Interview Series

Shawn Davis has been the Executive Producer of the Film Independent Spirit Awards for 22 years. The Film Independent Spirit Awards is the premier awards event for the independent film and television community. Shawn is a two-time Emmy nominated Producer for his work on the Spirit Awards. Prior to his current role, he was the Director of Events for the Los Angeles Film Festival for 18 years. We tal...

Sam Read is the Executive Director of the Sustainable Entertainment Alliance. SEA is a consortium of the world’s leading studios, streamers, and industry leaders dedicated to advancing sustainability initiatives through advocacy, education, and innovation. Sam works collaboratively with SEA’s member companies to reduce environmental impacts within the global entertainment industry and inspire a su...

Amy Paskow is an award-winning visual effects artist with credits on some amazing projects including "The Lion King," "Suicide Squad," "The Legend of Tarzan," "The Jungle Book," "Maleficent," "Rescue Me" and "Boardwalk Empire" just to name a few. We talk to Amy about the evolution of visual effects, her career, her newest venture as Owner and CEO of New Wave Colour and more on this episode of the...

Based in South Florida, Jacobo Rispa and Damián Romay are award-winning producers and directors with close to 200 credits between the two of them. Both have produced titles all over the world with projects airing on Netflix, NBC, Amazon, HULU, BET, Tubi, Lifetime, Paramount, Great American Family & UpTV. Their company, Sunshine Films, is a South Florida-based film and television production com...

Joe Chianese is the Senior Vice President & Production Incentives Practice Leader at Entertainment Partners. In his role at EP, Joe provides production and legislative consulting, financial, tax, and administrative services for domestic and international production incentives. He has over 30 years of accounting, government affairs, production and tax experience including positions at Sony Pict...

Terry Olson is the Co-Founder, Creative Director and Chief Instigator of FusionFest in Central Florida. Previously, Terry was the Director of Arts & Cultural Affairs for the Orange County Government. His purpose is to help create dynamic events which celebrate, unite, enliven and empower people, with the primary conduit being the arts. We talk to Terry about his background, his time with the C...

Susan Fox is the Founder & CEO of Casting Workbook. For over two decades, Casting Workbook has been driving the industry forward with leading-edge enterprise casting software by bridging essential communications between production, casting, agents, and their talent. Casting Workbook’s global network consists of offices all over the world with production, casting, agents, managers, and talent i...

Aaron Gilman is the CEO of Steamroller Studios in Central Florida. Prior to his current role, Aaron worked in the animation and visual effects departments on such films as “The Matrix Revolutions,” “The Avengers,” “Iron Man 3,” “The Hobbit” franchise, and “Avatar” among others. But arguably Aaron’s biggest passion is in providing leadership and creating the culture at Steamroller Studios that has...

Born in Detroit but raised in Florida, actor Tom Nowicki has more than 160 film and television credits, including a major role in the new series “Bad Monkey” on Apple TV+. We talk to Tom about his numerous roles in Florida-based projects, stories from his most well-known projects, how he got his start in the industry and advice for young actors. Tom also runs Hip Dog Canine Hydrotherapy, a small o...

Film Florida Podcast Episode 127- Based in Miami, Marco Mall is the Executive Producer of the Florida Film House, the Founder of World Wide Urban Distribution, 1st Take Youth Film Program and Urban Film Festival and an Executive with the Urban Streaming Network. Marco has spent more than a decade mentoring young talent, developing an in-house team of filmmakers, and vertically integrating their bu...

Film Florida Podcast Episode 126- Traci Deen is the President and CEO of Conservation Florida. Conservation Florida is an organization working on your behalf to protect Florida’s land, water, wildlife, and way of life. Chad Crawford is the Creative Director of Crawford Entertainment. Established in 2010, Crawford Entertainment specializes in producing award-winning branded entertainment programs,...

