THE HOLLYWOOD PODCAST

Grammy-winning composer Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum is a Juilliard-trained composer whose work spans film, television, animation, and the concert hall. Nora has built an incredibly diverse career scoring projects including Marvel’s What If...?, Don’t Look Deeper, Prisoner’s Daughter, and Stockholm, Pennsylvania. She’s also collaborated extensively with composer Laura Karpman on acclaimed projects for HBO, Marvel, and Sundance-premiering documentaries. Beyond her composing work, she serves as an advisor at the Sundance Institute and mentors emerging artists through YoungArts. Today, we’re discussing her work on the new Netflix series Big Mistakes which is about two directionless siblings Nicky and Morgan who get blackmailed into the world of organized crime.

John Paesano is a BAFTA-winning and Emmy- & Grammy-nominated composer whose work spans some of the biggest franchises in film, television, and gaming. His credits include Marvel's Daredevil and The Defenders, Amazon's Invincible, the Maze Runner films, the Planet of the Apes franchise, and PlayStation's acclaimed Spider-Man trilogy, for which he earned a BAFTA Award and a Grammy nomination.

He also composed music for Disney's Avengers Campus and most recently created the score for Netflix's new mystery-adventure series The Boroughs from creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews and executive producers the Duffer Brothers. On this episode, we discuss crafting the musical world of The Boroughs, his love of classic orchestral storytelling, and why he approached this score as if it were being written in 1988.

BAFTA-winning costume designer Maja Meschede discusses her work on the new series adaptation of one of the most read books in modern literary history - Lord of the Flies, now streaming on Netflix. Some of her past credits include the film Fury, Netflix's Black Mirror, HBO’s Catherine the Great, Downton Abbey: A New Era, Paramount+ series The Burning Girls and Hulu series A Thousand Blows.

Actor and comedian Alex Bonifer currently stars in the Amazon Freevee series Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat. Alex plays Dougie Jr., the awkward but lovable heir apparent to the Rockin’ Grandma’s hot sauce empire — a character that’s already earned rave reviews from outlets like The AV Club, Collider, and The Daily Beast for balancing absurd comedy with genuine heart.

Outside of Jury Duty, Alex is a member of the Main Company at The Groundlings and has appeared in shows including No Good Deed, Superstore, and Kevin Can F**k Himself opposite Annie Murphy.

Julie Tucker is an acclaimed casting director whose work spans film and television, helping shape performances and ensembles across a wide range of projects. Her previous credits include Law and Order: SVU, The Big C, Damages, Nurse Jackie, The Americans, White Collar, The Affair, Hunters, Dexter: Next Blood and The Equalizer. She discusses her work on her latest project - Netflix miniseries The Beast in Me starring Clare Danes, Matthew Rhys, Natalie Morales and Brittany Snow.

Harry Gregson-Williams and Rupert Gregson-Williams are two of the most accomplished and respected composers working in film and television today.

As individual composers, they’ve created music for an incredible range of projects, from Gladiator II, The Martian, Shrek, and The Chronicles of Narnia to Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Hacksaw Ridge, and The Crown. Together, they’ve collaborated on acclaimed productions including Catch-22 and HBO’s hit period drama The Gilded Age.

Now in its third season, The Gilded Age continues to chronicle the clash between old money and new money in 1880s New York, and Harry and Rupert’s score has become an essential part of the show’s elegance, emotion, and grandeur.

Barrie Gower is one of the industry’s most acclaimed prosthetics and makeup effects designers. You’ve seen his work in projects like Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, The Witcher, The Last of Us, and The Rings of Power.

He’s now bringing the iconic world of Masters of the Universe to life for the big screen, creating the prosthetic and creature designs for characters including Skeletor, Trap Jaw, Mossman, Goatman, and many more inhabitants of Eternia.

Composer Haim Mazar's work spans across film and television with credits including films like The Iceman, The Taking of Deborah Logan, I Am Wrath, and Desperation Road, along with television series like Hulu’s Woke and Netflix’s Sneakerheads.

Now, he’s bringing his blend of horror, comedy, and cinematic suspense to one of the most iconic parody franchises of all time as the composer of the brand-new Scary Movie.

Production designer Sue Chan has built an incredible career creating visually immersive worlds across film and television, with past credits including Where the Crawdads Sing, Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Shirley and Colossal.

She’s now out with her latest project, the AppleTV+ series MURDERBOT starring Alexander Skarsgard where he stars as a media-obsessed private security construct (manufactured from cloned human tissue and mechanical parts) calling itself Murderbot who must hide its newly acquired autonomy while completing dangerous assignments and being simultaneously drawn to humans, and appalled by their weakness.

Acclaimed Oscar & BAFTA-nominated & Emmy-winning production designer Gemma Jackson has worked across film and television at the highest level. She’s known for creating incredibly immersive worlds that don’t just look beautiful—but actively shape how we experience a story. Her past credits include Bridget Jones's Diary, Iris, Finding Neverland, Aladdin, Lee, The Gentlemen and The Outfit as well as series such as John Adams, Game of Thrones and The Nevers.

Her latest project is the Netflix miniseries Death By Lightning, which depicts the election and presidency of President James A. Garfield as well as how his path crossed with a deluded admirer, who ended up shooting him, leading to Garfield's death.