What pulled you into film & TV in the first place?
I had always enjoyed acting on stage right from when I was in school. Even though I never knew I would do it professionally until years later after school. I remembered I liked it then so I decided to give it a try.
What worries you most about the future of this industry right now?
Film getting to our audience at an affordable rate and producers making back their money.
What’s one piece of advice you wish you’d heard earlier?
Get a normal job while pursuing this dream. Because bills are real.
What pulled you into film & TV in the first place?
I’ve always been drawn to storytelling and human emotion. Film and television have a unique ability to make people feel seen, start conversations, and create empathy across very different experiences. As an actor, I loved stepping into characters and exploring emotional truth, but over time I realized I also wanted to help shape the stories being told behind the camera. That eventually led me to founding True Self Films, where the goal is to create meaningful, character-driven work that reflects voices and experiences that are often overlooked.
What worries you most about the future of this industry right now?
I think one of the biggest concerns is that meaningful storytelling can sometimes get overshadowed by algorithms, trends, and short attention spans. There’s so much pressure to create what’s instantly marketable that unique voices and emotionally honest stories can struggle to break through. I also think access remains a challenge — especially for independent filmmakers, women, and creators from underrepresented backgrounds. At the same time, I’m hopeful because audiences are still hungry for authentic stories that genuinely connect with them.
What’s one piece of advice you wish you’d heard earlier?
I wish someone had told me earlier that building a career in this industry is much more of a marathon than a sprint. It’s easy to compare your journey to other people’s highlight reels, especially in entertainment, but longevity, resilience, and relationships matter just as much as talent. I also wish I’d understood sooner that creating your own opportunities can be just as powerful as waiting for permission from the industry.
What does success mean to you and have you ever experienced it?
Success to me is creating work that resonates with people while also building a sustainable career doing what I love. Of course awards and recognition are wonderful, but I think real success is when a story moves someone, sparks conversation, or makes them feel less alone. I’ve experienced moments of success already through acting, producing, and seeing projects like our award-winning short film Let Go connect with audiences and film festivals. Those moments reminded me that even smaller projects can have real impact.
What is next in your career?
Right now I’m focused on growing True Self Films and advancing our psychological drama feature Therein Lies Darkness through financing and development. I’m also developing new film and television projects centered on emotionally impactful storytelling.
Why did you decide to work in the film and TV industry?
It’s debatable if I work “in the industry” or adjacent to it but I decided to tell stories (mostly online) because I wanted to be the change I wanted to see and I wanted to document my life, so that way if I ever became a hashtag for all of the wrong reasons, there was a primary source account of who I am. An unabridged primary source account of all the ways I existed here.
What is your biggest concern with the future?
Surprisingly not Ai (potentially famous last words – but we’ll see). I’m more concerned with the shrinking avenues for creatives to exist at every level of filmmaking. The lack of space for innovation in storytelling, combined with an overemphasis on profits concerns me. So, I find myself leaning more into spaces online where the only gatekeeper is your internet connection and relying on the community at large for support rather than an executive who’s only goal is an ROI.
What is a successful moment in your career so far?
I am grateful to say I’ve had a few! Getting fired from my first production job back in 2012 was a success because it led me to an amazing producer who helped shape my producing, interviewing, and directing skills. I later used those skills to produce two grant-funded documentaries combating hate speech and xenophobia on my YouTube channel and producing a web series show for PBS. One of my biggest wins was becoming an Adobe Creative Resident in 2021-22 because that allowed me to invest in myself and create a comedy web series called This Coulda Been An Email.
What advice do you have for other women in the industry?
Collaborate across whenever possible. One of the first collabs that helped me grow online was with my friend and fellow creative Evelyn From The Internets. I had just bought the DJI Mavic (their first mini drone model) and told her about it. She had a sponsored video on her channel she wanted to produce and asked me to DP it. That video ended up going viral. I still get referenced from it, and I know she still gets opportunities and eye balls from it too. She had the skills of storytelling and needed a DP. I had the DP knowledge and skills but needed a story to film. To this day, years later, she’s still my writing partner, accountability, and a dear friend. Focus on cultivating genuine relationships with a spirit of giving and the creative magic will come.
What is next for you in your career?
