The Other 50%

Lorraine is a writer, an actor, a musician, and activist - but today we talked mostly about the writing. In 2010 she launched her "arts & politics" blog, Rock+Paper+Music, and from 2011 to 2018 she was a popular contributor at HuffPost typically focused on politics and social issues.

A produced and awarded screenwriter, she's spent more recent years working in longform fiction as well. Both her award-winning novels, After the Sucker Punch and Hysterical Love, are available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Her latest, The Alchemy of Noise, contemporary literary fiction that digs deep into issues of privilege, profiling, and prejudice in contemporary Chicago, is published by She Writes Press, and was released in April 2019.

We talked mostly about her book and we got very deep into race and politics and the work that white people need to do. Buckle in, because we went there.

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.

Ingrid is a stunt performer and stunt coordinator. She grew up in Australia and fell into the world of stunts while performing 140ft above the arena in the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games. Having toured the globe with renowned physical theatre company Legs on the Wall as well as the Sydney Theatre Company, she had formed a wealth of physical, technical & artistic vocabulary across multiple fields including directing & rigging that lent itself precisely to the stunt industry.

Ingrid hails from a long line of professional drivers so vehicles became an early niche. She was one of only two female stunt drivers on Mad Max: Fury Road, can drive a Big Rig truck & hold her breath underwater for five & a half minutes. She is also the first female to be officially graded as an Assistant Stunt Coordinator in Australia where, to date, no female has ever held the position of Stunt Coordinator. She is one of handful of female stunt coordinators here in the US.

Her story is remarkable and we talk about her journey, how it was to rise in this field as a woman, and how she is navigating motherhood as a stunt performer, proving once again that it is foolish to underestimated a working mother.

Her credits include: Captain Marvel, Ant-Man and Wasp, Justice League, Suicide Squad basically everything. She is formidable and she laughs at fear. Literally. Wait for it.

T.L. is an independent filmmaker based in Los Angeles after studying Film Studies at UC Berkeley and working in production on major TV and Films in New York City.

Her short films have been all over the festival circuit and her short film, Rule of Threes, won an Award of Merit for Women Filmmakers at the Accolade Global Film Competition and an Award of Merit at One-Reeler Film competition.

She is currently developing a new screenplay and also producing her first screenplay, Crave, into a feature film. Which she will tell us all about.

Liz is the Chief Financial Officer of Hello Sunshine, the media brand founded by Reese Witherspoon. She tells us all about the company, their mission, and their culture. It's as good as you imagined.

Liz was formerly the senior vice president of corporate development and strategy at Media Rights Capital. While there, she worked on the deal to bring House of Cards to Netflix, which was then written up as a Harvard Business Review business case, and she talks it about it here as well. Liz is very much one of the best and brightest, and I'm so happy to have her on the show.

And today is the launch day for new podcast called Catch a Break the insider's guide to breaking into and navigating Hollywood. I will play the trailer at the end of this episode. While you're on your podcast app, go on over to Catch A Break and subscribe.

Kaili is an actor with The Actors' Gang in Los Angeles. Her debut was in October Sky, and she has been acting on stage and in film ever since. We talked about her reluctant yet guided journey into acting, meeting Tim Robbins and joining The Actors' Gang, and living every day with the responsibility of an artist. And this - it can be a long journey in your body to joy.

And, she has a beautiful love story.

This is episode is little long. But, trust me, as long as I am moved to tears, I'm not cutting it. And that happened to me a lot while editing. You are warned.

Melinda is the Chief Marketing Officer at Extreme Reach. You may notice that Extreme Reach is the sponsor of this podcast, so that's how I met her, but I would have interviewed her regardless.

She tells us a bit more about the company, and we talked a lot about her journey in her work life. How important it is to be authentic, how self-awareness is key to leadership, and how knitting might be the key to everything.

And how highly paid executives will still tackle each other when something is being given away for free. Humans are funny.

Mari is a writer, journalist, filmmaker and actor. She holds a BA in Journalism and completed the 3 Year Conservatory program at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York.

As a journalist, she has over ten years of experience in news, art and entertainment journalism, both in the Netherlands and in the U.S. She is producer and director of VAGILANT, a short documentary film about the Women's March on Washington and was the lead producer on music video project A Whole New World. She co-wrote, produced and starred in The Soothing System, an award winning narrative short film. In 2018, Female Filmmakers Fuse Film Festival in Los Angeles named her Filmmaker of the Year.

We talked about her new projects in development, her work within the prison system in New York and how finding your voice and telling your story, as cliché as that is starting to sound, is still imperative.

Today I got to speak with Michelle Salcedo. Michelle directed a gorgeous short film called Piel Canela, that she shot in Cuba and which is screening at several film festivals this week. It will be premiering at the San Diego Latino Film festival March 23, as well as the Chicago Latino Film Festival March 29, and 31st, with a Miami screening happening first weekend in April at the Indie Pasión Film festival! So, if you are anywhere near any of those places, make a point of going to see it. I have seen the trailer and it is gorgeous. You can see the trailer on my website, theotherfiftypercent.com.

Michelle came up through marketing and editing at Miramax during the heyday, editing with Bunim Murray, and is now writing and directing full time. She tells us the whole story of scouting and then shooting in Cuba, counting all her cash in a bathroom stall at LAX to make sure TSA hadn't taken any, and her Grandmother's spirit yelling at her about all of it.

Today I got to speak with Judy Jean Kwon. Judy is a creative multi-hyphenate. She's an actress, a comic, a writer, producer, podcaster, creator…she does all the things. Her webseries, MILFriend will be screened on March 22nd at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres at the Golden State Festival. She is about to tell us all about it, along with her very interesting personal story and being perfectly poised to have great success during the United Colors of Benetton advertising era.