Authenticated

Niki Williams (Nickelodeon, DreamWorks, Indigo Ink.) knows the responsibility of being someone’s first fandom. This episode of Authenticated is where Kate and Niki discuss how to keep the integrity of storytelling intact in a media space becoming more performative. 

Niki spent the 2020s figuring out how to entertain children. Now she is navigating the realities of entertaining new generations devoid of kids’ monoculture: no shared Saturday morning, no Monday morning playground debrief, and a generation plagued with the option of a moment being public begin within arms reach. 

Niki outlines the formula of first fandom and the result of what it does (it sets your values, with PAW Patrol pups, Harry Potter houses, and orphan superheroes as the mirrors to see yourself in). Kate and Niki touch on the cost of every interaction being monetized.

Kate's hunch is that authenticity is defined through time invested. Niki from "editing" and trying things on to see what fits. Both approaches to examine what it means to treat AI, the binge, and every new tool as "a tool" rather than an answer.

This episode is an opportunity to reflect on what you consume without performing it, and what your own play pattern says about the stories you inherited. It is a conversation talking first fandoms in children’s media, sharing a friendship that get's more authentic with every hour spent, and examining the choice to give the slow, awkward thing more room than it's fast alternative.

This episode is the first of a series opposite Niki Williams as they build a new venture together. More soon!

Show Notes:

Niki Williams Website

Niki Williams Instagram: @thegingerfly

Kate McLeod Website

Authenticated All Access

It's the first Authenticated Minisode! Officially, the podcast is over 40 episodes young and the creative conversations that make it up are also what make it gold. In a Minisode, you can expect a curation of glimmers of wisdom, insight, perspective and reflection from select guests over multiple episodes, all themed around one question or one topic. The first one being on authenticity and what it means to the guest.

Authenticity's link to creative thinking is the connection that launched Kate's research into defining the creative conscious™. It is the intimate pulse of what a creative can recognize and follow in their own patterns of thinking, to illuminate more original creative thoughts. It is the pathway to optimizing the creatives individual thinking. And what better time to seek out and highlight individuality, than during the time where our world is pushing and rewarding conformity?

Featuring, in order of appearance:

1. Kayla Jury, "Creative Thinking for Pivoting & Adapting w/ Kayla Jury"
2. Andrea Syglowski, A Conversation on Balance: Playing Amidst Structure
3. Megan Timpane, "The Evolution of Identity and Creativity"
4. Courtney Johnson, "The 95% Beneath What Everyone Sees w/ Courtney Johnson"
5. Lindsey Mango, "When Intuition is Faster Than Logic w/ Lindsey Mango"
6. Terrease Rebecca Aiken, "Ego, Intuition & The Art of Honoring Your No w/ Terrease Rebecca Aiken"
7. LadyDi MegaDiva, "Powered By Perception w/ LadyDi MegaDiva"
8. Ali Stoner, "On Intuition w/ Ali Stoner"
9. Calley N. Anderson, "Thoughts On Opinion Today w/ Calley N. Anderson"
10. April Kayganich, "On Hair as Art w/ April Kayganich"
11. Dr. Moiya McTier, "Malleability Over Rigidity w/ Dr. Moiya McTier"
12. John-Andrew Morrison, "On Joy and The Ice w/ John-Andrew Morrison"
13. Alaine Alldaffer, "How Can I Tell This Story?" w/ Alaine Alldaffer
14. Kate McLeod in conversation with Corey Hayes, "More Than Society Wants From You w/ Corey Hayes"
15. L Morgan Lee, "An Episode For the Soul on Fear w/ L Morgan Lee"

Kate McLeod Website

Authenticated All Access

April Kayganich is an LA based colorist and hairstylist for all humans and textures known to the beauty press and her clients all over the country as "The Curl Whisperer." April's perspective of a head of hair being art in is an approach that curates a safe space for clients to meet or revive their natural texture. It's an intimate relationship that themes this episode with a deep level of care, which shares why hair is so intimate, often political and always authentic.

