Creative Principles

Eric is the CEO of Scribe Media, the largest Professional Publisher. He is also the author of THE ALMANACK OF NAVAL RAVIKANT, THE ANTHOLOGY OF BALAJI, and THE BOOK OF ELON, a curated collection of Elon Musk’s most useful ideas drawn directly from his tweets, interviews, and public conversations. Together, his books have reached over 1 million readers and helped shape the thinking of entrepreneurs...

Kae Wagner is the founder of North Star Marketing and now leads The Bold Authors Network and The Bold Authors Book Agency. With a career spanning TV production, advertising, consulting, and coaching, she helps authors and experts amplify their visibility. Through The Bold Authors Network, Kae supports authors in promoting their fiction and nonfiction books. Through The Bold Authors Book Agency, sh...

Stefan van de Graaff is a writer, director, EP, and digital marketing strategist. His first micro-budget film, SIMMER, was sold to HBO Max after getting 1M views on Facebook. Now, his second film, ONE OF US, starring Kit Connor, follows the members of a family who begin dying one by one at a funeral. He is also the founder of The Jung School, a coalition of artists making divergent new media. In t...

Christina Alexandra Voros is an Emmy-nominated director, producer, and cinematographer. She joined YELLOWSTONE as a B-camera operator in its first season and quickly rose to her current role as a DP/director and executive producer. As a trusted member of Taylor Sheridan's inner circle and the sole female director in the YELLOWSTONE Universe – working on 1883, LAWMAN: BASS REEVES, and YELLOWSTONE –...

Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have cemented themselves as subversive filmmakers with broad audience appeal. The duo garnered positive attention after directing segments of 2012’s V/H/S, but it was the Searchlight horror film READY OR NOT that took them to the next level. The film became a cult classic and earned nearly $58 million at the global box office. In this interview, we...

Liz Sarnoff is a nine-time Emmy-nominated television writer and producer, recognized for her work on some of the most influential television dramas and comedies of the past two decades. Currently, Sarnoff is the showrunner, executive producer, and creator of the TV series SCARPETTA, based on Patricia Cornwell's bestselling book series. Liz got her start with David Milch on the CBS series BIG APPLE...

Miriam Schulman is a luxury-market messaging and pricing strategist for creative entrepreneurs and the author of ARTPRENEUR: THE STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO MAKING A SUSTAINABLE LIVING FROM YOUR CREATIVITY. In this interview, we talk about the publication of her book ARTPRENEUR, why social media platforms are not a reliable way to build a business, why you should focus on becoming a "micro-celebrity,” t...

Kate Hudson is a Golden Globe Award winner and Academy Award-nominated actress, singer/songwriter, producer, entrepreneur, and New York Times bestselling author. You know her from ALMOST FAMOUS, HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS, and Netflix’s new series, RUNNING POINT. Recently, she starred opposite Hugh Jackman in Craig Brewer’s critically-acclaimed musical drama, SONG SUNG BLUE, for which she has be...

Brandon Violette is a Screenwriter, podcaster, and speaker. He was most recently the Head Writer for ROBOGOBO and PUPSTRUCTION at Disney Television Animation and the Co-Creator/Head Writer of COCOMELON LANE, one of Netflix's top-performing preschool series. In addition to his screenwriting work, Brandon is the host of THE STORY SERIES PODCAST, where he interviews writers, showrunners, filmmakers,...

Susanna Fogel is a director, screenwriter, and novelist best known for her work in BOOKSMART and THE SPY WHO DUMPED ME. David Iserson is a filmmaker, writer, and producer best known for his work on MR. ROBOT, MAD MEN, and NEW GIRL. Iserson, alongside Fogel, served as co-creators, writers, and executive producers for the television series PONIES, a 70s-set spy thriller starring Emilia Clarke and Ha...

Alex Russell is a writer and director best known for his work on DAVE and THE BEAR. He also won an Emmy award for his work as a writer and Supervising Producer on Netflix/A24’s BEEF. His directorial debut, LURKER, is a psychological thriller that follows a retail employee who infiltrates the inner circle of an artist on the verge of stardom. As he gets closer to the budding music star, access and...

Jamie Heinrich is an independent filmmaker, director, and producer who gained recognition in the independent film circuit for his micro-budget feature film, I LIKE YOU. Recently, he has also become a prominent voice in the AI filmmaking space, teaching creators how to leverage AI tools for viral content and professional production. Join here: https://www.skool.com/filmmaking/about?ref=04b08a2d713a...

