2022, by the University of Georgia Press. It will be in select bookstores and available for purchase via most online platforms including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indiebound, and Bookshop.org. Twitter: https://twitter.com/toniannjohnson @toniannjohnson Instagram https://www.instagram.com/treeladytoniann/ treeladytoniann Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Toni-Ann-Johnson/e/B005IISXNK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4455289.Toni_Ann_Johnson?from_search=true&from_srp=true Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/toni-ann-johnson-b7662b9/ www.toniannjohnson.com Please subscribe to the enVision Together podcast to be notified of each episode. To connect with Pamela online to discuss her weekly topics or to spread the word about the enVision Together: Going to Your Next Level of Best podcast, please follow her on social media or on her website: Facebook: @Pamela Mshana Instagram: @pamela.mshana.37 Twitter: @PamelaMshana Website: http://www.pamelamshana.com/ (www.pamelamshana.com) (Contact page). Support the Show: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=TD6PCE7G83GNY (https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=TD6PCE7G83GNY)

Intro: Even our lungs need a sense of purpose. Let Me Run This By You: Boz is buying a house!Interview: We talk to actor and documentary filmmaker Cullen Douglas about AMDA, Florida School of the Arts, Southeastern Theatre Conference, Tyne Daly, character actors, Jason Priestly, Patricia Crotty, Our Town, Lenny Bruce, Dick Van Dyke, investigative journalism, reusing caskets, David Carr,  Deadwood, playing Bilbo Baggins, being pen pals with Andrea McCardle, singing If I Were A Rich Man,  The Pirates of Penzance, Bye Bye Birdie, Robert Sean Leonard,  Billy Flanigan: The Happiest Man on Earth, Shonda Rhimes, Twin Peaks,  Grey's Anatomy ,  Barry, Bill Hader,  documentary filmmaking, The Humanitas Prize,  Private Practice.FULL TRANSCRIPT (Unedited): 1 (8s):I'm Jen Bosworth Ruez.2 (10s):And I'm Gina Paci.1 (11s):We went to theater school together. We survived it, but we didn't quite understand it.2 (15s):20 years later, we're digging deep talking to our guests about their experiences and trying to make sense of1 (20s):It all. We survived theater school and you will too. Are we famous yet?3 (33s):TikTok and I started looking at the videos and I was like, Ooh, I don't know about this. I think I need to start wearing wake up. So thank you. You1 (43s):Look gorgeous. How are3 (43s):You doing?1 (44s):Yeah, hi. I'm finally, Many things are happening. Many things are happening. So I finally, even though I'm coughing still little, I finally feel like I am, I like kicked the pneumonia bronchitis situation and little mostly thank you. I, yeah, I, we went away and then to Ventura and I slash Ojai and I really rested and I really, there was one day I worked, but I really mostly rested and I just really was like, okay, I need actual ass downtime. And yeah.1 (1m 25s):And then I started to heal and I was also on praise God for antibiotics. And then the thing that really helped me really kick it was I hadn't exercised my lungs in a really long time at all because I was so sick that I just was like, Who wants to like walk or, and, and it was 107 degrees, so it's like, who wants to exercise in that? So my cousin, my sister came in town, I, that's like a big eyebrow raise for, to drop my niece off to college. And we went on a hike to Griffith, but like a sloping hike, not a crazy hike. And I was like, I don't think I'm gonna be able to do it.1 (2m 5s):And it actually helped my lungs to like feel like they were contributing to fucking something and me like Forgot I3 (2m 16s):Like a sense of purpose. Right,1 (2m 17s):Right. And also like to, yeah, to have a job. And they were like, like to be exercised and I was like, Oh, I forgot that. Like the lungs. And, and it's interesting in this whole covid situation, like the lungs need to work too. And I never understood in hospitals, cuz I spent quite a long time in them, why they have those breathing like tube things that you blow the ball and the ball floats up. You have to, I thought that was so dumb until I had bronchitis and pneumonia and I was like, Oh, they have to work. Like they have to be expanded. If you don't use them and work them, they get, it's not good when,3 (2m 58s):When my dad, you know, my dad had this really bad car accident when I was like nine years old and yeah, he rolled 40 times and he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, which saved his life because he was in a convertible. But of course the reason he got into the accident was because he was drinking anyway. He broke everything. Like he broke six ribs and he had one of, he had to spend one year lying on an egg crate mattress on the floor one year. And for the rest of his life, every time he sneezed or coughed it hurt his ribs. But he,1 (3m 34s):Oh, and he3 (3m 36s):Had one of of those things like you're talking about. And as a child I could not get it to the height that I was supposed to go. I shuder to think what it would be like right now. Yes. So you're, that was a good reminder to exercise our lungs. I make sure my breathing capacity is good1 (3m 54s):And, and, and even wait and, and it's like, I always literally thought, oh, you exercise to be skinny. That is the only, only reason no other, like, if you had asked me, I'd say, Oh, there's no other reason. What are you talking about? But now I'm like, oh, these parts of us need actual exercising. Literally lie. I just, it blew my mind.3 (4m 19s):I was lies1 (4m 21s):The lies.3 (4m 22s):It's endless. Yes.1 (4m 27s):Hey, let me run this by you. Oh, I think we're buying a house. What? This is the craziest Oh my not in, Yeah. Okay. This is what went down. So this is so crazy. Miles' job stuff has evened out in terms of like, there's just so much going on that I can't talk about, but which is makes for terrible radio, but podcasting. But anyway, the point is we're we're a little stable, so we went to Ventura and I was like, I fucking love this town. I love Ventura. It's an hour away. It's a weird like, think lost boys, right? Like Lost Boys. The movie is, is really Santa Cruzi, but like, that's what this town reminded of.1 (5m 9s):It's not, so it's Adventurer county, so it's like an hour northwest. It's on the beach. And I was like, I love this town. I I I love it here. There's so many brown folk. It's heavily, heavily you Latina. And it's like, so anyway, I was like, I love it, but I bet I can't afford it like anywhere in California. Well it turns out that Ventura is about 500,000 less on a house than la. So I was like, wait, what? So we saw this darling house that was, that is was small but like beautiful craftsman and you know, I'll just say I'll be totally transparent with $729,000, which is still a shit ton of money.1 (5m 49s):But I looked at the same exact property almost in, in, in Pasadena for 1.3 million for two bedroom, one bath. Yeah. Two bedroom, one bath got preapproved. I've never been preapproved for anything in my goddamn light. We got preapproved for a mortgage. I couldn't, Gina, I couldn't. But when we got the preapproval letter, like I literally, speaking of lies, I was like, okay, well just expect him to come back and say we can't do anything for you.3 (6m 17s):Yeah, right.1 (6m 19s):Just really know it's not gonna work. And he wrote back and was like, Here's what we can do on this house the mortgage wise and it's comparable. It's in the ballpark of what we're paying in rent. And I was like, I don't wanna be going into my middle aged and later years in no space.3 (6m 39s):It really takes a toll. It really takes a toll on your psyche in a way that you can't really account for until you go from no space to having space. And then you go, oh my gosh, there's these three specific muscles in my shoulders that have been tense for the entire time I've been living in a city, you know, decades in some1 (6m 56s):Cases. So it's a whole different, I could build a little studio, like all the things. So yeah. So I'm grateful. Never would occur to me, never would have occurred to me. Never.3 (7m 6s):Do you care to say anything about your sister's visit?1 (7m 10s):Well, you know what is yes. And what is so comforting to me again, you know, if you listen to this podcast you're like, Oh my god, Jen, shut up. But about the truth. Okay. The truth is the fucking truth of, and even, even if it changes from person to person, that person's truth is the truth. And my truth is, I feel, So she came and she stayed not with me because I just, that what we were outta town. And then she stayed in my house while we were gone, which was fine with her, with my niece for one night. And then I saw her one day and that was, that was fine. And then she stayed with my cousin and it was, let's just say it was very, the, for me, my experience was, oh, someone else besides me sees the challenges.1 (7m 60s):And that's what I will say about that. There is something about being witnessed and having someone else go. I see, I feel what you're talking about.3 (8m 11s):Yes. Oh, I, I relate very deeply to that because people who are good at1 (8m 19s):Image image management,3 (8m 22s):At image management, a term I like is apparent competent.1 (8m 26s):Oh yes. Oh yes. I love that. I've never heard that. Apparent, competent. That is it.3 (8m 30s):Yes. Many, many people in life are apparently competent because all of their energy and effort goes into projecting very much just that idea and to be at home with them is a completely different thing. And I'm not saying like, Oh, you should always be competent in all areas of life or that I'm competent in all areas of life. I'm just saying like, yeah, there, there are some, some forms of personality disorders and just like, not even that, but just interpersonal problems are so kind of covert. And they're so, because I feel like people say, I feel like people are always trying to look for like the most broad, you know, big actions to determine whether somebody is1 (9m 13s):Whatever, nurse, whatever. They haven't been hospitalized, they've never been in rehab, they still have a house. You're like,3 (9m 20s):What? It's the same kind of mentality that says if you're not like in the gutter with a, with a mad dog in a paper bag that you're not an alcoholic, you know, it completely ignores probably what 85% of alcoholic for, which is highly functioning Correct. People who don't miss work and Correct. You know, maybe even people in their lives would never, ever know that they had a drinking problem. So yeah. So that is validating. I'm happy that for you, that you had that experience and sometimes it takes like 20, 30 years to get that validation. But the truth always, I mean, you know, it's true. That's the thing. It comes to the surface eventually.1 (9m 56s):Well, and the other thing is, I now as where I used to be so afraid of the truth and I still am, look, I I don't like getting, we know this about me, my feedback is hard for me. I'm scared of all the things, but I used to run from the truth like nobody's business in my own ways. Now I sort of clinging to it as, wait a second, wait a second, what is the truth of the matter? Like what are the facts here? Because I feel like that is the only way for me to not get kaka go, go crazy. And it is comforting. I am comforted in knowing that. Like, it was interesting. So I also am taking a solo show, writing class, I'm writing a new solo show, my third one.1 (10m 41s):And I'm just started and I thought, let me take a class with the woman who I taught. I did the first one in oh four in LA with, anyway, but I was saying on Facebook, like I, I, I'm taking this class with Terry and she's magic and I'm so glad I'm doing it and da da da. And she was like, Hey, I have a question for you. Can I quote you? And I was like, Yes. Because in her, in her like, for a and I said, of course it's all true. Like I didn't have to worry that my quote was somehow dirty or misleading or like, not really what I felt like I've done that so much in my life in the past where I've been like, oh shit, I told them I loved them or I loved their stuff, or I loved and I feel inside totally incongruent with that kind of thing.1 (11m 30s):No, I was like, no, these are what, these are my words now. I try to, it doesn't always work, but I try to just be like, okay, like what is the truth? And if someone had to quote me, would I be okay? And I, and I am a lot of the time I was like, of course you can. It's what I, I'm thanking for asking, but also it's what I feel in my bones about that, that you, that you have a magic when it comes to solo show teaching. That's it, it that is the truth. That my,3 (11m 55s):That is so cool. It's cool that you're doing that and I'll, that it, that gave me a reminder I had wanted to say on this podcast because you know, we had Jeremy Owens on the podcast. Yes. And he recently put on his social that he, he was doing it kind of as a joke, but I think he's actually doing it now, which is doing another solo show. And I had messaged him to say, you know, I meant what I said when I told you that you should do this and that I would help you and that goes for anybody cuz I said, I've said that to a lot of people on this podcast. Like, if you need help, you know, if this conversation has reinspired in you, a desire to go and do this other creative thing, please, I'm not saying like, I'm gonna co-write it with you.3 (12m 37s):I'm saying like, let me know if there's something I can do, if I can read it or, or, or bounce it off of you so that that stands for any of our previous guests. But tell us more about what, what's it gonna be about, what are you gonna be talking about? Well,1 (12m 51s):I don't entirely know, but where I'm leading is, it was interesting in this, See the thing I forgot means is that I like writing exercises. I never do them on my own. I never do. So this, she does writing exercises and a meditation before and I really longed and craved that because I spend so much of my hustle these days. How can I bring in income? How can I advance my career in Hollywood? And that is really shuts down the play aspect of all things. And I'm not saying, you know, I'm not saying that you, that I I'm not saying it's bad. All I'm saying is it totally eliminates for me the create like the really raw fun play creativity.1 (13m 37s):Okay? So in this, in this class, I just took it like, I just took the class. I was like, I'll do it. It's a masterclass in solo work, I'll do it. I like her. She called me, I was on the freeway and I was like, I'll do it. So right now the working title is, and also a solo show more or less. And I don't know if that's gonna change, but it is. Like I, and, and then in the exercise we did, we had our first class Sunday, it was all about, I realized that this solo show needs to be for me more of a call to action that that we, the, and it really comes from something you said, which is, I'm paraphrasing, but it's like we are our only hope, which is the good news and the bad news.1 (14m 25s):So like you said, we are the problem, I am the problem. Which is great. And also the, you know, terrible. So that is sort of this solo show is more gonna be about, it's like more activism based, but in a like creative arts activism way and, and not just a funny antidotes about my wacky family. And I mean, I would argue we could argue that like that my last solo show did have that underneath. But I think there needs to be a more like call to action for artists and people like us to start doing the things in the arts world that are gonna like help save the planet. And I don't know what that means yet, but she was like, oh this is like more of an activism piece based on what you're like it has that component to it.1 (15m 11s):And I was like, yeah. And then she said, if there was a banner, we did these cool exercise, she said, there's a banner all over town, whatever town you're in advertising your show, what would it say? And what came to mind in the meditation was it would be a red banner and it would just say, and it would say hope. And then in parentheses it would say sort of, So what I realized is I'm obsessed with the parentheses, like that's where I live. So I live in the world of I love my life parentheses, it's a fucking nightmare. So I love that kind of thing in my writing. And so I was like, okay, I'm really gonna embrace that. So it's like, it's like that, that stuff, I don't know where it's gonna go. I don't know what it's gonna happen.3 (15m 52s):Well two things. One is you have actually thrown out quite a few excellent titles for show, for solo shows. You'll periodically be like, that's the title of my new book or that's the title of my next, my next solo show. Yeah. So you might have to give a little re-listen to some episodes. I wish I could tell you which1 (16m 11s):I will.3 (16m 12s):Okay. The other thing is something that just came up for me when you said about the parenthesis, which I know exactly what you're talking about. I was saying like, oh yeah, she wants to show the good, the bad and the ugly. Oh. And something that occurred to me was like this concept of underbelly. Like you're showing yes, your soft underbelly. We are, I mean when I think when a person is maturing into themselves, that's what, that's the goal is to get to first accepting your own soft underbelly and then also contending with it and then representing it to the world. Because the thing that I've been on recently is like I have done myself and nobody else any favors for the amount of time I've spent misrepresenting myself because my misrepresenting myself has all been based on the lie that I thought there is a person that you are supposed to be, and your job is to be that person and you know, instead of like figure out the person that you are.3 (17m 10s):So, you know, coming into your own power is, is is a lot what we spend, what I spent my thirties about, like coming into your own power and not say that I arrived at it, but that No,1 (17m 23s):But3 (17m 24s):You about that. And then I think my forties are more about coming into my own vulnerability and that both of those things are really two sides of the same coin. Your power and your vulnerability, right? Because you can't have any power unless you're being honest about, you know, what the situation is. Today we are talking to Colin Douglas. Colin Douglas is an actor, writer, director, and documentary filmmaker who has been on absolutely everything. Most recently you've seen him on Barry and I love that for you.3 (18m 4s):But he's been, I joke in the, in our interview that he's been an absolutely every television show ever made. And that's only a slight exaggeration. He's been on Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice and the 2017 revival of Twin Peaks Agents of Shield, Pure genius. He's just been on everything Deadwood. So he's very experienced, he's very wise and he's very warm. So I hope you enjoy our conversation with Colin Douglas.0 (18m 34s):Great.3 (18m 36s):So congratulations Colin Douglas, you survived theater school. You survived4 (18m 42s):Two3 (18m 42s):Theater schools as a matter of fact.4 (18m 45s):I did. I was a glut for punishment actually. Yes. I I couldn't get enough of it.3 (18m 50s):So it was a BFA and MFA both in acting?4 (18m 54s):No, you know what, it was a zero degree. I, I am still just kind of riding by the seat of my pants. I actually, when I attended amda, it was not a degree program yet. Now it is. But back in the day it was basically they just kind of said, okay, go audition. And then when I went to Florida School, the arts, it only had an AA degree and I literally am still to this day two credit shy of my degree because I had booked a job out of Sctc and it was gonna be starting and I was like, I'm not sitting around and getting my degree just so that I can go get a job.4 (19m 42s):So I went, I took the job and I never looked back.1 (19m 45s):I mean that is, here's, I was just talking to someone who went to the theater school last night, my friend Lindsay. And we were talking about how conservatory I wish, I wish that I had done things differently, but it is what it is. But what you are reminding me of just go and audition is like the most valuable piece of advice anyone could have given us, which we never got. Which was now you, the piece of paper that says you have a BFA is not for not, but it's also not, it doesn't directly correlate to getting jobs. Like, it just doesn't. So you, you got a job while you were in school and said, I'm going, you didn't even think about staying or how did that work in your brain?4 (20m 30s):Well it was, it was because I was literally just the two credit shy kind of thing. And actually the class was, it was sort of a lab where I, you know, I had to help strike sets, but I was so busy with doing shows that I never had time to go help out with strike. So it was one of those things, oh okay, I'll, I'll require, I'll get that when I can get it when I have the time. And I never did. And then the tour was starting before the fall session started and I was like, you know what? My only regret honestly was the fact that I felt like, and, and again, it's not, you know, if somebody were to ask me today, you know, should you go to theater school?4 (21m 16s):I would say yes, if that's what really where you wanna hone your craft if you wanna, you know, build your community, but don't, if you're gonna do something like that, go to a program that has an established alumni because that's where your connections are being made when you get out of school is that support network that you have at amda at the time, there really wasn't, you know, when I was there, the biggest sort of claim to fame at the time was Time Daily. She was a graduate of, of Amda. And so it was, it wasn't as if I could reach out to Time Daily all of a sudden.4 (21m 59s):And then Florida School, the arts was, and still is such a small arts school that there really wasn't anybody for me to reach out to. Had I gone to Northwestern, had I gone to Juilliard or Yale or, or