Episode Context: At the time of the recording, April was in New York for a week of client appointments out of Hair Story's studio - a client base she built across Los Angeles, New York, San Fransisco and Austin, Texas since she opened her own single chair practice.

April takes Kate through the practical architecture behind what serendipitously equipped her to start her own business: dropping out of art school with a focus on graphic design, working her way up to restaurant management as a teenager only to save enough for cosmetology school, and eventually using Instagram to build a multi city clientele so her career could move with the life she wants to live. Kate's hunch is that the same "clay and canvas" instinct April brings to a haircut is the same perspective allowing the belief that "everyone is walking art."

April and Kate go into the double standard of whose curls get called "professional," and April's own family history of relaxers and hot combs. A conversation that equally illuminates the evidence of listening to yourself, behind April's hard won realization that "your success doesn't have to look like how you thought it did."

This episode is an opportunity to reflect on what your own version of not only defining success but what yours actually requires, versus what you were told it should look like. It is a warm three-dimensional example of authenticity painted by the setting of art behind the chair, in the chair, in the mirror, and in the everyday decision to let what you make, wear, or grow out of your own head just be yours.

Show Notes:

April Kayganich Instagram @_thehalfrican

April Kayganich Website

Kate McLeod Website

Authenticated All Access

Artios Award-winning casting director and actor advocate Alaine Alldaffer (Stereophonic, A Strange Loop, Clybourne Park, Downstate, Circle Mirror Transformation) on being attuned to how creative skills translate to real life problem solving. For Alaine, you are always equipped to deal with what life has in store for you. This episode is a stray from the traditional conversation opposite a casting director, while being enriched with detail on Alaine's current compass on authenticity, the human athleticism of empathy, and what it means to know how to tell someone else's story with the truth intact.

Alaine and Kate walk through the stories that have swallowed Alaine's (almost by kismet) slow casting summer: reigniting her early career skills as a paralegal before she ever cast a play, by doing discovery work to help her life-long friend's family assemble the evidence for a case Alaine keeps calling a giant puzzle. And the use of her primary career skills as a casting director to troubleshoot a situation she found herself in with a potential buyer of her property in Costa Rica. All to say, when life seemingly implodes, the saving focus is looking at the skills you have already and utilizing them to the best of your ability to navigate reassembling the pieces. 

Kate's hunch in their creative conversation matches a similar theme of instinct Alaine spends her career coaching into actors: that they are the expert of the room, not a puppet waiting to be told what to bring. Kate's belief that authenticity begets authenticity, is the same principle Alaine believes keeps a person's "miracle magnet" clean. And when what life hands you isn't as clean as the authenticity you lead with, then meet fear as evidence you're alive, treat empathy as a muscle rather than a liability, and trust that "evil always overplays its hand."

This episode is a listening opportunity to reflect on what you do with the stories only you are positioned to tell, and how to maintain the integrity of your authenticity while you're telling the truth of them. It is an example of where authenticity lives in casting, the special friendships born within a cast, and refusing to let someone else write the ending.

Show Notes:

Alaine Alldaffer Instagram @alainealldaffer

Alaine Alldaffer Website alainealldaffer.com

Kate McLeod Website

Authenticated All Access

Ali Stoner (Black Rabbit, Chicago Med, Daredevil: Born Again...) on what the job of a working actor actually looks like today. This episode of Authenticated is where Kate and Ali sit with eyes on the 20/20 hindsight lens to trace Ali's evidence map and connect it to how she's learning to trust her own intuition.

Episode Context: At the time of the recording, Ali was splitting her time between New York and Los Angeles as a newly bicoastal actor, in the middle of prime commercial and TV pilot season while preparing for a four month regional theater run at a LORT D theater in Miami.

