Creative Principles

Fisher Stevens grew up with an acting class in his living room. The teacher invited him to attend, so by age 15, he was already auditioning and working in the business. These days, Fisher is known for Short Circuit, Lost, Damages, Hail Caesar!, The Night Of, Succession and The Blacklist. But, the actor is also making a name for himself behind the camera, winning an Oscar for the documentary The Co...

For the bulk of Cheryl Guerriero’s life, she was involved heavily with sports. She was a Nation Lacrosse Champion, then worked for a sports agent, and a sports apparel company. Despite this success, Guerriero felt unfulfilled and wanted to move back to her true passion: writing. Guerriero got the idea for Palmer in 2007. The description reads, “An ex-convict strikes up a friendship with a boy from...

Before he entered filmmaking Cinematographer Sam Levy would not have described himself as a technical person. He didn’t have the J.J. Abrams Super 8 childhood that many other creatives grew up with. Instead, Levy pitched this missing piece as an asset, not a liability. Levy’s ability to leap without worry of what was underneath him has lead to an impressive career, where he’s shot for directors li...

As a kid, Cooper Raiff thought he was merely a fan of movies, but when he wrote his first story, he realized he had an ear for dialogue. These days, he’s known for being the star, screenwriter, and director of the film Sh*thouse, loosely based on his time in college. Cooper stars as Alex Maimquist, a homesick college freshman who goes to a party at Sh*thouse, where he spends the evening with a sop...

From an early age, April Mullen was obsessed with the idea of storytelling. Originally an actress (88, A History of Violence), Mullen soon realized her state of mind was better in the Director’s Chair. For her latest film, Wander, she’s crafting a story about a man hired to probe about a suspicious death in the small town of Wander. This conspiracy film stars Aaron Eckhart and Tommy Lee Jones. In...

As a script-reader, Scott Kroopf read thousands of scripts before he started to climb the ladder in Hollywood, ironically thanks to the original movie, ‘Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.’ Kroopf suggested the script in an interview, not knowing the company he was interviewing with had just optioned the screenplay. Thanks to this lucky break, Kroopf took his knowledge of producing a play into the w...

Xan Parker is a seasoned documentary producer, obsessed with character. Across her career, she’s worked on projects like The Hill, Racing Dreams, Big Men, Tigerland, and most recently, Rebuilding Paradise. The latest story, directed by Ron Howard, focuses on the community of Paradise, California, a town in the Sierra Nevada foothills and their attempt to rebuild after the wildfires of 2018. In thi...

I’m Your Woman is a 1970s-set crime drama that stars The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Rachel Brosnahan. The story follows a woman when she’s forced to go on the run with her baby when her husband betrays his partners. The film is directed by Julia Hart, and co-written by Hart and her husband Jordan Horowitz. The duo have also created films like Fast Color, Miss Stevens, and Stargirl, among others. In t...

A self-described theater brat, Tara Miele realized there was a storyteller behind her favorite films when a friend invited her to come watch a series of student films. “I grew up a blue-collar kid in Long Island and never assumed that was a job you could do.” At the event, however, she said “it was like somebody pulled back the curtain on Oz. I just knew I was going to be a filmmaker.” The followi...

When Sarah Goldfinger saw her first play produced, she knew she wanted to become a screenwriter. She decided to move to Los Angeles (because it’s better to be poor in warm weather), where she worked as a nanny until earning her first job on a new show called CSI. Goldfinger wanted to write character-driven stories, which led her to a spec script and then on other shows like Brothers & Sisters, Haw...

As a teenager, Sam Boyd would make short films and write screenplays with friends. This led him to eventually making the short “In a Relationship” at NYU with Nicholas Braun (Succession) and Dakota Johnson (50 Shades of Grey). “That was where I learned to cut stuff together, how to Direct, and I was able to make it into a feature a couple years later with Emma Roberts (We’re the Millers) and Micha...

Natalie Krinsky always knew she wanted to become a writer. In college, she started writing a column at the Yale Daily News. Since it was 2002 at the time, these sex-column articles were published online, sort of like a blog. Readers enjoyed the articles so much they started to forward the column to friends at other colleges. “I sort of began to have this real following based on my silly student se...

As a kid, Richard Tanne was rewarded for good behavior with a movie on the weekend. He quickly developed a love for Tim Burton films, then short stories, then plays, but the entire time, he knew he wanted to one day become a filmmaker. In this interview, Tanne discusses his first two features, Southside With You, about when the Obamas met in 1989 Chicago, and his latest film, Chemical Hearts, a hi...

