Author: The Reel Women

“Collaboration is a self-charging battery for your soul, and competition with others is the fastest way to drain that creative and internal battery.”

What pulled you into film and TV in the first place?

I made my first mystery movie at the age of 12, and have been writing and directing ever since. At first I think I just liked telling other people what to do because I’m naturally bossy, but as I’ve progressively become a better director, I’ve learned that the best parts of any project are the ideas of people I’m collaborating with! The super-power of filmmaking is choosing a team of actors and creative collaborators whose ideas will super-charge your own. And that makes me feel so alive! My favorite place to be is on set, co-creating something thought-provoking and collaborative and generous.

What continues to draw me to filmmaking is the power of art to educate, inspire, and transform. Stories are a place where we encounter others and it becomes a part of us.

What do you think the industry gets most wrong about women like you?

I don’t have a clue, because honestly I don’t think “the industry” is thinking about me, or women like me.

Often, I feel the pressure to perform self-aggrandisement, and I just can’t do it. I can’t pretend that I’m more important than I am, or more unique, or more worthy than others. I don’t feel like my desire or “talent” to create is worth more than my integrity and I don’t think power or “success” or fame is worth selling out to people whose values I don’t respect. A lot of people have told me “no” over the years, but I’ve said a lot of “no”s myself too. So maybe if the industry thought anything about me, it would think I’m a difficult woman? I don’t know. All I know is that my values are not performative, and I can’t perform importance either. All I can do is let my work speak for itself just like my life does.

What does success mean to you?

I think successes come in shades, and some colors are more important to me than others.

Collaborative success is when people you’ve worked with want to work with you again (and when they also become your friends, that’s the cherry on top!); creative success is when someone in the audience feels seen because of what you’ve made; and when both of those things are in dynamic connection and they actually pull in enough money to make that creative and collaborative success financially sustainable, then that is what I would call “worldly success.”

What are you most proud of that most people don’t know about?

I’ve made a feature documentary that is probably more personal than anything I’ve ever made before (which is why most people don’t know about it). It’s about struggling to find belonging in a foreign country, and how learning the power of collaborating instead of competing finally gave me that sense of belonging. Stay tuned for when I actually get brave enough to show it to the world.

What keeps you going when the industry makes it hard?

To be honest, it’s the power of collaboration. How when you have an idea, and other people add to it, and commit to it, and make it more than it was before, and you’re all creating something that reflects the philosophy and thoughts and dreams and fears and life lessons of a lot of different people all at once… there is nothing to me that’s more magical. It’s actually the experience of doing it that keeps me going.

“I didn’t need to wait until I felt completely ready, or until someone gave me permission, to claim the work I wanted to do.”

What pulled you into film and TV in the first place?

I was pulled into film and television because I’ve always been fascinated by the way stories shape how people see themselves and each other. As an actor, writer, and eventually filmmaker, I realized I didn’t just want to perform stories—I wanted to help decide which stories get told, whose perspectives are centered, and what audiences are invited to feel.

I’m especially drawn to work that explores Black life with complexity, humor, history, joy, and contradiction. Film and TV give me a way to combine everything I care about—performance, writing, community, social impact, and storytelling—into one medium.

What do you think the industry gets most wrong about women like you?

I think the industry often gets women like me wrong by assuming our stories are too specific, too mature, or too complicated to be broadly compelling. There can be a tendency to flatten Black women—especially women over 40—into archetypes instead of allowing us to be funny, sensual, ambitious, messy, adventurous, intellectual, vulnerable, and contradictory all at once.

What gets missed is that specificity is what makes a story universal. I’m interested in creating characters who feel fully lived-in, because audiences connect to truth far more than they connect to stereotypes.

What does success mean to you?

Success to me means having the freedom to build a life around the work, people, and experiences that matter to me. Professionally, it means creating stories that are distinctly mine, building a sustainable company around that work, and having the resources and relationships to bring those stories to audiences without constantly waiting for someone else’s permission.