or Tish, that I would've had a built-in network of working professionals on the outside. So that was my only regret in that, that if I had perhaps gone to a different theater school, maybe I would've had those connections. But I certainly got the education I felt I needed.3 (22m 34s):Well and also you got the connections while getting paid instead of having to pay, which is was just definitely preferable. And by and speak about, you know, work experience and getting connections. You have been on every television show that has ever existed and tons of films too. So was your experience that as soon as you started working, you were just off to the races? I mean, I'm not suggesting that it's easy because no life of an actor is easy, but have, has it been pretty consistent for you would you say for your career?4 (23m 10s):It's been consistently inconsistent in that,1 (23m 16s):Wait, I just have to say that has to be the name of your book. Okay. I, we were talking about earlier before you got on about titles of shows and books, your book could be consistently inconsistent. The Culin Douglas story, I'm just, I'm just putting it out there. Thank you. Please send me 10% check to my office.4 (23m 32s):Yeah, thanks. No, it really, it was one of those things that I, I had a very dear professor at Florida School of the the Arts, Patricia Kadi, she was the acting instructor there and I was doing all of the plays, I was in all of the productions there and I had kind of become the top dog in the school, so to speak. And she pulled me aside one day and she said, you know, the one thing you're gonna have to realize is you're probably not gonna start working professionally until you're in your thirties.4 (24m 13s):And I, and I didn't really understand what she was saying there. What she was basically commenting on was that I was a young character actor and I didn't look like Jason Priestly, I didn't look and yet I hadn't grown into my framer look either. So I was gonna be in this really sort of, where do we cast him? He's talented but we don't know where to put him. And so I did a lot of theater for a lot of years and then in my thirties is when I was able to transfer into television and film. So what, cause I finally had kind of caught up to my look.1 (24m 45s):Yeah. So what I appreciative aid about that is it sounds like she said it so she said it in a way that wasn't like being a jerk, right? Like my experience was feeling that way except having it told like there is something deficient in you so that you cannot be an ingenue cuz you're too fat, you're too this. So instead of, hey, go do some theater, do all the things and then you'll grow into your look, do not fret. This is like part of the technical side of the business of how a camera sees you and not about your talent. It would've been so much different. Instead it comes down to, I think a lot of people we've talked to from the DePauls, from the Northwestern say, nobody told me that in a way which was, I could make a plan about it.1 (25m 35s):It was always just, well you're never gonna be cast. So by, and instead of hey maybe you could do theater, maybe you could write, maybe you could do something else until Hollywood catches up to the character of you.4 (25m 50s):Exactly.1 (25m 51s):It good, Patricia. Good. Is Patricia still around?4 (25m 54s):She is. And she literally just announced today that she's retiring from teaching. Well1 (25m 60s):Patricia, you did good work and you she did fantastic. You made it so call in part of it sounds like she encouraged you cuz you started with that story of her encouraged you to know that maybe later it would be your time to be on every single television show ever written. But for the twenties and the, you know, you were gonna do some theater and, and get your training right man, and,4 (26m 23s):And I honestly, I didn't completely understand everything she was saying in that little sound bite because, you know, I was, I was sort of standing there saying, Patty, look at all these job offers. I just got out of CTCs, you know, I'm gonna be working like crazy. And she said, No, no, no, don't get me wrong that the work is going to be there. But as far as what you're seeing in your mind's eye of, you know, Helen Douglas tonight on The Tonight Show, that's not gonna happen until you can kind of get into that other stream as it were. How3 (27m 0s):So did that match up? I mean, was that a surprise to you or did that match up with what you already thought about yourself? I don't think any 17 year old, 18 year old necessarily thinks of themselves as a character actor. Although it may just be because it never gets put to you that that's an option when you're a teenager. You know, the option is like, as Bos mentioned, Ingenu or not Ingenu, but they never really say like, Well, but you, you know, you're gonna fit into this different mold. So how did that butt up against what you already thought about yourself?4 (27m 32s):It actually kind of lined up okay with me in, in a weird way because at Florida School, the arts in particular, they were so gracious in the fact that when they picked their seasons, they picked shows that it made sense for me to be the lead in, in that I, I'm giving you an example, we did a production of Our Town and I was the stage manager and, you know, as opposed to being cast as the one of the young, you know, lead ingenue kind of a things. And then we did Bye by Birdie and I was cast in the Dick Van Dyke role.4 (28m 12s):And so they did it in such a way that, you know, or when we did Barefoot in the Park, I was Victor Velasco the old man who lived upstairs. So I was already sort of being primed that I was this character actor and would be gonna be doing that kind of stuff. And then quite honestly, as that look started to emerge, I mean in college I had sort of a flock of seagulls kind of hairdo thing going on, you know, and then it quickly all went away. And I had been playing about 20 years older in film and television and in theater than I've actually always been, you know, I was playing guys in my, when I was in my, you know, thirties, I was playing guys in my fifties.4 (28m 59s):Now I'm in my fifties and I'm playing guys in my in1 (29m 1s):In seventies. And I think that calling, the thing that I'm noticing too is like maybe for men it's a little different too, right? Like there's something about being, like, there's just, and it's a societal thing where like women who are play, like, it's, it's a insult for women when they're like, Oh, we're sending you in for a 50 year old and you're 30. But, and I think maybe if you have a certain kind of ego for a man as well, and we all have egos, I mean, it says, but, and I, I love the fact that you didn't, it doesn't sound like anyway, and you can tell me if I'm wrong, you took it as an insult that they were, that you were going out for roles that were for like the Victor Velasco of the world. You were able to embrace it as you were working.1 (29m 43s):Like that's, so I say this all to say, because I remember in our last class with Jim Ooff, who people call hostile prof and he said to me, You know who you are. And I was like, dying to hear you are Michelle Pfeiffer. That was never gonna happen. But I was dying to hear, he was like, That's who you, he's like, you are the next. And I'm waiting and, and I'm waiting. He goes, Lenny Bruce. And I was like, what the actual fuck is going on? What are you telling me?3 (30m 13s):No idea. What a great compliment that was.1 (30m 15s):I was devastated, devastated. I wanted to quit. I was suicide. Like it was just, But anyway, so what I'm saying is you didn't take that and run with it in a way that was like, I am not Jason Priestly and therefore my life is over. You were able to work and, and embrace the roles. It sounds like4 (30m 34s):I was able to embrace the roles and, and I was getting, okay, you are a young dick fan dyke, you're a young, this kind of a guy. So I was able to kind of make that connection. I honestly were being completely honest here. I think, how do I put this, that it does not sound completely like an asshole. It1 (30m 54s):Doesn't matter. We always sound like assholes here. Go ahead.4 (30m 57s):But at Florida school, the arts, I was one of, I was one of the only straight men at school and therefore undated a lot. So I was not, the fact that I wasn't looking like the young hot stud,1 (31m 22s):You were still getting it4 (31m 23s):Right? I was still getting it. So that didn't it, had it not been like that situation, I think I probably would've started to hyperventilate thinking, well hold it, I'm in my twenties, why are they making me play these old men? And this is affecting, you know, cus group. But that wasn't the case. And so I, I had sort of a, a false sense of ego I guess a little bit. But it was supporting the work that I was doing.3 (31m 50s):Yeah, absolutely. So did you grow up always knowing that you wanted to be an actor? Did you think, did you try any other paths first? Or were you, were you dead set on this?4 (32m 2s):I was dead set when the story goes, that when I was four I asked Santa for a tuxedo to wear to the Emmys and Santa delivered gave me a, a white dinner jacket and spats and stuff like that. So I was, I was ready to go.1 (32m 18s):Oh my god, do you have that picture? Can you please send us that?4 (32m 22s):Oh no, we have moved so many times. When I was growing up, my dad, when I was growing up was an undercover investigative reporter. And so wherever he was basically undercover was where we were living. Wait1 (32m 36s):A minute, wait a minute. Wait a minute, wait. Okay. This is fantastic because I do a lot of crime writing and so does Gina writes and undercover crime reporter father now, right there is sort of burying the lead. What in the hell? He was an undercover, What does that even mean? An undercover, He's not a police officer, but he's an undercover reporter.4 (32m 57s):He was an undercover investigative reporter. Well, what that for a period of time, So I'll give you an ex, there was a senator at one time back in the early seventies who was receiving kickbacks from his employees or hiring people on the books. And those people weren't actually having jobs. And so they would then send him the money. He was getting all of the money.1 (33m 24s):Sure. Like Chicago was like living in Chicago all time.4 (33m 28s):So the, somebody tipped my father off that this was happening. And so he went undercover and, and worked as sort of like an aid and things like that. Or there was a time where he, he worked at a meat packing place or he worked at a funeral parlor that was selling caskets with fake bottoms. And so people would buy these incredibly expensive things and then they would drop them and then they'd open up the hatch and the body would just drop into a pine box and then they would reuse the, the casket.1 (34m 8s):So this is the single greatest thing I've ever heard in my life, and I'm gonna write a pilot about it immediately called Fake Bottom. And it's4 (34m 14s):Gonna see, I've already wrote that was, I actually wrote a spec pilot. That's how I landed my lid agent. Oh, it was because what ended up happening is my dad, much to my mom's chagrin, used me in two of his undercover stings when I was a kid. One time, there was a situation where firemen had been hired and they weren't actually properly trained. It was another one of those kind of kickback situations. So it was a training session and they, I was supposedly, it was a staged event where they were gonna try to test the skills of the firemen or whatever.4 (34m 55s):And so I was gonna, I I practiced with a real fireman being fireman carried up and down a ladder from a second story kind of a thing. But once the word was out that it was an internal sting, they put me into one of those crane baskets. And so I was sort of floating over midtown in, in the basket kind of a thing. And then another time actually, there was a talent agent who was running a kitty porn ring. And so I was sort of used to expose, so to speak, this this person that was actually trying to take advantage of, of kids and parents.3 (35m 38s):Oh my God. Well, two things occur to me about that. One is your family was already full of drama before you came along. I mean, anybody who wants to, right, who wants to do this investigative journalism, Like that's, that's a dramatic person. I love David Carr. I love that kind of personality of per, you know, the person who wants to like really get in there, investigate and just as an aside, like, I'm sorry for the families who paid for those coffins, but at the same time, you know, good, good on them because it's such a waste. So much, many people spent putting mahogany boxes into the ground to to, to, to decompose over time. Okay. So did your parents like that you wanted to be an actor or did they have a different idea for plan for you?4 (36m 19s):Oh, they, they were 100% supportive. The very, very much so from day one, I think, because it was my mom who really sort of stepped in and said, Hey, let's figure out how we can get this new kid who's always the new kid to find his people. And so she took me when I was 11 years old to a local community theater, children's community theater. And they were doing a production, a musical version of The Hobbit. And you know, the intention was that I was just gonna audition and be, you know, number 40 in the background kind of a thing.4 (37m 0s):Third,3 (37m 1s):Third habit from the left,4 (37m 3s):Third habit from the, And so they auditioned and I remember you had to sing a song and God, I have not told this story, you had to sing a song. And I decided to sing tomorrow from Annie because I was me madly, deeply in love with Andrea Ricardo. And we were actually pen pals. And so I went in there and I sang tomorrow and jump cut to that weekend. And my mom came in Saturday morning smiling as I was watching cartoons and she said, You've been cast in the lead as Bill Bos. And that was sort of like, okay, I I I found my people.3 (37m 47s):That's amazing. Please tell us more about your penal with,4 (37m 54s):So I, I just, I, you know, I I had gotten the album when it came out and I listened to it and I memorized it. And even then I was casting myself as either Rooster or Daddy Warbuck, you know. And so somehow I found her address and sent her, you know, a, a letter as we used to write, you know, before texting. And she wrote back and then I wrote back, and then the thing that was really exciting was 20,3 (38m 28s):Wait a minute, are you married to Annie?4 (38m 31s):No, I am not married to Annie. Okay. But 20 some odd years later I was doing a national tour and staying in a hotel in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Andrea was on tour doing a national tour and was staying in the same hotel, kind of bumped into one another and was like, you know, you don't know who I am, but this. And it ended up, it was wonderful because I went to see her show on my dark night and she and her family came to see me on, on the other night. So.1 (39m 7s):Beautiful. Okay, so here we go. Your family's on board and why didn't you just go and strike it out either in New York or anywhere? Why did you end up going to school? Were you like, I wanna learn more, or how did that transition into schooling go?4 (39m 24s):It did, I did wanna learn more. It, it really was because up at that point, the only influences as far as acting I was going was from, you know, the, either the community theater directors or the high school drama teacher who had, you know, aspirations for theater, but was really just doing it because he didn't wanna coach the football team. So I felt like I needed a stronger foundation for myself. And, but always it was sort of like I was going to the theater school because I didn't feel like, Oh, I don't wanna go to a school where I'm gonna have to learn all of these other things that I'm not gonna ever use.4 (40m 7s):Now I look back and go, you know, I wish I had done some of that other stuff because I did not create any kind of a fallback plan for me. It would, this is either gonna work or it's not gonna work and you're gonna be screwed. I1 (40m 21s):Mean, here's the thing, here's the thing. I don't know what you, you two think, but like, there is this two schools of, well there's probably a bajillion schools of thought, but one of them is like, if you have a fallback plan, you will fall back. The other one is not everyone is gonna be a Colin Douglas or a John C. Riley that's gonna work, work, work, work, work, work, work. So a fallback plan for some of us might have been like another avenue to get into the industry, right? But a fallback plan can also literally have people go and not live their dreams and become, you know, actuary scientists because they're afraid. So it's like, it's so individual, which is why I think theater school training is so tricky is because you're taking young individuals who don't know shit and some know what they wanna do, some don't, some are good, some are talented, but not, it's so individual.1 (41m 10s):So it's like when people ask me, should I go to theater school? I'm like, I fucking don't know who, I'm like, who are you and what do you wanna do on the planet? But nobody ever asked me that as a 17 year old. So here we are. Gina, you were gonna say something? Oh,3 (41m 23s):I was just going, if you remember your audition,4 (41m 30s):My audition into theater school. Okay. So I do, I remember my audition into anda a, and again, I already recognizing I was a character actor. I sang if I were a rich man from Fiddler on the Roof, you know, you know, a skinny ass, you know, kid from, you know, suburbia singing that song. And then I did a monologue from a play that I had done in high school. And which1 (42m 9s):One do you remember? Or No,4 (42m 10s):It's okay. It was it, yes. No, actually it was weird because I look back on it now kind of thinking how the soul sometimes prepares. I think sometimes it was a, from a show called Juvie, and I played a young gentleman who was mentally challenged and I got a lot of incredible feedback from, from the role because I had researched, I had, I had gone to the library and this is, there was a thing called Microfish when you would go to the library and you'd have to look up stories on kind of like a big machine. And I did all of these kind of things and research the roles, and I saw images of babies and young people with different kind of cognitive delays.4 (42m 60s):And so I did that. I got into Amda, whatever, again, sort of jumping forward in life. In 1996, my oldest son was born and he happened to be born with Down syndrome. And when I met him for the first time at the bassinet, I immediately went back to that Microfish machine in high school and remembered seeing babies and images of people with Down syndrome. And so I made that kind of connection. So it was sort of like, all right, this is where life was going as far as Florida School, the arts went, I actually didn't audition for that.4 (43m 43s):What had happened is I was at, and I broke my foot during one of the dance classes. They would bring in dance captains from various Broadway shows and teachers routines. And we were doing a routine from cats and I jumped off of a piling and I came down flat for,1 (44m 5s):Let me tell you something. This is what, this is just one of the many reasons I don't care for that musical is that also what are you having people jumping around for that? Aren't I just, anyway, I'm glad they brought, I'm sure it was a great experience in some ways, but like, I just don't care for, that was my first musical I saw. And I even as a kid, I was like, I don't buy this at all. I don't know what's going on here, but I don't like it. But anyway, so you busted your foot. Oh, and can I just say about microfiche? I'm sorry to be an asshole, but like, I could never figure out how to slow the fucking shit down and I never could see a goddamn story, so I gave up on the microphone, so you made it further than me. I was like, why is it going too fast? That was my, that's like, like, that's like so indicative of my life. But anyway, so okay, so you, you broke your foot and so what happened?1 (44m 49s):You had to, why did you4 (44m 50s):So I, I, I broke my foot, I went home to my parents' place who were now living in Florida and kind of rehabbed for a while. I then auditioned for a play for Pirates of Penza, excuse me, that was up, up performances up near St. Augustine, Florida. And I went up there and I was playing Samuel the the second pirate. And the gentleman who was playing the modern major general in the show was actually the dean and artistic director of Florida School of the Arts. And he said to me, If you'd like to come to school, we'll offer you a full scholarship and you can start at the, as soon as the show closes.4 (45m 38s):And so that's what I did. It was like, I just went straight to Flos Bureau Arts and I did not go back up to Amda after my footed here. Helen,1 (45m 45s):It's really interesting, like, and I was talking about, this was someone else yesterday about how one, obviously one thing leads to the next, Oh it was a showrunner actually, that was that I was listening to a lecture and she just said that what I've done is I have walked through doors that have opened to me without a lot of second guessing. I followed my heart in terms of who took interest in me and who opened doors for me. I walked through them. I didn't say no, but, or no, I just did it. And so it sounds like that's what you did. You were like, Oh, full ride, I'm in Florida now. You could have been like, No, no, no, I'm gonna go back to Amda because whatever.1 (46m 26s):But you were like, I'm gonna do this. And it sounds like it worked in your favor, but what was your experience like at Florida? Did you, I mean obviously we know you left early, but did you get stuff out of it? Did you love it? What was the deal?4 (46m 41s):I did love it in the sense that because it was such a small school and because where the school is located, it's in Plac of Florida, which is sort of geographically in the middle of sort of Jacksonville and