Ali and Kate walk through what the job of an actor actually is for Ali now: hundreds of self tapes shot alone in a bedroom, sometimes up to eight voiceover auditions in a single week, commercial auditions that when booked pay the bills, and all with the understanding that the paid work you book on set is the reward for all the unpaid work of constantly auditioning on your own time. Kate's hunch is that the same instinct that lets Ali treat a bad self tape as just data to refine, rather than a verdict to fear, is exactly what a decade in the New York theater scene fosters; and breeds the kind of conviction that leads to "just leap" into the direction of your instincts. 

The two find their way into what Ali defines as her "creative container," the difference between taping to do it right and taping to authentically communicate something true, and how a book on intuition cracked open her understanding that gut instinct isn't the opposite of logic, it's logic she's already lived through.

This episode is an opportunity to reflect on what it actually costs to keep choosing the expansive option, and what your gut already knows before your brain catches up. It is a striking example of intuition at work in an acting career, in a friendship rekindled IRL after a decade on each other's parasocial sidelines, and in the daily decisions that quietly define who you're becoming.

Show Notes:

Ali Stoner Instagram: @ali.stonerrr

Ali Stoner Website 

Kate McLeod Website

Authenticated All Access

Morgan Siobhan Green (A Woman Among Women, Hadestown, Be More Chill, White Girl in Danger) has thoughts on curiosity as a creative discipline, and what it takes to commit to trusting your own process even through the moments when the outcome isn't guaranteed.

As Morgan and Kate trace through Morgan's path from a non-union open call for SpongeBob the Musical, where she built a pre-audition ritual out of a hundred printed rejection emails, to originating Eurydice on the First National Tour of Hadestown and shaping an unscripted pregnancy into her character in Michael R. Jackson's White Girl in Danger. Kate's hunch on why Morgan is consistently working on work that bring her joy and growth within the industry ties back to her refusal to be packaged into one type, because singular packaging is what makes casting directors stop considering you for anything outside it. They dabble in the business side of the industry, while Morgan doesn't shy away from: what it means to think like an artist business person, why so much new theater gets diluted and bedazzled trying to please the people holding the money, and why the business models the industry has been running on are quietly falling apart.

This episode is an opportunity to reflect on what you're willing to stay curious about even when it isn't the safest choice. It is a candid example of process over product in an actor's career, in an industry rebuilding its own systems, and in staying convicted in your own voice even when someone else gets the part.

Show Notes:

Morgan Siobhan Green Instagram: @morgansiobhang

Kate McLeod Website

Authenticated All Access

On the latest episode of "Authenticated," Kate hosts NY Emmy-winning storyteller, director, cinematographer, and photographer Berman Fenelus (Have a nICE day, Kojo, Privilege, Lana, PSA Spell It Out) to ask for his thoughts on bearing witness through a lens, and what it costs to tell a story you're drawn to entirely on your own terms.

NOTE: At the time of the recording, Berman was fresh off shooting Have a nICE day, a one-take short film about an ICE raid that he wrote within two days of seeing a news story and shot the same weekend New York's first ICE protests broke out, all while starting a self-funded web series with his production company, All Area Crew.

Berman and Kate measure backwards from his path in music and mini DV tapes to two decades of documenting Brooklyn and the ways New York disappears and rebuilds itself anew at a pace we cannot always catch the cadence of in real time. Kate's hunch on why Berman is so drawn to single take shots, illuminates his desire to witness as a storyteller and give his audience same un-curated opportunity to their own witnessing. Berman's investment in creating quick and in depth stories born from topical reactions, serves his case for self-funding your own work instead of waiting on festivals or financiers to say yes.

This episode is an opportunity to reflect on what we choose to document and why. It is a striking example of witnessing in filmmaking, in community, and in the moments you decide are worth giving more permanency for future witnesses.

Show Notes:

Berman Fenelus Instagram: @bermanfenelus

Berman Fenelus Website

Kate McLeod Website

Authenticated All Access

On the latest episode of "Authenticated," Kate hosts Tony-nominated, Lucille Lortel and OBIE Award winning actor John-Andrew Morrison (Oh, Mary!, A Strange Loop) to ask for his thoughts on joy as an active practice, and the cost to choose it. 