As a kid, Mattson Tomlin felt like he was the last one of his friends to give up on the idea of play. While they were chasing girls or getting into sports, he still wanted to run around in the woods in a Batman costume. Luckily, he discovered that if he made movies, he could inspire his friends to stick around, because they had a new reason to play. He then made a career out of this. As of 2020, t...

Steve Blackman was working as an attorney when he decided to use his experience and turn the environment into a spec script. When he sold the script, he quit his job that day to pursue his dream of becoming a professional screenwriter. Over the past two decades, Blackman has written for shows like Wild Card, Bones, Las Vegas, Private Practice, Fargo, Legion, and Altered Carbon. He’s also the creat...

Alex Winter got started on Broadway at a very early age, where he landed roles in productions of The King and I and Peter Pan, which led him to NYU Film School and eventually to Hollywood. These days, Winter is best known for his role in the Bill & Ted franchise, where the most recent film Bill & Ted Face the Music comes out this year. However, when Winter is not playing a role, he’s often behind...

Early in his career, Gavin Rothery’s goal was to have two jobs: one that pays your bills and you that you enjoy. Then, simply transition the one you enjoy into the one that pays your bills. Starting in the Art Department, Rothery worked on games like Grand Theft Auto III, Battalion Wars, and movies like Moon, which starred Sam Rockwell. All of this, of course, led to Rothery writing and directing...

Last time we spoke with Eric Newman (Ep 162), we discussed his work on ‘Dawn of the Dead,’ ‘Children of Men,’ ‘In Time,’ ‘RoboCop,’ and ‘Hemlock Grove.’ This time, we break down his fascination with the world of ‘Narcos.’ The new series stars Diego Luna and Scoot McNairy. It focuses on “The rise of the Guadalajara Cartel as an American DEA agent learns the danger of targeting narcos in Mexico.” In...

Lenny Abrahamson describes his path to filmmaking as a “wandering” journey. Obsessed with books and storytelling, a few friends inspired him to create a “filmmaking society” at Trinity College near Dublin, Ireland. Abrahamson is known for the Brie Larson film ‘Room,’ the Michael Fassbender film ‘Frank,’ and now, the BBC romance series ‘Normal People,’ which is set in Ireland. The new series follow...

Megan Ganz was introduced to comedy by her father, who would show her Marx Brothers movies and let her stay up late to watch David Letterman. Then, as she started to write as a teen, she fell in love with The Onion and the idea of satire. In college then did an internship with Mad Magazine, but then landed a job at The Onion soon after. Today, Ganz’s credits include ‘Community,’ ‘Modern Family,’ ‘...

Kenya Barris jokes he only started writing screenplays because he was a “kid with asthma.” But in reality, storytelling found Barris because of his love for reading. One of Barris’ first jobs was writing for The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show, followed by writing gigs on Soul Food, Girlfriends, Are We There Yet?, and America’s Next Top Model. But, he’s most known for creating Black-ish, Grown-ish, Mixed...

Veena Sud, screenwriter behind Seven Seconds, The Killing, and Cold Case returns to discuss her latest venture, Quibi’s short-form series, The Stranger. Quibi is a short-form mobile platform from founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, the producer of movies like Shrek, The Prince of Egypt, and The Road to El Dorado. In a previous interview, we spoke with Sud about “slow burn storytelling,” which applied to t...

Ramy Youssef has always been a creative person. The New Jersey native didn’t see showbusiness as an achievable goal, but an underlying passion directed him to create more and more, eventually encouraging him to edit, to act, and to write. Eventually, Ramy moved to Los Angeles, where he landed roles on shows like See Dad Run and Mr. Robot, along with a small role in the James Franco-Bryan Cranston...

Mark Bomback’s screenwriting education came from reading hundreds of screenplays. While working in the mailroom, he volunteered to read and provide coverage on submitted scripts, which taught him how to write, but also how not to write. These days, he’s known for Live Free or Die Hard, Unstoppable, Total Recall, The Wolverine, The Art of Racing in the Rain, the recent Planet of the Apes prequels,...

Michael Tucker always wanted to be a filmmaker. After attending Film School, he joined some friends for what became Finite Films, a small production company focused on short films. “We spent a year making short films and web series,” he said, “then realized that short films and web series don’t pay the bills.” Tucker spent a few years doing editing work and helping with documentary films and small...