Gainesville. And so on a Friday night there really wasn't any partying going on. It was all of us getting together and doing monologues for one another, you know, because there wasn't any place to really go. And then as far as the classes went, because it was such a small institution, so many of my classes were literally just myself and professor in their office.4 (47m 26s):And we would do, you know, that's how I learned dialects was literally just, you know, we were working on the Italian dialect or whatever and I would go in and the professor would speak to me in that Italian dialect and then I would have to answer him and that would be the entire class. And then the next week we would do the brooklynese. And so I had all of that and they were very, very gracious to me because when I came in as quote a freshman, I was taking all of the freshman courses, but then they also had me taking all of the second year acting courses as well, sort of accelerating me through the program and then allowing that by doing that I was able to be cast in all of their different productions.3 (48m 15s):So when you did school and enter the workforce, what surprised about sort of the business that maybe you weren't expecting or hadn't been prepared for? For in terms of your training or, you know, and it could have been a happy surprise or, or, or not such a happy surprise, but like what was some I always just feel like there's, people have their list of things. Oh, I never thought the one that people always bring up as coverage, I never thought, when I watched TV shows that they had to do the same thing 50 times.4 (48m 58s):I, I think for, for me, the biggest sort of, even though Patty Crotty, Patricia Crotty had said, you know, Hey, it's gonna be a while before you're gonna start to work. You know, although I did work immediately when I got outta school, it was, it was one of those things where I quickly realized that they really didn't care that I had played Albert and by by Birdie they didn't care that I was in all of the productions. It was basically, no, you've earned the right to stand in the back of a line and you're gonna have to, you know, get up at an ungodly hour, go to equity, sign in at 6:00 AM and then come back at two in the afternoon for your audition.4 (49m 47s):But by the time you come back, if you pick up backstage, you're gonna read that Robert Strong Leonard has already been offered the role that you're auditioning for at two o'clock. So those were sort of some of the realities of, oh, okay, this is not necessarily gonna be the projecting thing that's gonna get me into the room. It's just, it's gonna be more for me that, okay, I feel like I deserve to be here and I'm competent enough in my abilities. But I, I think that was as far as just working in general. But Gina, to answer the question as far as like the thing that I was most surprised by within the industry, I'm, I'm trying to think if there was anything that I really was sort of taken aback by,1 (50m 31s):Well I guess I can ask like, did you, what was your like, like in terms of getting an agent and all that, did anything there go like, Oh my gosh, I didn't understand that I would have to, How did your representation come about? Was that a surprise or did you just get an agent? Cause a lot of our listeners, some of them we talk, you know, we talk about like a showcase or, but you left early and just started working, so what was that transition like in terms of getting representation and going on, on auditions for film and TV or theater? And if you think of anything that surprises you along the way, just let us know. But sure,4 (51m 4s):I didn't have theatrical, I didn't have legit theater representation for a lot of years. I was literally very lucky in that, you know, just using relationships, you know, to help propel me into the next situation that one show would be closing and I would hear about the fact that they were looking for something else. Or I would go to the Southeastern Theater conference and audition and be able to pick up my next year or year and a half worth of work. And I was able to kind of keep it at that point. I finally did get an agent who was gonna cover me theatrically as well as, you know, commercially.4 (51m 46s):And I remember her telling me, she was basically saying the same thing that Patty Crotty had said is that, you know, you know, you're a good actor, I'll put you out there, but it's, it's probably gonna be a while before you're gonna book a commercial or any kind of television cuz you're just really hard to place. She was good to her words. She put me out there and a week later I booked a Budweiser commercial. So I was like, Oh, okay, I think I got this. I, I think the hardest lesson that I had to learn was that because it sometimes came easy, it felt like, like, oh, okay, this is what it was, is I would get say to that chunk of change.4 (52m 29s):And I, it took me a while to figure out that I had to make that chunk of change, stretch as far as I possibly could because I didn't know exactly when the next job was coming from and, and that it was hard when I met and fell in love with my wife who was coming. She had been a model, but she had also worked in the corporate world. And so she was very accustomed to, well no, you make this amount of money every month and this is what you can expect with your expenses. It was hard when we started to realize, oh no, CU just got a great windfall of money, but if you break it down and spread it out over a year, he's not making minimum wage.4 (53m 10s):So, you know, it was a really, that was a hard kind of thing to adjust with.3 (53m 15s):Yes. I mean that's, yes, that's a common story and that's something that they don't teach you about in theater school. They don't teach you money management and how you have to withhold taxes and all kinda stuff. Yeah. So that, that's that, that's, that's a whole education in and of itself. But you were also a writer and director. When did the writing and directing and producing come into your career?4 (53m 40s):The writing actually started in college in that we would have to have monologues for class and I had an affinity to writing the monologues and so I started writing monologues for my classmates for beer money or they would need an audition piece for something in particular. And so I would tailor it to sort of echo whatever play that they were auditioning for kind of a thing. And so it really just sort of came easy for me. And then whenever I was auditioning, my biggest thing was I don't wanna go in there with something that they have seen 3000 times.4 (54m 23s):And so I was like, Okay, you know what? I'm just gonna write my own thing. And it worked, it worked to a degree. And so that's where I sort of started to do it. And then personally after my oldest son Gabe was born, I had a lot of demons to be dealing with. I didn't understand why I had been chosen or whatever, or, or given a child with a disability and, and it took me kind of having to get outta my own way to realize that was the least interesting thing about him. And, but in doing so, I, I started to write in journals and then I ended up writing a one man play that I in turn tour the country with for a handful of years.4 (55m 11s):And it was that play that I then attracted some other attention and then got hired on to do some other writing in script doctoring or whatever. And then as I shared earlier, I wrote a spec script about that time of my life when we were kind of moving into hotels and things like that. And then that kind of just started to snowball. And then I was very fortunate back in 2010, I had the Humanitas Organization, Humanitas Prize. They tapped me as the first recipient of their New Voices fellowship program, which pairs you with showrunners to sort of mentor you in creating a television series.4 (56m 0s):And so I was shared with, paired with Shonda rhymes over at Shondaland and was able to develop a show, which was actually an adaptation of my one man play, about a family, you know, coming to terms and dealing with a child with a disability. But I had already actually had a relationship with Shawnda prior to that because I had gotten cast in an episode of Grey's Anatomy and she and her producing partner, Betsy Beers, put me up for an Emmy for that role. And then when I didn't get the nomination, Shawnda turned around and created a role for me over on private practice.1 (56m 46s):Okay. So you know, all these people, and I guess I'm mindful of time and I wanna know what the hell are you, are you doing now you have this documentary, What is your jam right this second? Colin Douglas. And if you could do anything, what would it be? And tell us about this documentary, because what I don't wanna happen is it's like 10 minutes go by and we haven't heard about the documentary and we haven't heard about like, what is your jam and your juice right this second.4 (57m 13s):Okay. So I, I made the documentary, I started working on it when we got locked out, you know, the world was hurting, the industry was shut down. I couldn't stand in front of a camera, I couldn't direct a bunch of actors in a narrative, but I knew I could still tell stories. And so I, at one point in my career, I detoured and I was an associate show director and a performer at Walt Disney World. I was there for about three years. And the level of talent in those theme parks is just incredible. You know, there are a lot of people who come outta theater schools and they get their job, you know, at Dollywood or at Bush Gardens or at Disney World or Disneyland, and they spend the summer there and then they go off and do whatever else with their life.4 (58m 5s):There are other individuals like the subject of my film, Billy Flanigan, who, he started right after theater school. He went to Boston Conservatory. He then opened up Epcot in 1982 as a kid at the Kingdom and has been working for 40 years straight as a performer out at Disney. When the Disney Park shut down because of the pandemic, Billy was without a stage for the first time in his 40 year career. So what he did is he took it upon himself to start doing singing and dancing telegrams for other performers who were out of work. And then he started to literally take it on the road because he's a cyclist and he started crisscrossing the entire country, delivering these sing in dancing telegrams called Planograms.4 (58m 55s):And my Facebook page was blowing up with, I got Planogrammed, I got Planogrammed and I, so I reached out to some old friends from Disney and I said, I've heard about this name Billy Flanigan for years. He's a, he's a legend. He was a legend 20 years ago when I was working, You know, can you put me in touch with him? And so I spoke with Billy. I reached out to my producing partner and I said, There's a documentary here, because Billy has just been so incredibly selfless. He's always a pay it forward kind of a guy. He's a performers performer, you know, even though he jokes about the fact that he'll get a nosebleed if he's not on center.4 (59m 36s):But it's one of those things where he just really is about making the other people on stage look good. So he's been the face of Disney. But then what ended up happening is he was so busy working and raising an entire family that a handful of years ago, Billy finally slowed down and realized that he had been living a different life than he perhaps should have been. And he came out and it really destroyed his family and, and brought things down. And so you had this guy who day in and day out was still having to give that Disney, you know, RAAs, but behind the scenes, as we all know, his performers, the show's gotta go on.4 (1h 0m 20s):And so his heart was breaking. And so I said to Billy, Look, if we tell your story, we're gonna have to tell all of it, because I feel like you sharing your humanity and your pain is gonna help other people out there within the L G B T community who are feeling bullied or feeling like they don't have their place. So if we can do this, this is, this is sort of our mandate. And he said yes. And his family said yes. And, and thankfully not as a direct link to the film, but I shared the final cut with Billy and his family, because obviously I had to have their final approval. And Billy called me and said, This film is helping heal my family now, because it had given them that creative distance that it was no longer them, it was these other people up on a screen talking about a period of their life.4 (1h 1m 13s):So right now, the film, it premieres digitally on October 7th, and then is available on D V D November 15th. And then after the first of the year, it'll be looking like landing on one of the major streamers.3 (1h 1m 29s):Oh, that's fantastic. I'm so excited to see it because I watched the trailer and that thing that you were describing about, you know, he's, he's, he's gotta always have a stage that comes through from the first frame. You see him, you think, Wow, this guy is like a consummate performer in a way that I could never imagine. I mean, yes, I, I love to be on stage. It's fantastic, but I, I don't have this thing where like, you know, I've gotta be performing every second. And that was really clear. And I didn't know, I didn't glean from the trailer that he was doing that for fun for other performers. I thought he was just starting his business with the singing telegram. So that is even more interesting. Okay, that's really cool.3 (1h 2m 9s):So after the first of the year, it'll come out on a streamer. And actually when you know which one it is, you'll let us know and we'll, we'll promote it on our socials. And I4 (1h 2m 17s):Wanted, but you can preorder now the DVD and the digital.1 (1h 2m 22s):Yeah. I didn't mean to like cut us off from Shonda land, but I really wanted to make sure that we talk about this documentary because I think that it is taking your career and your life in, it's like it's made it bigger and about other things other than, I mean, it's like there's a service component to documentary work that like, I think is not always there in other kinds of media. That documentary work is like at once, for me anyway, really personal, but also universal and also has a great capacity for healing. And so, or at least the truth, right? Like what is the truth?1 (1h 3m 2s):So that's why I wanted to make sure we covered that. But if there's other things you wanna say about your career and like what you're doing now and where you wanna go or anything else, I wanna give you the opportunity, but I wanted to make sure, So I didn't mean to cut off your Shonda land story because I know people are probably like, Oh my God, tell more about Sean Rhymes. But I wanted to talk about the, the Billy documentary.4 (1h 3m 24s):I appreciate that so much. No, I, I, you know, just to sort of bookend the, the documentary, I never felt like it was one of those things that I knew I could tell stories, but I didn't feel like I had any business telling the documentary. I don't necessarily even gravitate towards documentaries, but I just felt like, hold it. This truly is a story that that needs to be told and can maybe bring about a little bit of healing. And that's what I think good films and television do that you, we, we see ourselves mirrored back in many ways and we feel less alone.4 (1h 4m 5s):And so I felt like if I could do that with a narrative, maybe I can do it with a, a documentary. That's not to say that I wanna become a documentarian, because it's not that I wouldn't if the opportunity ever presented itself, but it's the same way in which, you know, writing a narrative feature, it's like, well, I've gotta be compelled to wanna tell this story kind of a thing. And this just happened to be the medium in which to tell it as opposed to making a, you know, a, a film about a guy named Billy who wants to start out being a performer.1 (1h 4m 40s):And I think that you've said a really good word that we talk about sometimes in other ways on this show and in my life I talk about is being compelled. So when someone is compelled to do something, I know that the art created from that feeling of being compelled is usually authentic, true necessary, and, and, and, and, and sometimes healing. So I love the word what doing projects that were compelled. So anything else that you're compelled to do right now?4 (1h 5m 14s):Work great, really, you know, I I, I really, I I still even after, you know, making this, this film, I, I am still very much an actor at heart and I love being on camera. I love the collaborative experience working with other actors. You know, I was very, very fortunate this past season to to work on Barry with Bill Hater and Bill, I guess if I, it was like, what's next? What's my next jam? I would love to be able to emulate what Bill is doing. You know, Bill is the lead. He's also writing, he's also directing all of the episodes.4 (1h 5m 58s):You know, I joked with him that he also ran craft services because it was literally doing all those things and just watching him effortlessly move from being Barry back to Bill, giving me a note and then giving a note to the DP and then stepping back into Barry was just a really wonderful thing. And it's like, you know what, if I can do that, and I have other friends and, and mentors like Tom Verica, Tom actually directed me in that first episode of Grey's Anatomy. And he and I have since become dear friends. He's now the executive producer and resident director on Bridger.4 (1h 6m 39s):He also was the resident director and producer on inventing Anna. And he and I have developed a narrative film that we're looking to produce as well. And, and, and so again, and yet, you know, Tom as sort of an aspiration or an inspiration for me. And he started out as an actor himself. And then, you know, he directed a lot of Grey's Anatomy and then the next thing you know, he's playing Vila, Viola Davis' husband on how to Get Away with Murder. And then he was also the lead producer on Scandal. So it's like, you know, not being defined by what this industry wants to put you in.4 (1h 7m 20s):I feel like I'm finally at the point in my career where Colin can direct a documentary and he could write something for somebody else and he could act. And, and again, you know, from day one when I, when I left Flow Arts early to go out and do the job, it's just because I wanna keep working. Yeah.3 (1h 7m 38s):And that's, that's, everybody says that. Everybody says, I just wish I could be working constantly. Cuz it's where it's where all the fun of, of the work is, you know, not auditioning and getting head shots and whatever. It's, it's, it's doing the work. By the way, Barry is how I came to ask you to be on this podcast, because I didn't watch it when it first came out. I, I kind of came to it late and of course binge the whole thing and it's fantastic. And, and I immediately went and looked up every single actor to see who went to theater school because I, I would love to have them all. What a fantastic show and what an interesting kind of nice little parallel somehow with your documentary and, and also your own story.3 (1h 8m 18s):There's a lot about actors like figuring out what they're doing on screen and, and kind of reconciling that with their offscreen life or, or even just with their career. Do I wanna be this type of actor? Do I wanna be this type of person? You know, Ha and Bill Hater has seamlessly gone, I mean, once upon a time you would not have really thought of a Saturday Night Live person making quite this kind of crossover. And the humor in that show about actors is so perfect. I've ne I've seen things that have come close to that, but I've never seen something that you're just dying laughing if you know anything about the acting profession, Right?3 (1h 8m 58s):Yeah. Or were you gonna say that?1 (1h 8m 59s):I was gonna say that. And also that like, his account, So I have suffered, you know, from panic attacks and anxiety disorder and his journey through that and with that has given me so much hope as a artist because he was one of the first people I knew, especially from snl, especially from comedy, to say, I was struggling with this and this is how I dealt with it. So it didn't totally destroy my life. And he could have chosen to be like, I'm having panic attacks on set at Saturday Live. I'm done, I'm done. But he worked through it and now is doing all of this. So it gives me a lot of hope. So if you talk to him, tell him there's a late, an anxious lady that really feels like I can, I can really reclaim myself as an artist and even maybe thrive through the anxiety.4 (1h 9m 50s):No, I, I, I so appreciate that, Jen. I really do. You know, I have dealt with panic attacks over the years, you know, again, being that new kid, I was kind of predisposed to, Oh my gosh, you know, and luckily I've never had it within my art. It's always been on the other side. But the way in which Bill has navigated all of that is really truly just, you know, motivating and inspiring on so many different levels. And I think the thing that I also recognize is the fact that Bill never had aspirations to be on snl. He wanted to be a filmmaker, you know, he was editing, he was doing all these types of things and he sort of fell in backwards to groundings and, and all that kind of stuff.4 (1h 10m 38s):And somebody saw him and said, Hey, let's do it. It's sort of like he had to kind of take that detour to be able to get back to doing the kind of things that he really wanted to be doing, you know, Which is great for me because I look at like, my time at Disney, okay? I never would've imagined that that brief time at Disney would've been able to fuel me in that it brought back into my life to allow me to direct a film about one of their performers 20 years later.1 (1h 11m 6s):It's a, your story. I'm so glad you came on because your story is a story about the, the consistent inconsistencies and the detours that aren't really detours. And for me, like just being like, I'm just knowing now going into into meetings, being a former therapist for felons. Like that is the thing that people are really interested in. And I