Mike Makowsky is an Emmy Award-winning American screenwriter and producer best known for writing and producing the 2019 HBO film BAD EDUCATION, starring Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney. In late 2025, Makowsky released the Netflix limited series DEATH BY LIGHTNING, which he created and wrote. The series chronicles the rise and assassination of U.S. President James A. Garfield, starring Michael Shan...

Caleb Walker is a 16-year-old high school student and filmmaker. Over a year ago, he wrote, directed, and produced his first short film, ATTRIBUTE OF THE STRONG, which went on to screen at the All-American High School Film Festival. He recently finished his first feature-length script, which is a horror movie oriented around Mexican culture and urban legends. He is also currently working on and co...

Chandler Baker is a New York Times bestselling novelist turned screenwriter, showrunner, and producer. Her first feature film, OH. WHAT. FUN. premiered on Amazon Prime Video on December 3. The film follows Claire Clauster (Michelle Pfeiffer), who is the glue that holds her chaotic, lovable family together every holiday season. This year, her husband and grown kids get distracted and forget their m...

Jason Fuchs is the writer, co-creator, executive producer, and co-showrunner of HBO Max's IT: WELCOME TO DERRY. The series serves as a prequel to the successful IT films and explores the origins of the infamous killer clown Pennywise. Set in 1962, it follows a family that arrives in Derry, Maine, just as children begin to disappear. Jason made his feature writing debut with the box office hit ICE...

Becca Topol is co-producer and story editor of MARVEL’S SPIDEY AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS, which follows the adventures of Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy, and Miles Morales as they team up with Super Heroes to defeat foes. A writer of both film and television series, Topol's writing credits include Disney Jr.'s Emmy and Imagen Award-winning ELENA OF AVALOR, and the live-action feature film THE RAMEN GIRL....

Zach Baylin and Kate Susman are a successful husband-and-wife creative duo and the co-founders of the production company Youngblood Pictures. Baylin is an Oscar-nominated screenwriter who achieved prominence for his debut feature, KING RICHARD - where Will Smith won the Oscar, and has since co-written major films including CREED III, THE ORDER, GRAN TURISMO. Susman, a producer and screenwriter, is...

Michael Shannon is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Emmy, and Tony Award-nominated actor with a distinguished career in film, television, and theater. This fall, he stars opposite Russell Crowe and Rami Malek in the historical drama NUREMBERG and plays President James Garfield in the Netflix series DEATH BY LIGHTNING. DEATH BY LIGHTNING dramatizes the stranger-than-fiction true story of 20th U.S. P...

Nora Garrett is a writer and actress. She is a 2024 honoree of Variety’s annual “10 Screenwriters to Watch” issue and was recently staffed on Ed Solomon’s new series THE SPOT for A24 and Hulu. Nora wrote the new film AFTER THE HUNT, directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri, and Michael Stuhlbarg. The film follows a college professor who finds herself at...

Derek Kolstad is a screenwriter and producer best known as the creator of the global blockbuster JOHN WICK franchise and the writer of its first three films. He is also the creator, writer, and director of Netflix’s upcoming animated series SPLINTER CELL: DEATHWATCH, based on Tom Clancy and Ubisoft’s acclaimed video game franchise. In addition to his film work, he was the writer and co-executive p...

John-Michael Powell is an Emmy Award–winning filmmaker and co-founder of Midnight Road Entertainment. His latest feature, VIOLENT ENDS, will be released theatrically by IFC Films. VIOLENT ENDS is a southern-gothic revenge thriller set deep in the Ozark Mountains. The film chronicles the life of Lucas Frost, an honest man and one-half of a pair of star-crossed lovers, whose fate is inextricably tie...

Bekah Brinkmeier is a USA Today bestselling author and ghostwriter behind more than 85 novels. When she’s not deep in a draft, she’s teaching at AutoCrit, speaking at author events, or coaching fellow writers—especially neurodivergent creatives—on how to wrangle their ideas and actually finish what they start. In this interview, we talk about her path to becoming a full-time writer, her ghostwriti...

David is the director, writer and producer of the IN SEARCH OF DARKNESS trilogy for CreatorVC, which debuted in 2019 as a critically acclaimed four-and-a-half-hour documentary about ’80s horror movies. The long-form follow-ups IN SEARCH OF DARKNESS: PART II (2020) and IN SEARCH OF DARKNESS: PART III (2022) were highly lauded by fans and critics alike and extended the journey through ’80s horror ci...

Marcus Kliewer is a writer and stop-motion animator. His debut novel WE USED TO LIVE HERE began life as a serialized short story on Reddit. Film rights were snapped up by Netflix, and it was acquired by Simon & Schuster in the US for publication even before it had been extended into a full-length novel. His new novel, THE CARETAKER, comes out next year (April 21, 2026) and follows a young woman wh...