Cultivating more community! My goal in life is to help others tell their own stories so I’m shifting my content to focus more on tangible tips and skills to do that. My motto is, “I went to film school so you don’t have to if you don’t want to!” I love being accountability for others, giving them a spark of inspiration, or just helping them logistically with filmmaking and answering their technical questions in a safe space. There are no dumb questions!
I’m also working on a new travel docu-series with a friend of mine who’s a lawyer, we got some grant funding for it too which is really exciting because funding is 92.7% of the battle.
Finally, I’m developing a graphic novel based on a short story written by my husband, Chris. I’ve been working on a proof of concept scene with the illustrator I want to work with and am talking to an independent comic editor. Hopefully, I’ll launch a crowdfunding campaign for that soon and have the book done by the fall (or sooner).
So yeah, I’m outside y’all just making stuff!
Where can people find out more about you?
My YouTube channel and Instagram. My name is very Googl-able so go wild – Hallease! If you’re looking for a more buttoned up me, check out my company website — StumbleWell.com
I want to gratefully acknowledge the WGA, the DGA, IATSE, AFM, Teamsters and Basic Crafts for helping make this night a success. Thank you to the hardest working guy in show business, our SAG-AFTRA Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. And, especially a big thanks to Netflix for inviting the SAG Awards to their platform so this event can be viewed all over the world including my parents’ condo in South Florida.
But most important, congratulations to all the members both here today and everywhere. I hold you all with the highest esteem and greatest respect for you are the champions. You survived the longest strike in our union’s history with courage and conviction. The journey was arduous. It came with great sacrifice and unrelenting stress. Your collective dignity and perseverance to stand up and say we deserve better because we are better resulted in an historic billion-dollar deal. Your solidarity ignited workers around the world triggering what forever will be remembered as the “Hot Labor Summer”. You took the hero’s journey and stood at the front lines. Strike captains led the picket lines. And we all showed up to the rallies because you understood what our massive contribution means to this marvelous industry.
And now, here we stand tall and proud. This was a seminal moment in our union’s history that has set the trajectory for many generations to come. Not afraid but brave. Not weak but empowered. Not peons but partners.
During the fight for a better TV theatrical contract global ideas emerged. AI will entrap us in a matrix where none of us know what’s real. If an inventor lacks empathy and spirituality perhaps that’s not the invention we need. Dystopia stories can also become self-fulfilling prophecy. We should tell stories that spark the human spirit, connect us to the natural world and awaken our capacity to love unconditionally.
What does female leadership look like to women and girls? We don’t have to emulate male energy but rather lead with intellect, compassion, wisdom and still rock a red lip. Sometimes it’s hard to see the frame when you’re in the picture but a renaissance can happen. We each can work to develop empathy within ourselves. Collectively, the paradigm will shift towards peace and harmony. All of us hold in our hearts the gentle whisper of true love. I am honored to be your president as we now enter our golden age. Thank you so much.
We do not endorse, or are endorsed, for any of the following. We simply came across the resource and wanted to share. Please do your own research on any programs or initiatives, especially where you are required to pay.
“The series follows two detectives in their early 40s: Sam, an uptight and by-the-book guns and gangs detective, and Kelly, a streetwise narcotics detective. Both are ambitious and accomplished in their own way, excelling at work while struggling with their personal lives. They drive one another crazy, but also appreciate each other’s strengths, and somehow manage to work together.”
Why we’re excited: We will always take a police crime comedy-drama television series, especially if it’s created by women!
“When a chance encounter with an astrological reader causes the Walkers to wake up to a full body switch, can they unite to land a promotion, college interview, record deal, and soccer tryout?”
“Wish will follow a young girl named Asha who wishes on a star and gets a more direct answer than she bargained for when a trouble-making star comes down from the sky to join her.”
#6 (-3): “The Marvels” Directed by Nia DaCosta; Written by Nia DaCosta, Megan McDonnell, Elissa Karasik
Current box office: $187m
“Carol Danvers gets her powers entangled with those of Kamala Khan and Monica Rambeau, forcing them to work together to save the universe.”
“A student at Oxford University finds himself drawn into the world of a charming and aristocratic classmate, who invites him to his eccentric family’s sprawling estate for a summer never to be forgotten.”