Today, Mark talks with Elizabeth Hansen, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Dramafy, LLC, an audio drama streaming service. Elements of audio drama Crafting and promoting – elements of screenwriting and film Collaborators/players – acting Awards – what do they mean? What's next? Elizabeth Hansen https://elizabethhansen.us (Elizabeth's Website) Ms. Hansen is the co-founder and Chief Creative officer of Dramafy, LLC, an audio drama streaming service. She is a screenwriter and film consultant who has had a varied writing, directing, and acting career, that has taken her from Broadway, to the newsrooms of the LA Times where she had her own By-Line, to the classrooms of Brigham Young University where she taught screenwriting from 1994-2000.    Ms. Hansen holds an MFA in screenwriting from AFI, has won the prestigious Writers Guild of America Award, an EMMY nomination, and was a finalist for the Humanitas Prize for excellence in children's television programing, all for her work on the CBS Afterschool Special, American Eyes. In addition she has a Telly award and two Crystal Awards, and has won multiple screenwriting competitions. https://instagram.com/elizabeththequeen20 (@elizabeththequeen20 on Instagram) https://twitter.com/lizthequeen20 (@lizthequeen20 on Twitter) https://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.hansen.9440/ (Elizabeth's Facebook page) Mark Stinson Copyright 2022 Mark Stinson

