Your life in film

Joining me this week, Dan Liu

Dan is an accomplished American television director and editor known for his  work across major sci-fi, horror, and drama franchises. Dan honed his visual storytelling skills at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts before building a successful career in Hollywood.

Dan began his career in the editing room, notably serving as an editor on AMC’s The Walking Dead. His deep understanding of pacing and tension allowed him to transition seamlessly into directing for the flagship series. This success launched him into The Walking Dead spin-offs, including Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond.

Expanding his portfolio, Dan became a highly sought-after director for premier television universes. He has directed critical episodes for the Star Trek franchise, contributing to both Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. His other notable directing credits include the alternate-history space drama For All Mankind, Netflix's fantasy epic Shadow and Bone, NBC's La Brea, and CBS's NCIS: Los Angeles. Dan is widely recognized for his precise framing, collaborative approach with actors, and mastery of high-stakes, genre-spanning narratives.

He is also a lovely person. 

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Joining me this week, Dr Chris McAuley

Chris is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning multimedia writer, film producer, game developer, and technologist. He is widely recognized for his prolific contributions to iconic pop culture franchises and horror worldbuilding, most notably as the co-creator of the StokerVerse alongside Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew Dacre Stoker. Blending dark gothic lore with modern storytelling, McAuley serves as the CEO of Trinity Studios and has authored or contributed to over 80 books, games, and audio productions. 

Partnering with Babylon 5 actress Claudia Christian, McAuley co-created Dark Legacies, a character-driven sci-fi universe that features graphic novels, novels, and audio dramas centered around the futuristic commander Jessica Steele. 

 Chris has contributed canon lore, short fiction, or multimedia content to massive legacy properties including Doctor Who (including Dalek origin stories with actor Terry Molloy), Star Trek, Star Wars, and The Terminator.

He has operated as a game writer, developer, and QA specialist on classic gaming licenses like Mortal Kombat and Indiana Jones. His dedication to preserving classic video games for modern platforms earned him a corporate recognition award from Sony. 

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Joining me this week, Desa Larkin-Boutte

Desa is a writer with first-hand knowledge of America's vast and varied communities. She has worked in the television industry for over a decade, learning extensively from the creative minds behind The Walking Dead, Better Call Saul, and Westworld. Desa wrote the penultimate episode of Westworld. 

As a writer, Desa's unique voice centers on identity, systemic race, and complex female protagonists. Her script How to Be was a 2018 Austin Film Festival semifinalist, and her pilot Zora & Zizi won the 2020 Grand Prize at Creative Screenwriting’s Unique Voices competition, securing her major agency representation.

Desa also partnered with Westworld alum Denise Thé to adapt Lamar Giles’ dystopian novel The Getaway for Sony Pictures TV, produced alongside Don Cheadle’s company, This Radicle Act.

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Joining me this week, Lefteris Parasyris

Lefteris is a filmmaker based in Greece and the UK. His dance film “Ruins Within Ruins” has been selected by more than 65 film festivals worldwide and has won 22 awards and accolades. His short film “Latent” was also screened in festivals around the globe and was distributed by Shorts International.

Lefteris is a BAFTA Connect member since 2017. He also works as a Script Supervisor with credits on multiple award-winning productions in the UK , such as Peter Strickland’s latest feature film “Flux Gourmet.” He holds an MA in Filmmaking, specialising in Directing from Goldsmiths, University of London. Additionally, he studied Theatre at the University of Athens, Greece and Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

Beyond filmmaking, Lefteris is a keen volunteer and has traveled extensively with NGOs in India, Iceland, and Japan. His experience living, working and studying in various parts of the world enhanced his interest in the subjects of heritage and identity. Challenging the notion of being a citizen of the world against the desperate need to belong, Lefteris explores the ideas of home, memory and abandonment with a distinct emphasis on movement and physicality. Currently, he is developing another dance film and a narrative short project.

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Joining me this week, Cory Ife

Cory is known for being the lead singer and frontman for the band 'Modern Reptiles.' He has a love for horror and sci-fi in particular, and has aspirations to be involved in the film industry during his lifetime.

Cory was also spotlighted by illustrious film composer and musician 'Danny Elfman' after him and his team were made aware of how much his plethora of music had impacted Cory, partly due to his covers of some Elfman's "Oingo Boingo" classics.

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Joining me this week, Clarissa Jacobson and Shayna Weber

Screenwriters, filmmakers,, and good pals, Clarissa and Shayna create thought-provoking, smart genre content that is unique, fun, has heart, is pro-woman AND pro-man, and is oftentimes fuckin' irreverent.