Personally, success is also about having enough space to actually enjoy the life I’ve built—to travel, nurture meaningful relationships, contribute to my community, mentor others, and keep growing. I don’t want success that requires me to sacrifice myself to maintain it. I want a life that is creatively fulfilling, financially sustainable, impactful, and joyful.

What are you most proud of that most people don’t know about?

I’m most proud of how many times I’ve rebuilt my life without losing my curiosity, humor, or willingness to try again. Most people see the finished projects, the travel, the performances, or the accomplishments, but they don’t necessarily see the uncertainty, financial setbacks, career pivots, rejection, or personal losses behind them.

I’m proud that I’ve continued choosing a bigger life anyway. I’ve learned how to start over, take risks, build new skills, and create opportunities for myself while still remaining open to people and experiences. That resilience isn’t always visible on a résumé, but it’s probably the accomplishment I value most.

What keeps you going when the industry makes it hard?

What keeps me going is knowing that the work matters to me beyond whether the industry validates it quickly. I love storytelling, I love creating characters and worlds, and I love making work that reflects Black life with more depth, humor, joy, and complexity than we’re often given.

I’ve also learned not to let one gatekeeper, one rejection, or one slow season define what’s possible for me. I keep building, learning, creating relationships, and finding new ways to get the work made. The industry can be difficult, but my connection to the work itself is stronger than the difficulty.

“Network is everything. Connections and protecting those connections are more important than I could have ever imagined.”

What pulled you into film and TV in the first place?

I started in the theatre. I was working as an actor and director and really realizing that my true calling was directing when a local acting teacher invited me to a film acting class. At first, I was super against film acting, theatre was the “true art” or whatever, but soon I had an agent and I was hooked. It didn’t take long for me to start seeing the need among my acting friends for footage, so I took an Intro to Film class at the local film school and ended up directing the class project. That was 2018, and my debut feature premieres August 29th.

What do you think the industry gets most wrong about women like you?

There is so much going around right now about how directors should just show up to set without preparation to get the most “creative” footage. I find that infuriating. I work hard in development and pre-production to communicate my vision via meetings, storyboarding, rehearsals… the works! It’s so important to be prepared and makes a huge difference on set with the crew.

What does success mean to you?

Success for me looks like the ability to do what I want to do in the ways that I want to do it with enough income to have my needs met and take care of my people.

What are you most proud of that most people don’t know about?

I am learning in my forties to really bet on myself. I have had successes up to now and worked hard and made wonderful things happen, but it wasn’t until I hit my forties that I learned to be my own biggest fan. I’m proud of sticking to that and creating a really positive relationship with myself.

What keeps you going when the industry makes it hard?

I love stories. I love to tell them. It’s a core thing about me. I know I will be telling them one way or another, and film is the way that brings all of my talents and strengths together simultaneously. Coming back to that core, the privilege it is to be a storyteller in the village of humanity, that is everything. It absolutely keeps me going in those hard moments. That and take-out food.

“Direct earlier and don’t wait for anyone to give yourself permission.”

What pulled you into film and TV in the first place?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and pretty much the WB. Watching that growing up and seeing a strong woman kick ass was when I knew I wanted to make TV. Oh and Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, I wanted to be a third sister.

What do you think the industry gets most wrong about women like you?

That we need to constantly prove that we can do this, most of us are past the stages of fellowships. We need financing and opportunities. We can do this, we don’t need to jump through the constant hoops to prove it. Just hire us.

What does success mean to you?

Success to me means being able to freely make art with my creative family without the bureaucracy of Hollywood.

What are you most proud of that most people don’t know about?

I am most proud of myself for sticking to it. This is a hard business and I am proud that I am trying.

What keeps you going when the industry makes it hard?

What keeps me going is knowing that I am setting out to tell stories that future generations will be able to see themselves, their families and their stories onscreen.