We are thrilled to welcome back George Stevens Jr. to Front Row Classics this week. George joins Brandon to discuss the release of his autobiography, "My Place in the Sun: Life in the Golden Age of Hollywood and Washington". The book delves into his experiences growing up with a legendary film director father. He, then, forged his own path into becoming one of the true warriors for the performing arts in America. In this interview, you'll hear great stories revolving around such legendary 20th century figures as John F. Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn. George also pays tribute to his late friend, Sidney Poitier. "My Place in the Sun: Life in the Golden Age of Hollywood and Washington" is available from University Press on Kentucky wherever books are sold.   George Stevens, Jr. is a director, writer, producer, and playwright. He is the founder of the American Film Institute, creator of the AFI Life Achievement Award and the Kennedy Center Honors, and has served as co-chair of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities for President Obama. Awards and honors include fifteen Emmys, eight Writers Guild and two Peabody Awards, the Humanitas Prize, the Spirit of Anne Frank Award, an NAACP Legal Defense Fund Award, and an Honorary Academy Award in 2012. He is the author of Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age and the Broadway play Thurgood. Find out more at georgestevensjr.com and follow George on Twitter at @officialgsjr.  

Act One Podcast - Episode 31 - Interview with Screenwriter, Eboni Freeman.Eboni Freeman is a native Angelino who got her start in the television industry working for FOX Sports.  While at FOX, she won an Emmy for her work on the 2015 Women's World Cup.  In 2016, Eboni was chosen as a Sundance Episodic Fellow and was also selected for WeForShe's WriteHer List. She most recently was co-producer on the hit NBC series THIS IS US.  While on THIS IS US, Eboni has been nominated for two Writers Guild Awards and a Humanitas Prize.SPOILER WARNING: Eboni and I discuss the final episode of THIS IS US during the first 30 minutes of this episode.The Act One Podcast provides insight and inspiration on the business and craft of Hollywood from a Christian perspective.Support the show

I was super excited to finally get to meet one of my favorite actresses and super activist Kamala Lopez. Kamala has worked as an actor in over thirty feature films including starring roles in Born in East L.A., Deep Cover, The Burning Season (winner of 2 Emmys, 3 Golden Globes and the Humanitas Prize), Clear and Present Danger, Lightning Jack, and I Heart Huckabees. She has starred in over sixty television shows including Black Jesus, Medium, 24, Alias, NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, and 21 Jump Street (winner of the Imagen Award). In 2016, her follow-up feature, the documentary Equal Means Equal, won Best U.S. Documentary (Audience Award) at Michael Moore's TCF Festival and was a New York Times Critics' Pick. The film was the catalyst behind a national civil rights movement resulting in the ratification of the 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: The Equal Rights Amendment.

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world's leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now. In this episode, Andrew is joined by George Stevens, Jr., author of My Place in the Sun: Life in the Golden Age of Hollywood and Washington. George Stevens, Jr. is a director, writer, producer, and playwright. He is the founder of the American Film Institute, creator of the AFI Life Achievement Award and the Kennedy Center Honors, and has served as co-chair of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities for President Obama. Awards and honors include fifteen Emmys, eight Writers Guild and two Peabody Awards, the Humanitas Prize, the Spirit of Anne Frank Award, an NAACP Legal Defense Fund Award, and an Honorary Academy Award in 2012. He is the author of Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age and the Broadway play Thurgood. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Heilman & Haver - Episode 62.  We hope you enjoy the show! Please join the conversation - email us with thoughts and ideas and connect with the show on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and on our new website: www.heilmanandhaver.com!   IN THE SPOTLIGHT: George Stevens Jr. Welcome to Episode 62 and a very special interview with award-winning director, writer, producer, and playwright George Stevens Jr.  Mr. Stevens's new book My Place in the Sun hits shelves May 17th, 2022.  It's the story of how the son of a celebrated Hollywood director emerged from his father's shadow to claim his own place as a major force in American culture. Stevens tells an intimate and moving tale of his relationship with his Oscar-winning father and his own exciting career in Hollywood and our nation's capital. Fascinating people, priceless stories and a behind-the-scenes view of some of America's major cultural and political events grace this riveting memoir. Mr. Stevens is the founder of the American Film Institute, creator of the AFI Life Achievement Award and the Kennedy Center Honors and has served as co-chair of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities for President Obama. His awards and honors include fifteen Emmys, eight Writers Guild Awards, two Peabody Awards, the Humanitas Prize and the 2012 Honorary Academy Award. He is the author of Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age at The American Film Institute and the Broadway play Thurgood.  He joined us from his home in WA DC.

Glen Mazzara is the Creator, Executive Producer, and Showrunner of A&E's new series, DAMIEN, based on the classic horror film, THE OMEN. Mazzara was most recently Executive Producer and Showrunner for seasons two and three of AMC's record-breaking series and AFI Top Ten TV Program (2012), THE WALKING DEAD. The series earned him two Saturn awards, a Bram Stoker award for Superior Achievement in a Screenplay for the season three finale as well as a Writer's Guild of American nomination for his writing on season one. Mazzara's body of work includes AFI, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning series THE SHIELD, for which he earned a Peabody Award, CBS' NASH BRIDGES and NBC's LIFE. He ran season two of TNT's medical drama HAWTHORNE and created the series CRASH, the first scripted drama on STARZ. On the feature side, Mazzara has written THE OVERLOOK HOTEL, a prequel to Stanley Kubrick's classic film, THE SHINING. The film, which Mark Romanek is attached to direct, is currently in development. An advocate and practitioner of diversity in front of the camera, in the director's chair, and in the writers' room, Mazzara is co-chair of the Writers Guild of America's (WGA) Diversity Advisory Group and has been working to improve television employment opportunities for writers of diverse backgrounds. Passionate about mentorship, Mazzara is a co-founder of the WGA Staff Writer Bootcamp and is a frequent speaker at the WGA, the Writers Guild Foundation, the WGA Showrunner Training Program, and the WGA Writers Access Project. He has taught classes and seminars at colleges across the country and is a frequent speaker at professional conferences both in the U.S. and overseas. He is a proud member of his alma mater, New York University's Mentoring Network and received their inaugural Mentor of the Year Award. He also gave the commencement speech to Tisch School of the Arts in 2013. Mazzara recently served as an advisor for the Sundance Institute's Episodic Story Lab and is on the Board of Trustees for the Humanitas Prize. Mazzara currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife and three sons.

Ruben Santiago-Hudson is currently starring in Lackawanna Blues which he wrote and directed on Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club. He also directed the Broadway production, Jitney which garnered several awards for “Outstanding Revival” including a Tony® Award and six Tony® nominations. Santiago-Hudson recently adapted August Wilson's play Ma Rainey's Black Bottom for Netflix, which was produced by Denzel Washington, directed by George C. Wolfe, and starred Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman. Ruben's directing credits include: The Piano Lesson, Skeleton Crew, Othello, Gem of The Ocean, Paradise Blue, My Children! My Africa!, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Cabin in the Sky, The Happiest Song Plays Last, Two Trains Running, Things of Dry Hours and more. Santiago-Hudson received a Tony® Award as featured actor for his performance in August Wilson's Seven Guitars and made his Broadway acting debut alongside Gregory Hines in Jelly's Last Jam. Other Broadway credits include Stick Fly and Gem of The Ocean. Select theater credits include The Winter's Tale, Henry VIII and Measure for Measure (The Delacorte) Ceremonies in Dark Old Men and A Soldier's Play (NEC), Lackawanna Blues and East Texas Hot Links (The Public Theater). He wrote, executive produced, and co-starred in the HBO film Lackawanna Blues based on his OBIE and Helen Hayes Award-winning play. The movie received many honors including Emmy, Golden Globe, NAACP Image Award, The Christopher Award, and the Humanitas Prize. Philanthropic/Activist Causes: The Ruben Santiago-Hudson Fine Arts Learning Center

Welcome to Monday Morning Critic Podcast!Episode 244.Author."Jojo Rabbit" (Caging Skies).Christine Leunens.Christine Leunens was born in Hartford, Connecticut to an Italian mother and a Belgian father. As a teenager she  moved to Paris,  where she had a close relationship with her grand-father, Guillaume Leunens, the Flemish painter and sculptor. She funded her study and early writing by modelling in Europe, becoming the face of Givenchy, Paco Rabanne, Nina Ricci, Pierre Balmain and Sonia Rykiel, acting in TV ads such as Mercedes Benz, Suzuki and House of Fraser. She went on to earn a Master of Liberal Arts in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University in 2005, and a PhD at Victoria University of Wellington in 2012. Since its first publication in 2004, Caging Skies    has become an international bestseller, translated into over twenty languages. In 2007 the French translation was nominated for the Prix Médicis  Étranger and the Prix du Roman FNAC.   Over time, Caging Skies    was adapted to stage and film. The play adaptation, written by Desirée Gezentzvey and directed by Andrew Foster, had its world premiere at the Circa Theatre, Wellington in 2017.  Taika Waititi's film adaptation,   Jojo Rabbit,  won the People's Choice Award at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, was nominated in 2020 for two Golden Globes, six Baftas,  and six Oscars, including Best Picture. It won the WGA Award,  the BAFTA Award as well as the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. It also won the Humanitas Prize for writing intended to promote human dignity, meaning and freedom. Both the film and the book were nominated for the USC Scripter Award 2020 and won AFI Awards for their contribution to America's Cultural Legacy.  Christine currently lives with her family in New Zealand.  Her new novel  , In Amber's Wake, is to be published in early 2022 and her film adaptation of the  same  title has been taken  for production.Welcome, Christine Leunens.​Instagram: Monday Morning Critic Podcast.Facebook: Monday Morning Critic Podcast.Twitter:@ DarekThomasWebsite: www.mmcpodcast.com

Phil Weinstein talks with me about his fatherhood journey and the values he looks to instill into his kids as they grow up. We chat about how he and his wife wanted to make sure that they are there for their kids. In addition to fatherhood Phil talks about his new series on Disney Junior called Mickey Mouse Funhouse and how it is a bit different from past Mickey Mouse shows. Next Phil shares a really fun family history he has with mandel bread. Lastly, we finish the interview with the Fatherhood Quick Five.  About Phil Weinstein Phil Weinstein is a dad of two boys. He has worked on many of the hugely successful Mickey series for Disney Junior. One that is most recently was as a director on the Emmy Award-nominated Mickey and the Roadster Racers and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. His additional credits include director/producer of the Humanitas Prize-winning Balto: Wolf Quest and Boo To You Too! Winnie the Pooh, which earned him an Emmy award.   Mickey Mouse Funhouse launches on Friday, August 20 on Disney Channel and Disney Junior (8:00 a.m. EDT/PDT). The "Mickey the Brave!" special will be available on Disney+ starting Wednesday, July 28th. Learn More About Codecademy  Codecademy's goal was to give anyone in the world the ability to learn the skills they'd need to succeed in the 21st century. They have set out to create a new, interactive way of learning. Codecademy does this by making it engaging, flexible, and accessible for as many people as possible. Since then, they have helped millions of people worldwide unlock modern technical skills and reach their full potential through code. At Codecademy, they are committed to empowering all people, regardless of where they are in their coding journeys, to continue to learn, grow, and make an impact on the world around them. For more info go to codecademy.com.  About The Art of Fatherhood Podcast  The Art of Fatherhood Podcast follows the journey of fatherhood. Your host, Art Eddy talks with dads from all around the world where they share their thoughts on fatherhood. Please leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts.