*At the time of the recording, John-Andrew was back at the Lyceum Theatre where he made his Broadway debut, and then playing Abraham Lincoln in Oh, Mary!.*

John-Andrew talks about his gratitude for the rigor of doing a eight shows a week; how that rigor strengthens his professionalism and the discipline of showing up the same way for whoever is going to be "on the ice" with him. They share their joys of language, learning to not live just neck up, and seeing gratitude as evidence that joy can come from. 

This episode is an opportunity to reflect on your definition of gratitude and joy. It is a a stunning example of malleability in acting, in life and in your daily habits that feed your attunement to the things supporting you. 

Show Notes:

John-Andrew Morrison Instagram: @jandymorri 

Kate McLeod Website

Authenticated All Access

On the latest episode of "Authenticated," Kate is joined by Director of Photography James Daly. It is a conversation between two well-versed creatives providing context, experience and ambitions from behind the camera. After sharing their expertise on "Opt In: An AI Trilogy" (being released by 6'2 Productions later this year), Kate and James share their thoughts out loud, starting from their working rapport and building into the industry today and what it may hold moving forward.

James Daly's twenty years of camera work, which scales from a 700 square foot apartment shoot to an overnight snowed-in mountaintop shoot, unpacks the difference between the right tool, the best tool, the person operating it and the best questions, and why environment, not equipment, is the deciding factor in what a shoot needs. They play with the future prospect of sourcing agents, the quiet math of who gets credit for a good idea, and what James calls the balance of the "glory cut" of stepping off the industry's rollercoaster and into what could bring more stability. The conversation moves through COVID-era sets, Panavision's unspoken rules, and the vanishing patience for a still frame, closing on James's two non-negotiables on any job: a great final product and everyone getting home safe.

"Context Behind The Camera w/ James Daly" will illuminate further context for any seasoned on-set talent in front of the camera or behind-the-scenes team member. It's a 53-minute listen that will inform those looking to understand the world of production outside of the output or guide those looking for a point of entry into their career as a Director of Photography. 

James Daly Instagram @jimbowtie

James Daly Website (www.jamesdalydp.com)

Kate McLeod Website

Authenticated All Access

On the latest episode of "Authenticated," Kate invites on Tony Award®-nominated Broadway actress, director, playwright and artist L Morgan Lee for a creative conversation on fear, and what lives on the journey to getting to the other side of it. 

L Morgan spent two decades of her artist's journey proving that a role is never the whole story. She made Tony history as the first openly transgender actor nominated for the award, for a performance in A Strange Loop that also carried her an Obie, a Lucille Lortel nod, and a Drama League nomination. This heartfelt conversation is about the life lived years before the artist resume and awards, the life lived outside of it even now, the rooms that prescribe what you're allowed to be, and the courage it takes to stop believing them. 

L Morgan talks about what the recent friction of stepping into a new teaching role illuminated in retrospect for her younger student self, the trap of always feeling the need to do things "right", and the artistic practice of intentionally leaving room for your version of mess. Kate and L Morgan share their perspectives of rejecting the industry's dated narrative of typecasting, the differences between sharing softness and perceiving it as weakness, and why the industry's default of primary focus on one dramatic arc leaves so many rich supporting characters stories unexamined. Kate and L Morgan question the industry standard practices of today, in a thought-provoking manner to uncover what iterations of standard practice could be next. 

The warm, experience driven and vulnerable conversation offered by Kate and L Morgan moves through academia past, present and future; Broadway auditions, the particular fear of "what then?" that sets in after getting exactly what you asked for, and gorgeously closes on L Morgan Lee's definition of authenticity: daring to be.

Show Notes:

L Morgan Lee Website: https://www.lmorganlee.com
L Morgan Lee Instagram: @lmorganlee

Kate McLeod Website

Authenticated All Access