The Vertical Buzz

🎬 What happens when one risky vertical drama becomes an entire franchise? On this episode of The Vertical Buzz, host Buzz Leer sits down with actor Sky Kawai and writer, actor, and director Jen “JP” Parkhill, behind ReelShort’s “boy” universe: Poolboy, Waterboy, Stable Boy, and Waterboy: Second Down. They reveal how a queer love story that felt like a risk became an award-winning hit, what it tak...

What happens when Hollywood tells you hard work isn't enough, but a new entertainment revolution gives you a second chance? 🎬📱 Richard Sharrah has lived through two major shifts in entertainment. From helping create viral YouTube hits Kid History and Kid Snippets to becoming one of vertical drama's recognizable faces, Richard knows what it takes to build an audience, create opportunities, and sp...

What happens when a Hollywood screenwriter decides the future of entertainment is vertical, but refuses to let an algorithm tell him what stories to make? 📱🎬 This week on The Vertical Buzz, Buzz Leer sits down with Sal Paskowitz, screenwriter, director, producer, and co-founder of Super Punchy Studios. Sal co-created and co-wrote The Age of Adaline, starring Blake Lively and Harrison Ford, and n...

What does it take to become one of the recognizable faces of vertical entertainment in just a few years? 📱🎬 This week on The Vertical Buzz, Buzz sits down with actress Nicole Mattox, whose journey from a painfully shy kid in Texas, to UT Austin, cavern tour guide, and aspiring traditional actress eventually led her into one of the fastest-growing forms of entertainment in the world. Nicole had n...

What happens when you build a sport specifically for the way people watch entertainment today? 📱🏆 This week on The Vertical Buzz, Buzz sits down with Nate Thomas, President and co-founder of World 1 Championship, to explore the creation of MicroSports and why the future of sports may be built vertically from the ground up. Nate is a veteran television producer who has created and produced more t...

What happens when political campaigns move from the television screen to the phone? 📱🎥 This week on The Vertical Buzz, Buzz sits down with Kevin Singer, political media strategist and founder of Singer Strategic, to explore how vertical video is changing the way candidates communicate with voters. Kevin brings a unique perspective to the conversation. He has spent more than a decade working in p...

What happens when you stop guessing about the future of entertainment and start looking at the data? 📊📱 This week on The Vertical Buzz, we sit down with Zak Shaikh, U.S. General Manager of Ampere Analysis, one of the entertainment industry's leading data, research, and analytics firms. Zak takes us inside the numbers behind the explosive growth of vertical entertainment and microdramas, revealin...

What if the future of vertical entertainment looks a lot like the past of cable television? 📱📺 Larry Namer has seen this movie before. As the co-founder of E! Entertainment Television, Larry helped build one of the world's most recognizable entertainment networks from the ground up. But his story goes far beyond E!. From starting out underground splicing cable in New York, to moving to Los Angel...

Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Kasey Esser, one of the most recognizable actors and producers in the vertical entertainment space. Kasey's journey to Hollywood started in an unexpected place. After studying exercise science and building a career in fitness, he made the leap to Los Angeles and eventually discovere...

Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with twin brothers Gary & Edmund Entin, the writer-director-producer team behind 90 Degrees Films.   The Entin brothers have built careers spanning feature films, television, and the rapidly evolving world of vertical storytelling. As co-founders of 90 Degrees Films, they have create...

Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with British actor, producer, entrepreneur, and technology innovator Richard Cambridge. Richard has spent more than 25 years working across acting, film, television, and entertainment technology, with credits including Gran Turismo, Hollyoaks, The IT Crowd, and Disney's Suspect: The Shoo...

🎙️ This Week on The Vertical Buzz Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with one of the breakout stars of vertical entertainment, Jackson Tiller. Jackson's journey to Hollywood was anything but conventional. Growing up in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina, he initially pursued nursing before making the leap into a...

🎙️ Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer welcomes Emmy-nominated director, writer, and producer Scott Brown, founder and CEO of Second Rodeo Productions. With more than 1 billion organic views across projects featuring MrBeast, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Larry King, and major global brands, Scott brings a unique perspective on where d...

Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. Season 3 begins with one of the brightest stars in vertical entertainment, Brooke Moltrum. Host Buzz Leer sits down with the award-winning actress to talk about her journey from the small town of Camas, Washington, to becoming one of the most recognizable faces in vertical storytelling. Brooke shares how competing at the J...

Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with acclaimed director Chris Nguyen Campbell, one of the filmmakers helping redefine what premium vertical storytelling can be. Chris shares his journey from theater and film school to directing for Brat TV before becoming one of the industry's most respected voices in vertical entertai...

Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, we're on location at the legendary Sunset Las Palmas Studios in Hollywood, California, for our first ever episode filmed outside Glendale Podcast Studio. Host Buzz Leer sits down with Knockout Shorts co-founders Chris Crema and Matthew Ko to explore how they're helping shape the next generation of premium vertic...

Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Chase Mattson, actor, model, father of four, and one of the most recognizable leading men in vertical entertainment. Chase shares how he was discovered as a teenager while working at Hollister, how modeling took him around the world, and how early on-camera moments included Lady Gag...

Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Blair Bai, Head of Executive Producers for North America at DramaWave and one of the leading creative voices helping define the next stage of vertical storytelling. Blair talks about her journey from Beijing Film Academy and USC School of Cinematic Arts to early vertical hits and he...

Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Troy Brookins, actor, producer, former athlete, and one of the driving forces behind MicroHouse Films. Troy shares the origin story of MicroHouse Films, the new vertical platform he is building with Taye Diggs, Autumn Federici, and Shelby Stone, and why their mission is to create a...

Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Darren Darnborough, an actor, entrepreneur, and tech innovator helping shape the future of casting, auditions, and vertical storytelling. Darren shares how a Dr. Pepper commercial at 16 opened the door to acting, why he pivoted from acting school into film and media, and how his ent...

Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Nick Ritacco, a Chicago-born actor, athlete, baseball fan, and one of the standout leading men in the vertical drama space. Nick shares how a high school injury led him from baseball into theater, how New York and Shakespeare shaped his foundation as an actor, and how early TV roles...

Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Emmy Award-winning casting director Paul Ruddy, one of the most influential casting voices in the vertical space today. Paul is currently casting at DramaBox and has worked across more than 250 film, television, digital, and vertical projects for platforms including Netflix, Disney,...

Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Eric Guilmette, one of the most recognizable leading men in the vertical drama world, to talk about the unusual path that brought him from romance novel covers to nearly 50 vertical films, producing, poetry, and a rapidly growing fan base. Before vertical storytelling exploded, read...

Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Royce Lundquist, one of the most exciting new leading men in the vertical space, to talk about his fast rise as an actor, his creative roots, and the new ventures he is building beyond the screen. Royce shares his journey from being a homeschooled theater kid in a Navy family, to st...

Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where the vertical entertainment world finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with D'Arcy Smith from the University of Cincinnati to talk about a major shift for the vertical space: vertical storytelling is entering academia. D'Arcy is teaching vertical performance at the university level, which means this format is no longer just something actors stumbl...