On this week's episode of Milt Talk Legacy host Zahraa Mouzon is talking with Writer, Director, and Co-Executive producer on NBC's hit drama series “This Is Us,” Kay Oyegun. It was there she gained her directing credits on the show for season five episodes “Birth Mother” and “Brotherly Love.” Kay's previous TV writing credits include Ava DuVernay's “Queen Sugar” on Oprah Winfrey's OWN network. She also has made a name for herself in the film industry by adapting the fantasy novel “Children of Blood and Bone” for Lucasfilm, Fox and Disney, as well as the music drama “On The Come Up,” the follow-up novel from “The Hate U Give” by writer Angie Thomas for Paramount Players. For her work on "This is Us," Kay is a NAACP Image Award winner as well as a Humanitas Prize and Writers Guild of America Award nominee.

Welcome to ** a very special exclusive bonus episode of the *Zodiac Sessions* podcast (usually reserved for One Heat Minute Productions Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/OneHeatMinute ) ), with the writer of *The Post, Long Shot* and *Mindhunter* , Liz Hannah. Liz and I discuss the financial incentives that cause industry discord during the Oscar season, *The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo* , Netflix recommendations, and so much more. *One Heat Minute Productions* *WEBSITE:* oneheatminute.com ( https://oneheatminute.com/ ) *PATREON:* One Heat Minute Productions Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/OneHeatMinute ) *TWITTER:* @OneBlakeMinute ( https://twitter.com/OneBlakeMinute ) & @OHMPods ( https://twitter.com/OHMPods ) *MERCH:* http://tee.pub/lic/41I7L55PXV4 *About Liz Hannah* ------------------ Liz Hannah is the writer of The Post , directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. The original screenplay was nominated for a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award. The Post was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Actress for Meryl Streep. Along with co-writer Josh Singer, Hannah was the recipient of both the 2018 Writer’s Guild’s Paul Selvin Award and the 2018 Humanitas Prize for feature drama. Originally from New York, Hannah moved to Los Angeles to attend graduate school at AFI. After graduating with an MFA in Producing, Hannah spent the next few years working in development at Denver & Delilah before eventually leaving to write full time. Hannah’s script for The Post was ranked second on the 2016 Black List after being purchased by Amy Pascal’s Pascal Pictures two days before the 2016 US Presidential election. *Twitter:* @itslizhannah ( https://twitter.com/itslizhannah ) Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/one-heat-minute-productions/exclusive-content Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

       Chatting with Sherri welcomes back award winning screenwriter; Shaene Siders! Shaene Siders is an award-winning action and science fiction writer who geeks out over swords, sorcery, and superheroes. Never read her scripts without a helmet!   Her credits include Marvel's Avengers Assemble, DC Super Hero Girls, the Emmy-Award-winning Niko and the Sword of Light, LEGO Monkie Kid, and Netflix’s Saint Seiya:  Knights of the Zodiac. She has also written for The Octonauts, The Discovery Channel, and even NASA.   Most recently nominated for the Humanitas Prize, Shaene does have a sensitive side and is the Head Writer and Co-Executive Producer for Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures, which she claims has more explosions than you might think.    

SPEAKERS Laura Brill Former Clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Jennifer Callahan Director, Making the Case Estelle Parsons Academy Award-Winning Actor (Bonnie and Clyde); Director Daniel Stiepleman Screenwriter; Recipient, Humanitas Prize (for On the Basis of Sex) Michelle Meow Producer and Host," The Michelle Meow Show" KBCW-TV and Podcast; Member, The Commonwealth Club Board of Governors; Twitter @msmichellemeow—Co-Host John Zipperer Producer and Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable; Vice President of Media & Editorial, The Commonwealth Club—Co-Host In response to the Coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak, this program took place and was recorded live via video conference, for an online audience only, and was live-streamed by The Commonwealth Club of California from San Francisco on January 21st, 2021

Soozie Eastman is a documentary filmmaker and short film producer. While earning her MFA in Producing for TV and Film at Chapman University she developed a profound love for educating and inspiring people through motion pictures. Soozie has taught courses in pre-production and was Director of Programs for the HUMANITAS Prize honoring writers in television and film. After working in entertainment for over a decade, she returned to her hometown of Louisville where she is currently the Executive Director of the Louisville Film Society, serves on the Louisville Film Commission, and produces the annual Flyover Film Festival. Soozie continues her love of creating “mindful media” with her latest film endeavor, her feature documentary, OVERLOAD: America's Toxic Love Story. From the Overload Film website: "Before starting a family, Soozie Eastman, daughter of an industrial chemical distributor, embarks on a journey to find out the levels of toxins in her body and explores if there is anything she or anyone else can do to change them. Soozie has just learned that hundreds of synthetic toxins are now found in every baby born in America and the government and chemical corporations are doing little to protect citizens and consumers. With guidance from world-renowned physicians and environmental leaders, interviews with scientists and politicians, and stories of everyday Americans, Soozie uncovers how we got to be so overloaded with chemicals and if there is anything we can do to take control of our exposure."  To view the trailer and film on Amazon visit www.Overloadfilm.com IG/Facebook: @overloadfilm is the IG handle and /overloadfilm on Facebook Website:  website www.cleanergreenerme.com IG @cleanergreenerme FB /cleanergreenerme

All the President's Minutes is a podcast where conversations about movies, journalism, politics and history meet. Each show we use the seminal and increasingly prescient 1976 film All The President's Men as a portal, to engage with the themes and the warnings of the film resonating since its release. For minute 131, I join writers of The Post, writer-producer Liz Hannah (writer of The Long Shot ) and Josh Singer (Academy Award-winning co-writer of Spotlight ). Liz, Josh and I discuss showing The Post in front of Woodward and Bernstein, compare Hanks and Robards "Bradlee" performances and finally the most "movie" moment of the entire film. *About Liz Hannah* Liz Hannah is the writer of The Post , directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. The original screenplay was nominated for a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award. The Post was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as Best Actress for Meryl Streep. Along with co-writer, Josh Singer, Hannah was the recipient of both the 2018 Writer’s Guild’s Paul Selvin Award and the 2018 Humanitas Prize for feature drama. Originally from New York, Hannah moved to Los Angeles to attend graduate school at AFI. After graduating with an MFA in Producing, Hannah spent the next few years working in development at Denver & Delilah before eventually leaving to write full time. Hannah’s script for The Post was ranked second on the 2016 Black List after being purchased by Amy Pascal’s Pascal Pictures two days before the US Presidential election. Currently, Hannah is developing a female anthology series for UCP, a limited series for Amazon with Bradley Whitford and Amy Pascal based on the book, The Mercury 13, and a feature entitled, The Only Plane In The Sky , for MGM, which was adapted from the Politico article by Garrett M. Graff. *Twitter:* @itslizhannah ( https://twitter.com/itslizhannah ) *About Josh Singer:* Josh Singer (born in 1972) is an American film and TV writer and maker, whose work incorporates composting and creating scenes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, The West Wing, Lie to Me and even the FOX sci-fi arrangement Fringe. In 2006, he earned a nomination for a WGA award. He co-wrote Spotlight (released in 2015), which won him the prestigious Academy Award (Oscars) for Best Original Screenplay. *Twitter:* @jsinger10 ( https://twitter.com/jsinger10 ) Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/one-heat-minute-productions/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week #onthebeat, I'm talking to Stacy Osei-Kuffour!   Hailing from Chicago, Illinois, Stacy Osei-Kuffour is an Emmy-winning writer, playwright, and actress. Born to a Chicago-native mother and a Ghanaian-born father, Stacy grew up with a love for storytelling. Her goal as an artist is to bring untold stories to the stage and screen, stories that challenge our political, societal, and stereotypical views of the Black experience. Her passion led her to a BFA in drama from NYU and an MFA in playwriting from Hunter College. Her previous plays include: Dirty Blood, Animals (which received an Irv Zarkower Award), The Pearl and The Black Sea (which received an Honorable Mention in The Kilroy's 2015 List), and Hang Man (which received an Honorable Mention in The Kilroy's 2017 List and a production at The Gift Theatre in Chicago). Stacy was also involved in Los Angeles' Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST), Youngblood, MADLAB, and the Nashville Repertory Theatre's Ingram Play Lab alongside Christopher Durang. She has been the recipient of the MacDowell Colony Fellowship and PLAY LA's Humanitas Prize. As of late, Stacy has transitioned into television writing where she has received her first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for her work on PEN15, shared with the series creators Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle.  Most recently, Stacy served as a Writer and Story Editor for HBO's critically-acclaimed series and Emmy winning series, Watchmen.  We talk about: how growing up in a "weird" town helped to shape her writer's voice how she gets her ideas out of her head and into the universe character and world building exercises look differently in the playwriting world vs. TV/film her experience in the Watchmen writer's room and more! Thank you so much for listening to the show! Please remember to SUBSCRIBE, RATE, + REVIEW the show- I would really appreciate it. It helps other screenwriters who are interested in this story to find the show a little easier.   If you are interested in becoming a guest, sponsoring the show, or have any other inquiries, please send an email to hi@thebeatsheet.co!   You can listen to every episode of The Beat Sheet on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Soundcloud, and Stitcher! You can click here to subscribe to the podcast everywhere via this RSS feed!   The official hashtag for the podcast is #beatsheetpod   Please be sure to follow us on social media as well! You can find the show everywhere:   Instagram | @beatsheetpod Twitter | @beatsheetpod Facebook | The Beat Sheet

Unfortunately, Sy Rosen was talking to me during Tropical Storm Fay and the first thirty minutes were erased, but we talked about: growing up in the Bronx, Winky Dink and You, college, going in the reserves, not working on a Joan Baez in Sing Sing special, writing a spec script for the Mary Tyler Moore Show and getting a template back from Allan Burns; selling an episode of The Bob Newhart Show about Carol, joining the writing staff and writing "Death Be My Destiny", the 50th best episode of a TV show according to TV Guide, writing a couple of Tony Randall Show episodes but remembering one; writing a Rhoda; We've Got Each Other; Maude; Free Country as a show that should have done better; Taxi and how Stan Daniels added to the script in the writing room; The Jeffersons and Now You Seen it, Now You Don't; bring Redd Foxx back as Sanford We return with: Gimme A Break not being about an interracial relationship; the talent of Nell Carter; the adding of Grandpa in season two; writing what is considered the best episode of Best of the West; writing an Open All Night for Patchett & Tarses; doing a pilot with Don Ameche; Spencer with Chad Lowe being one of his favorite shows; Anything for Love; Roomies; The Robert Guillaume Show being about an interracial relationship; Northern Exposure; The Wonder Years episodes being Wayne-centric; writing the episode The Nose and being nominated for a Humanitas Prize; The Home Court; Frasier; Lost on Earth; Working; 2Gether; playwriting; writing comedy for retirement magazines; working with Dean Cameron and Robert Romanus --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

We sit down with Stu Krieger, a writer and professor. We talk writing the movie the Land Before Time, working for Disney, and managing the balance of work and family.~ ~ ~Stu Krieger is a Professor of screen and television writing in the University of California, Riverside’s Department of Theatre, Film & Digital Production and in the Creative Writing for the Performing Arts MFA Program at UCR. He also teaches one class per year at the USC Peter Stark MFA Producing Program. Krieger co-wrote the Emmy award-winning mini-series A Year in the Life and was nominated for a Humanitas Prize for the Disney Channel original movie, Going to the Mat. Among his more than 25 produced credits, Krieger wrote the animated classic The Land Before Time for producers Steven Spielberg & George Lucas and ten original movies for the Disney Channel, including Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century and its two sequels, Tru Confessions, Smart House, Phantom of the Megaplex, and Cow Belles. He has been a story editor and writer on Spielberg’s Amazing Stories and the supervising producer on the ABC Television series Jack’s Place.  He served as the head writer and story editor of the animated preschool series Toot & Puddle on Nickelodeon in 2008-2009. His first full-length play, Chasing Smoke debuted in a staged reading at the Garry Marshall Theatre in 2014. He was an executive producer on the feature films The Binding (2016) and My Name is Myeisha (2019) both  feature directed by his son, Gus Krieger. Krieger's first novel That One Cigarette was published by Harvard Square Editions in 2017.  In April 2015, Mr. Krieger delivered a well-received TEDx Talk entitled “Choose Joy.” To access it, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v02wrQ-OSA In May of 2020, Krieger's new play At the Pass debuted in a live-stream digital production presented by the UCR Department of Theatre, Film & Digital Production under the direction of Professor Bella Merlin.  Please Support on Patreon @norlundYour help goes a really long ways Follow on Twitter @chris_norlundFollow on Instagram @norlundStay positive and thank you so much for listening!