Clarissa is the writer, producer, and creator of the multi-award-winning horror/comedy short, Lunch Ladies, based on her feature.  The film was in more than one hundred festivals including France's Clermont-Ferrand, garnered forty-six wins, and gold standard distribution all over the world.  She also created and starred in the follow-up short, A Very Important Film, and directed the doc Butts with Shayna.  In addition, she is a voiceover artist, and her book - I Made A Short Film Now WTF Do I Do With It (a guide to film festivals, promotion, and surviving the ride) - is available in bookstores and on her website. An Indonesian translation can also be purchased via DM at Minikino Hotline. 

Shayna is a screenwriter, producer and director originally from Bend, Oregon.  Shayna started out working in casting and talent management before settling into a career as a producer, during the rise of unscripted television, where she developed, produced and directed a number of projects.  Her roster of shows includes: “So You Think You Can Dance,” “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” “Weakest Link,” VH1’s “Band’s Reunited,” “Brew Dogs,” “She’s Got The Look,” Disney’s “Code 9,” and the Miss Universe Pageants.  She has worked for NBC, Fox, Disney, MTV, VH1, Travel Channel, Discovery and Bravo. Shayna also produced the award-winning, horror/comedy, Lunch Ladies, and directed, A Very Important Film and Butts which is currently on the film circuit.

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Joining me this week, James Cleave

James is a London-based Writer-Director and Associate Member of Directors UK, whose work explores human connection through realistic, dialogue-driven drama, often with a sharp thread of humour running through the discomfort. His short films have collectively earned 21 awards, 30 nominations, and 31 Official Selections across national and international film festivals. His debut sci-fi drama Sometime Else, which screened at the BAFTA Cymru-qualifying Carmarthen Bay Film Festival, was described by UK Film Review as sitting "amongst any of Charlie Brooker's best and darkest [Black Mirror] episodes." His BIFA-Qualified comedy-drama MAFIA was praised by Film Carnage for its "clean edge" and "intimate and focused" directorial style. His latest BIFA-Qualified comedy SELF+TAPE, is currently on its festival run following its premiere at BIFA-qualifying Unrestricted View Film Festival.

A third-culture kid born in the UK and raised in Limassol, Cyprus, James has over 15 years of industry experience across 86 productions within the AD department, including serving as Kenneth Branagh's on-set Director's Assistant on A Haunting In Venice and on-set Cast Assistant on A Thomas Crown Affair, with further credits on Cinderella, RED 2, Black Mirror, and the BAFTA-winning Pride, to name a few. Outside of his AD career, he has produced close to 100 non-broadcast productions, managing end-to-end delivery across animation, post-production, and multi-language packages, writing and directing a number of them, earning 24 international awards including the WorldMediaFestival's intermedia-globe Grand Award. He is currently developing his first feature film.

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Joining me this week, Tim Auld

Tim is an award-winning filmmaker with over 15 years of experience across directing, screenwriting, and post-production. He has created work for leading brands including FujiFilm, Foundry, and Blackmagic Design, delivering compelling visual stories across commercial and creative projects. 

As a screenwriter, Tim's work has earned multiple international awards and attracted producer options, reflecting his ability to craft distinctive, cinematic narratives from concept to completion.

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Joining me this week, Felicity Wren

Felicity is a development executive, producer, and award-winning actor working in London and Los Angeles. After earning Honors and Master’s degrees, she co-founded Unrestricted View, a London-based production company and theatre (unrestrictedview.co.uk) now in its 29th year. The company also curates three (one BIFA-accredited) film festivals, spotlighting bold new voices in Independent Film at UVFF.co.uk. They have recently launched a publishing company and are supporting independent filmmakers through an initiative they founded: Open Screen London, and with the UVFF Film Fund hosted by Genera Films.
Felicity has produced nineteen film projects and won five performance awards. She currently serves as VP of Development at both Creative Screenwriter Productions and the International Screenwriters’ Association (ISA), where she supports top-tier screenwriting talent and cultivates meaningful industry connections.
She now splits her time between London & LA, and is interested in fostering partnerships and making introductions between UK filmmakers and Producers and her LA contacts.

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Joining me this week, Daniel Stafford-Clark

Daniel grew up in a filmmaking household (his father is a producer, and his mother worked with my dad on Honey magazine) and since he could pick up a video camera has been shooting with any family members and friends he could enroll.

 He has worked as a director of photography since 2009 when he graduated from the UK’s National Film and Television School. As well as working extensively in commercials he’s shot a number of acclaimed television series including Catastrophe, Industry, Extraordinary and Big Mood which has just been released.  He’s also shot a couple of award-winning features.  

He’s worked with Disney+, Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO as well as Channel 4 and the BBC in the UK.  He has a passion for photography that is immersive, emotionally powerful and always in the service of the storytelling.

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