📺 TV 📺
This week’s most popular female-led TV shows by Rotten Tomatoes (out of 10)
“A Murder at the End of the World” is a mystery series with a new kind of detective at the helm — a Gen Z amateur sleuth and tech-savvy hacker named Darby Hart. In the new limited series, Darby and eight other guests are invited by a reclusive billionaire to participate in a retreat at a remote and dazzling location. When one of the other guests is found dead, Darby must put to use all of her combined skills to prove it was in fact murder, all against a tide of competing interests and before the killer takes another life.”
Where to find it: Hulu
#9 (-2): “Blue Eye Samurai” by Amber Noizumi and Michael Green
“A master of the sword lives life in disguise while seeking revenge in Edo-period Japan.”
Where to find it: Netflix
🎙 Podcasts 🎙
This week’s top female-led podcasts on the Apple Podcast charts (out of 10)
“When two friends go missing back-to-back, and in between their disappearances, a third friend is murdered, their mothers begin their own investigation. As the connections between the three cases are explored, the mothers navigate devastating twists and turns, including one revelation that shakes the community to its core.”
“Crime Junkie is a weekly true crime podcast dedicated to giving you a fix. Every Monday, Ashley Flowers will tell you about whatever crime she’s been obsessing over that week in a way that sounds like you’re sitting around talking crime with your best friends. The storytelling is straightforward and free of rabbit holes so the cases stay suspenseful and are easy to follow. If you can never get enough true crime… Congratulations, you’re a Crime Junkie!”
We do not endorse, or are endorsed, for any of the following. We simply came across the resource and wanted to share. Please do your own research on any programs or initiatives, especially where you are required to pay.
PageCraft’s Concept to Pages Workshop starts January 7th. (Scholarshipsare available to BIPOC writers with financial need. The next application deadline, which is for the Winter 2024 workshop, is December 5, 2023. Learn more HERE.)
“A student at Oxford University finds himself drawn into the world of a charming and aristocratic classmate, who invites him to his eccentric family’s sprawling estate for a summer never to be forgotten.”
Why we’re excited: Best known as an actress (Midge in “Barbie,” Camilla Parker Bowles in Seasons 3-4 of “The Crown,” and Nurse Patsy Mount in “Call the Midwife”), she’s also a writer (“Killing Eve”) and director (“Promising Young Woman” with 117 award wins out of 193 nominations). The stylized revenge thriller of “Promising Young Woman” is mired in the “Saltburn” trailer so we’re excited to see the story play out. Also, Carey Mulligan is set to make her reappearance in this new film.
“Wish will follow a young girl named Asha who wishes on a star and gets a more direct answer than she bargained for when a trouble-making star comes down from the sky to join her.”
Why we’re excited: Growing up on the Disney princess movies, we have a fond place in our hearts for Disney animation. But we’re excited the stories have evolved from the girl getting the guy and, instead, the girl saving the world and “Wish” promises to be just this, with some fun twists and turns.
“Experience the breathtaking Eras Tour concert, performed by the one and only Taylor Swift”
#8 “Priscilla” Written & Directed by Sofia Coppola
Current box office: $17m
“When teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a vulnerable best friend.”
📺 TV 📺
This week’s most popular female-led TV shows by Rotten Tomatoes (out of 10)
“A Murder at the End of the World” is a mystery series with a new kind of detective at the helm — a Gen Z amateur sleuth and tech-savvy hacker named Darby Hart. In the new limited series, Darby and eight other guests are invited by a reclusive billionaire to participate in a retreat at a remote and dazzling location. When one of the other guests is found dead, Darby must put to use all of her combined skills to prove it was in fact murder, all against a tide of competing interests and before the killer takes another life.”
“When two friends go missing back-to-back, and in between their disappearances, a third friend is murdered, their mothers begin their own investigation. As the connections between the three cases are explored, the mothers navigate devastating twists and turns, including one revelation that shakes the community to its core.”
“Crime Junkie is a weekly true crime podcast dedicated to giving you a fix. Every Monday, Ashley Flowers will tell you about whatever crime she’s been obsessing over that week in a way that sounds like you’re sitting around talking crime with your best friends. The storytelling is straightforward and free of rabbit holes so the cases stay suspenseful and are easy to follow. If you can never get enough true crime… Congratulations, you’re a Crime Junkie!”
Check out this awesome article and resource that 6-grader Hailey wrote! I’m excited for the next generation of female filmmakers who can bring even more to the community.