Screenwriter Bettina Gilois, who was interviewed on the show in July of last year, passed away on July 5 at the age of 58. She was an immensely talented screenwriter, as well as a professor of screenwriting at Chapman University. She was also the mother of two brilliant children. As a tribute to Bettina, we are replaying her episode from last July. The show notes from that episode are below:   Bettina Gilois is an award-winning screenwriter and author, whose awards and nominations include the Humanitas Prize, the Black Reelz Award, the Movieguide Award, an ESPY Award, and a nomination for an Emmy. After acquiring an art history degree from Columbia University and working at Andy Warhol’s Factory, she began her writing career with Joel Silver and Warner Brothers, and has since collaborated with such notable artists and producers as Jerry Bruckheimer, Michael Mann, William Friedkin, Queen Latifah, James Coburn, Kevin Costner, Christian Bale, and many others. Her films include Jerry Bruckheimer’s GLORY ROAD for which she was nominated for the Humanitas Prize, MCFARLAND, USA starring Kevin Costner, as well as BESSIE for HBO, starring Queen Latifah, for which Bettina was nominated for an Emmy for Best Screenwriting. Her other produced projects include uncredited work on THE HURRICANE for which Denzel Washington won the Golden Globe, and THE MISTS OF AVALON with Anjelica Huston. In addition to writing screenplays, Gilois has authored several books, MI VIDA LOCA: THE CRAZY LIFE OF JOHNNY TAPIA and BILLION DOLLAR PAINTER: THE TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY OF THOMAS KINKADE, both of which are being made into movies. She writes about Arts and Culture for the Huffington Post. Her current active projects include her writing and creating the series MUSCLE SHOALS with Johnny Depp producing at ABC and Nancy Wilson as the music composer. What you’ll learn about in this episode: Bettina’s experience working in a variety of creative endeavors, including alongside the likes of Andy Warhol and other famous people Bettina’s interesting perspective on stories, the life trajectories of humans, and the energy that ties it all together Bettina’s tips to aspiring screenwriters and the story of how she broke into the industry Bettina’s approach to storytelling and character development, supported by evidence from her own body of work Important skills for all creatives to have if they want to ascend to the top of the field Why you need to be thinking about your brand as a young writer The risks and rewards of sticking to genres and how to carry your brand through your characters How Bettina cooperates with the other members of film or TV production teams to construct coherent and meaningful stories Additional resources: Bettina’s recommended resources: www.scriptcity.com Bettina’s Website: www.bettinagilois.com Bettina's IMDB

Tell me your story. Give me your pitch. That sounds easy, but for most of us crafting a pitch can be nerve-racking. In this episode Academy Award winner and Executive Director of the Schools of Entertainment at Academy Art University gives us the good, the bad, and the ugly on a simple pitch for a movie. Jana Sue Memel is an Academy Award-winning producer and writer. Ms. Memel has produced over 25 movies and over 65 half-hour, live-action shorts that have played as television series in more than 30 countries. The films she has produced have won Writers Guild and Directors Guild Awards, Emmys, CableACE Awards and the Humanitas Prize. Link: School of Motion Picture and Television ***** Established in 1929, Academy of Art University is one of the largest private accredited art and design schools in the nation. Located in San Francisco, the epicenter of culture and technology, Academy of Art University offers more than 135 accredited degree programs spanning 40 areas of study, including entertainment arts, advertising, fashion, architecture, game development, music, communication, photography and more. To learn more about Academy of Art University, visit academyart.edu/creativemind Follow us on Instagram / Twitter / Facebook / LinkedIn / YouTube

Kitchen Windows is a side-project of the Sunday Night Dinner podcast. In this time of Covid-19 and social isolation, it’s a chance to have a brief look into the kitchens of writers, musicians, chefs, artists and health-care superstars. What can they see out their window? What are they cooking for comfort? Who are they with? How do they spend their days? Cherien Dabis is a celebrated filmmaker, writer, actor and director. She has written and directed two feature films – AMREEKA, and MAY IN THE SUMMER. AMREEKA world-premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, opened New Director’s/New Films at the MoMA and won the coveted International Federation of Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI) in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes. It went on to win a dozen more international awards including the Humanitas Prize and Adrienne Shelly Excellence in Filmmaking Award and was nominated for a Best Picture Gotham Award, 3 Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Picture, Best First Screenplay and Best Actress and was named one of the Top Ten Independent Films of the Year by the National Board of Review. Dabis was also named one of Variety’s “Ten Directors to Watch” in 2009. AMREEKA was released theatrically worldwide and became the most-screened Arab-directed film in U.S.-cinema history, peaking at 40 screens across most major American cities. Dabis returned to Sundance with her second feature film MAY IN THE SUMMER, which opened the 2013 Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Dramatic Competition section and had its international premiere at the Venice Film Festival. In it, she makes her onscreen debut alongside Bill Pullman, Alia Shawkat and Hiam Abbass. With the screenplay, Dabis won a Sundance / Time Warner Storytelling Grant, several Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art Grants as well as the prestigious NHK International Filmmaker Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. She was one of the writers and producers of the TV series the L-WORD, and she’s directed two episodes in the third season of the Netflix series OZARK, and a number of episodes of the Hulu show, RAMY. You can find her here: http://cheriendabis.me/

Kenya Barris is the creator of the Emmy-nominated series “Black-ish” for ABC (which is loosely based on his own life). In its second season, the show won a Peabody Award as well as an AFI Award, among others. Barris was awarded the Humanitas Prize in 2017 as well as NAACP Image Awards in 2016 and 2017 for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series and a show win for Outstanding Comedy Series for the fourth year in a row. In 2018 Barris premiered the hit spinoff series, “Grown-ish”, starring Yara Shahidi for Freeform. As a writer, Barris has worked on several television shows including: CBS’s “Listen Up,” The CW’s “The Game” and “Girlfriends,” and Fox’s “I Hate My Teenage Daughter”. He has also sold a number of pilots including “America’s Next Top Model,” which he co-created and is currently shown in 49 countries with 21 internationally-formatted offshoots, BET’s “The Start Up,” Hulu’s first half-hour comedy series, “We Got Next,” and most recently, NBC's half-hour comedy, “Bright Futures.” On the feature’s side, he is most recently credited as co-writer for "Barbershop 3: The Next Cut” and the hit comedy, "Girls Trip.” Barris’ upcoming feature titles include a remake of “Son of Shaft”, “Coming to America 2”, and an animated film based on the songs of Bob Marley.

Kenya Barris is the creator of the Emmy-nominated series “Black-ish” for ABC (which is loosely based on his own life). In its second season, the show won a Peabody Award as well as an AFI Award, among others. Barris was awarded the Humanitas Prize in 2017 as well as NAACP Image Awards in 2016 and 2017 for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series and a show win for Outstanding Comedy Series for the fourth year in a row. In 2018 Barris premiered the hit spinoff series, “Grown-ish”, starring Yara Shahidi for Freeform. As a writer, Barris has worked on several television shows including: CBS’s “Listen Up,” The CW’s “The Game” and “Girlfriends,” and Fox’s “I Hate My Teenage Daughter”. He has also sold a number of pilots including “America’s Next Top Model,” which he co-created and is currently shown in 49 countries with 21 internationally-formatted offshoots, BET’s “The Start Up,” Hulu’s first half-hour comedy series, “We Got Next,” and most recently, NBC's half-hour comedy, “Bright Futures.” On the feature’s side, he is most recently credited as co-writer for "Barbershop 3: The Next Cut” and the hit comedy, "Girls Trip.” Barris’ upcoming feature titles include a remake of “Son of Shaft”, “Coming to America 2”, and an animated film based on the songs of Bob Marley.

Chatting with Sherri welcomes award winning science fiction writer Shaene Siders!   Shaene Siders was recently nominated as a finalist for the 2020 Humanitas Prize!  She is an award-winning action and science fiction writer who geeks out over swords, sorcery, and superheroes.  Never read her scripts without a helmet!  Her credits include Marvel's Avengers Assemble, DC Super Hero Girls, the Emmy Award winning Amazon series Niko and the Sword of Light, and Netflix’s Saint Seiya:  Knights of the Zodiac.  She has also written for the Jim Henson Company, Universal Studios, PBS, The Discovery Channel, the Herokins game, the U.S. Military, and NASA. 

Jeff Abugov on This American Podcast Comedy Edition Seg. #12 Jeff Abugov He began his professional career writing freelance for the NBC hit Cheers, for which he eventually became a staff writer and then story editor. He served as executive story editor on The Golden Girls, then went on to write and produce such hit shows as Roseanne and Two and a Half Men. He served as executive producer of Roc and Grace Under Fire, and the animated series Fugget About It. He also wrote and directed the feature film The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human, starring David Hyde Pierce and Carmen Electra. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a Peabody Award, and three People’s Choice Awards, as well as being nominated for a Humanitas Prize, a Canadian Screen Award, and a second Golden Globe. ​

HELEN WHITNEY, WRITER, DIRECTOR, PRODUCEREmmy and Peabody award-winning, film producer, director and writer Helen Whitney has been a prolific creator of documentaries and feature films. Her compelling subject matter has included topics such as youth gangs, presidential candidates, the McCarthy era, mental illness, Pope John Paul II, Great Britain’s class structure, homosexuality and photographer Richard Avedon. Among the actors she has worked with: Lindsay Crouse, Austin Pendleton, David Strathairn, Brenda Fricker, Teresa Wright, Estelle Parsons.Throughout her career, she has maintained a deep interest in spiritual journeys, which she first explored with her documentary The Monastery, a 90-minute ABC special, about the oldest Trappist community in the Americas. Whitney followed this film with a three-hour Frontline documentary for PBS, John Paul II: The Millennial Pope, and in 2007 she produced The Mormons, a four-hour PBS series that explored the richness, complexities and controversies surrounding the Mormon faith. Following the Sept. 11 attacks, she produced Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero, a two-hour documentary that examined how religious belief – and unbelief – of Americans was challenged and altered by the spiritual aftershocks of 9/11. The film has been repeated numerous times since it first aired in 2002, and it was a PBS featured presentation on the 1st and on the 10th anniversary of the attacks.One of Whitney’s recent works examines the power, limitations, and in rare cases, the dangers of forgiveness through emblematic stories ranging from personal betrayal to genocide. This film involved shooting throughout America, and such countries as South Africa, Germany, Rawanda, The three-hour series, Forgiveness: A time to Love and a Time to Hate, aired on PBS in 2011 and it also inspired Whitney to write a book of the same title, with a forward written by the Dalai Lama.The filmmaker has also received an Academy Award nomination, the Humanitas Prize, Emmys, two DuPont-Columbia Journalism Awards and many other recognitions for her work. She is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and has presented her films and lectured at universities, museums and churches around the country (including Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Brigham Young, Stanford, the National Cathedral, the Corcoran Gallery, the Minneapolis Art Institute). Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death, a two-hour feature documentary, features fascinating, unexpected voices from various walks of life: old and young, believers and nonbelievers, the dying and the healthy, well known and obscure. Among them: Caitlin Doughty, an alternative mortician and bestselling author with her own YouTube following; Adam Frank, an astrophysicist and NPR commentator, Gabriel Byrne, renowned actor of stage and screen; Jim Crace, award-winning novelist and environmentalist; Max More, a cryonicist and futurist; Stephen Cave, a British philosopher; Phyllis Tickle, a near-death experience spokesperson and religious historian; Pastor Vernal Harris, a Baptist minister and advocate for hospice care in African-American communities; Jeffrey Piehler, a Mayo Clinic heart surgeon. However varied their backgrounds, all are unified by their uncommon eloquence and intelligence, and most important by their dramatic experience of death. Each of them has been shocked into an awareness of mortality–and they are forever changed. For them death is no longer an abstraction, far away in the future. Whether through a dire prognosis, the imminence of their own death, the loss of a loved one, a sudden epiphany, or a temperament born to question, these are people who have truly ‘awakened’ to their own mortality.Into the Night creates a safe smart place that allows people to talk about a subject of universal importance. It is the conversation we yearn to have, but too often turn away from in fear and distress. Yet our culture is at a critical turning point, driven in part by the baby boomer generation that is insisting on a new openness and on this deeper conversation. Our film speaks to this emerging movement with a novel approach meant to provoke searching conversations, both private and public.Ultimately the film is meant to raise questions, not to provide answers. How could it? Death is “that undiscovered country,” as Hamlet so famously described it, “from whose bourn/No traveler returns.”https://www.intothenightdoc.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Bettina Gilois is an award-winning screenwriter and author, whose awards and nominations include the Humanitas Prize, the Black Reelz Award, the Movieguide Award, an ESPY Award, and a nomination for an Emmy. After acquiring an art history degree from Columbia University and working at Andy Warhol’s Factory, she began her writing career with Joel Silver and Warner Brothers, and has since collaborated with such notable artists and producers as Jerry Bruckheimer, Joel Surnow, Norman Jewison, Michael Mann, Martin Campbell, William Friedkin, Richard and Lili Zanuck, Queen Latifah, James Coburn, Kevin Costner, Christian Bale, and many others. Her films include Jerry Bruckheimer’s GLORY ROAD for which she was nominated for the Humanitas Prize, MCFARLAND, USA starring Kevin Costner, as well as BESSIE for HBO, starring Queen Latifah, for which she was nominated for an Emmy for Best Screenwriting. She also wrote THE LOST WIFE OF ROBERT DURST for Lifetime Movies. Her other produced projects include uncredited work on THE HURRICANE for which Denzel Washington won the Golden Globe, and THE MISTS OF AVALON with Anjelica Huston. In addition to writing screenplays, Gilois has authored several books, MI VIDA LOCA: THE CRAZY LIFE OF JOHNNY TAPIA and BILLION DOLLAR PAINTER: THE TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY OF THOMAS KINKADE, both of which are being made into movies. She writes about Arts and Culture for the Huffington Post. Her current active projects include her writing and creating the series MUSCLE SHOALS with Johnny Depp producing at ABC, as well as the series LAST CLEAR CHANCE with Chelsea Handler, also at ABC, the television movie MAHALIA about the life of Mahalia Jackson for Lifetime Movies, as well as writing the movie A MILLION MILES AWAY for Netflix and Mark Ciardi, about the first Mexican American migrant worker to end up an astronaut on the international space station. What you’ll learn about in this episode: Bettina’s experience working in a variety of creative endeavors, including alongside the likes of Andy Warhol and other famous people Bettina’s interesting perspective on stories, the life trajectories of humans, and the energy that ties it all together Bettina’s tips to aspiring screenwriters and the story of how she broke into the industry Bettina’s approach to storytelling and character development, supported by evidence from her own body of work Important skills for all creatives to have if they want to ascend to the top of the field Why you need to be thinking about your brand as a young writer The risks and rewards of sticking to genres and how to carry your brand through your characters How Bettina cooperates with the other members of film or TV production teams to construct coherent and meaningful stories Additional resources: Bryan’s Website: https://www.dreampathpod.com Bettina’s recommended resources: www.scriptcity.com Bettina’s Website: www.bettinagilois.com

Bulletproof Screenwriting Episode 46: Today on the show we have million dollar screenwriter Diane Drake. Her produced original scripts include ONLY YOU, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Marisa Tomei, and WHAT WOMEN WANT, starring Mel Gibson.  Her original script for ONLY YOU sold for $1 million, and WHAT WOMEN WANT is the second highest grossing romantic comedy of all time (Box Office Mojo). In addition, both films have recently been remade in China featuring major Chinese stars. And WHAT WOMEN WANT has recently been remade by Paramount Pictures as WHAT MEN WANT, with Taraji Henson starring in the Mel Gibson role. Diane, who is a member of the Writers Guild of America, recently authored her first book,Get Your Story Straight, a step-by-step guide to writing your screenplay. She has taught screenwriting through UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, and now offers story consulting, and her own guided online course via her website. Diane has also been a speaker/instructor for The Austin Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, Rocaberti Writers Retreat in Dordogne, France, the American Film Market, Scriptwriters Network, Phoenix Screenwriters Association, Stowe Story Labs, Romance Writers of America, Oklahoma Writers Federation, University Club, Storyboard Development Group and the Writers Store, among others; and a judge for the Humanitas Prize, the Austin Film Festival and the UCLA Writers Program. In this episode, we get into the nitty-gritty of being a screenwriter in Hollywood. Diane is very open about her experiences, the good and the terrible. If you want to be a working screenwriter in Hollywood then get ready to take notes.

Inspiration Narratives celebrate and highlight Creatives from underrepresented communities. In honor of PRIDE Month, we chat with Doc McStuffins creator and Peabody, Emmy and Humanitas Prize-award winning, Children's television screenwriter and producer Chris Nee about being a creative in the LGBTQ+ community and the times, moments and influences that encapsulates why and how she creates, along with how she uses her medium to celebrate her culture. For more on our series around Creatives of Color commemorating PRIDE Month, visit: @AgeOfTheCreative on IG and AgeOfTheCreative.com/creativesofcolor #AgeOfTheCreative #CreativesOfColor #LGBTQCreative

Today on the show we have million dollar screenwriter Diane Drake. Her produced original scripts include ONLY YOU, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Marisa Tomei, and WHAT WOMEN WANT, starring Mel Gibson.  Her original script for ONLY YOU sold for $1 million, and WHAT WOMEN WANT is the second highest grossing romantic comedy of all time. In addition, both films have recently been remade in China featuring major Chinese stars. And WHAT WOMEN WANT has recently been remade by Paramount Pictures as WHAT MEN WANT, with Taraji Henson starring in the Mel Gibson role.Diane has also been a speaker/instructor for The Austin Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, Rocaberti Writers Retreat in Dordogne, France, the American Film Market, Scriptwriters Network, Phoenix Screenwriters Association, Stowe Story Labs, Romance Writers of America, Oklahoma Writers Federation, University Club, Storyboard Development Group and the Writers Store, among others; and a judge for the Humanitas Prize, the Austin Film Festival and the UCLA Writers Program.In this episode, we get into the nitty-gritty of being a screenwriter in Hollywood. Diane is very open about her experiences, the good and the terrible. If you want to be a working screenwriter in Hollywood then get ready to take notes.Enjoy my eye-opening conversation with Diane Drake.

Today on the show we have million dollar screenwriter Diane Drake. Her produced original scripts include ONLY YOU, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Marisa Tomei, and WHAT WOMEN WANT, starring Mel Gibson.  Her original script for ONLY YOU sold for $1 million, and WHAT WOMEN WANT is the second highest grossing romantic comedy of all time. In addition, both films have recently been remade in China featuring major Chinese stars. And WHAT WOMEN WANT has recently been remade by Paramount Pictures as WHAT MEN WANT, with Taraji Henson starring in the Mel Gibson role.Diane has also been a speaker/instructor for The Austin Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, Rocaberti Writers Retreat in Dordogne, France, the American Film Market, Scriptwriters Network, Phoenix Screenwriters Association, Stowe Story Labs, Romance Writers of America, Oklahoma Writers Federation, University Club, Storyboard Development Group and the Writers Store, among others; and a judge for the Humanitas Prize, the Austin Film Festival and the UCLA Writers Program.In this episode, we get into the nitty-gritty of being a screenwriter in Hollywood. Diane is very open about her experiences, the good and the terrible. If you want to be a working screenwriter in Hollywood then get ready to take notes.Enjoy my eye-opening conversation with Diane Drake.

Pamela is an award-winning writer with numerous credits in television drama. She consults internationally with professional TV writers and producers, and has lectured in Africa, Europe, and throughout the US. She was awarded the Humanitas Prize for Between Mother and Daughter on CBS, and she has garnered multiple Emmy nominations and American Women in Radio and Television Awards for her other dramas. Her book “Writing the TV Drama Series” just came out in it's 4th edition, and we talked about what is in the book and how to make it as a TV writer. She is also an amazing visual artist. Her house is filled with her art, and I became quite emotional looking at a couple of pieces, which really never happens to me with art. I thought it was stunning. I will link to her website and her book on my website so you can see and learn more.

Kenya Barris is the creator of the Emmy-nominated series “Black-ish” for ABC (which is loosely based on his own life). In its second season, the show won a Peabody Award as well as an AFI Award, among others. Barris was awarded the Humanitas Prize in 2017 as well as NAACP Image Awards in 2016 and 2017 for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series and a show win for Outstanding Comedy Series for the fourth year in a row. In 2018 Barris premiered the hit spinoff series, “Grown-ish”, starring Yara Shahidi for Freeform. As a writer, Barris has worked on several television shows including: CBS’s “Listen Up,” The CW’s “The Game” and “Girlfriends,” and Fox’s “I Hate My Teenage Daughter”. He has also sold a number of pilots including “America’s Next Top Model,” which he co-created and is currently shown in 49 countries with 21 internationally-formatted offshoots, BET’s “The Start Up,” Hulu’s first half-hour comedy series, “We Got Next,” and most recently, NBC's half-hour comedy, “Bright Futures.” On the feature’s side, he is most recently credited as co-writer for "Barbershop 3: The Next Cut” and the hit comedy, "Girls Trip.” Barris’ upcoming feature titles include a remake of “Son of Shaft”, “Coming to America 2”, and an animated film based on the songs of Bob Marley.

Kenya Barris is the creator of the Emmy-nominated series “Black-ish” for ABC (which is loosely based on his own life). In its second season, the show won a Peabody Award as well as an AFI Award, among others. Barris was awarded the Humanitas Prize in 2017 as well as NAACP Image Awards in 2016 and 2017 for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series and a show win for Outstanding Comedy Series for the fourth year in a row. In 2018 Barris premiered the hit spinoff series, “Grown-ish”, starring Yara Shahidi for Freeform. As a writer, Barris has worked on several television shows including: CBS’s “Listen Up,” The CW’s “The Game” and “Girlfriends,” and Fox’s “I Hate My Teenage Daughter”. He has also sold a number of pilots including “America’s Next Top Model,” which he co-created and is currently shown in 49 countries with 21 internationally-formatted offshoots, BET’s “The Start Up,” Hulu’s first half-hour comedy series, “We Got Next,” and most recently, NBC's half-hour comedy, “Bright Futures.” On the feature’s side, he is most recently credited as co-writer for "Barbershop 3: The Next Cut” and the hit comedy, "Girls Trip.” Barris’ upcoming feature titles include a remake of “Son of Shaft”, “Coming to America 2”, and an animated film based on the songs of Bob Marley.

Ahead of Memorial Day this month, we look at writing for war films with screenwriters David Broyles, Bill Broyles, Randall Wallace and Bruce C. McKenna. David Broyles grew up in California, New York, and on a dude ranch in Bandera, Texas. He attended the University of Texas and Columbia University, and served as a Pararescueman (PJ) in Iraq and Afghanistan. Following his enlistment, he was recognized by the Governor of Texas for exceptional volunteer work and advocacy for disabled veterans. He has sold several screenplays and most recently co-created Six, an upcoming dramatic series for the History Channel. David has been involved with the Austin Film Festival for many years as a writer, director, and volunteer. I spoke with David about Six last September. Bruce C. McKenna is an award-winning screenwriter and producer.  He wrote on four of the ten episodes of HBO’s Emmy Award-winning mini-series Band of Brothers, for which he garnered a WGA Award, a Christopher Award and was a finalist for the Humanitas Prize for his episode, Bastogne. He created, co-wrote and co-executive produced The Pacific, the Emmy Award-winning Miniseries for HBO, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks on the Pacific Theater of the Second World War.  In addition to winning a producing Emmy, McKenna was nominated for his second writing Emmy, was again a finalist for the Humanitas Prize, and garnered a Producer’s Guild Award, a Critic’s Choice Award, as well as the Marine Corp Heritage Foundation Bill Broyles Image Award.   He is currently developing a miniseries on Peter The Great for Bold Television, is adapting Hampton Side’s epic Blood and Thunder for Ridley Scott, and is adapting All Things Possible, the Kurt Warner story, for Fox Studios.  Bill Broyles grew up in Baytown, Texas, attended Rice University and Oxford University, worked in the civil rights movement, and finished out the Sixties as a Marine infantry lieutenant in Vietnam. As a journalist he was the founding editor of Texas Monthly and from 1982 to 1984 was editor-in-chief of Newsweek. He was the co-creator of the Emmy-Award -winning television series China Beach. He wrote the original screenplay for the movie Cast Away and the screenplay for Jarhead. He co-authored six other screenplays, including Apollo 13, Unfaithful, The Polar Express and Flags of Our Fathers. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay for Apollo 13, which won the Writers Guild award for best screenplay.  He has been involved with the Austin Film Festival from the beginning. Randall Wallace is the Oscar®-nominated creative force behind the epic storytelling of such critical and box-office hits as Braveheart, We Were Soldiers, Pearl Harbor, Secretariat, and Heaven is for Real.