Film Florida Podcast Episode 125- Established in 2013, White Elephant Group is a Miami-based film and media-tech collective of award-winning film and digital media artists innovating and challenging audiences with new film and VR stories to artistically address and elaborate upon the voices and experiences coming from minority and underserved communities in South Florida. We talk to Ronald Baez an...

Film Florida Podcast Episode 124- Melora Hardin is an Actress, Producer and Director best known for playing Jan Levinson on "The Office" and Trudy Monk on "Monk" in addition to her roles in "The Bold Type," "Transparent," "The Blacklist," "The Rocketeer," "17 Again," "Hannah Montana: The Movie," "Transparent" and "The Hot Chick" among many others. We talk about her recent film “Golden Vanity,” her...

Film Florida Podcast Episode 123- Mario Garcia & Michael Alfieri are filmmakers, and graduates of the University of South Florida, together they made “The Throwback,” a comedy about an underappreciated and stressed supermom whose holiday-season mental breakdown causes her to believe that she is a college-age party girl. Michael produced and Mario wrote and directed the movie, filmed throughout...

Film Florida Podcast Episode 122- Jennie Jarvis is an award-winning Director, Writer, and Actress as well as the writer of the award-winning textbook "Crafting the Character Arc: A Practical Guide to Character Creation and Development." Jennie is also a judge for multiple major screenwriting and film competitions each year and served as the Artistic Director for the Orpheus Theater Group from 2006...

Film Florida Podcast Episode 121- Kent Matsuoka is an award-winning creative line producer and location manager with over 25 years experience in the industry and more than 50 major credits to his name including "Hawaii 5-0," "Magnum P.I.," "Castle," "Dirty Sexy Money," "Medium," "Criminal Minds," "House" and more. Kent is a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Television Academy, he se...

Hilary Momberger-Powers started in front of the camera at five years old, landing her first audition as Sally Brown in the Peanuts "Charlie Brown" cartoons. After taking a break in her teenage years to focus on her education, she decided that the film and television industry was in her blood. For the last 30 years+ Hilary has had a very successful career as a Script Supervisor, enabling her to lea...

Susan Gallagher is an award-winning actress, producer and writer. She has appeared in numerous films and television series, even if you might not recognize her in one of her more popular roles. In 2014 she formed Her Little Red Productions and has written and/or produced several award-winning short films. Susan talks about the evolution of her career, her memorable roles and stories, advice for ac...

Jackson George is a Senior Vice President in Creative Advertising for Disney. He has worked in entertainment advertising for more than 20 years and has managed the creative campaigns for some of the most iconic entertainment properties of the past two decades, including “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “The Last Jedi,” and “The Rise of Skywalker,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Encanto,” “Frozen 2,”...

Franklin Ritch is a Jacksonville resident and independent filmmaker focusing on writing, directing and editing. Collaborating with Emmy Award-winning cinematographer, Britt McTammany, Franklin's early short, "Bedridden," kicked off a number of short film productions. In 2018, Franklin was presented the Rising Star Award by the mayor of Jacksonville. In 2022, he released his debut feature film, "Th...

Pete Zuccarini is a Cinematographer and Second Unit Director or Assistant Director. He’s most known for his underwater cinematography work on films like “Life of Pi” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” multiple “Pirates of the Caribbean” films, “Dolphin Tale” and “Dolphin Tale 2” to name just a few. Pete talks about his career, the extensive training, safety concerns and...

Katja Esson is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker based in Miami. She is known for her character-driven documentaries tackling race, class, and gender. She was awarded the Simons Public Humanities Fellowship at Kansas University and her films have screened at the Museum of Modern Art, American Museum of Natural History, and the Smithsonian. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment f...

Film Florida Podcast Episode 114- Jaimie Engle is a Florida-based novelist and screenwriter. After a decade as a critically acclaimed indie novelist, with 15 published books, she made the transition to screenwriting in 2021. And in a very short period of time, she sold her first feature length screenplay. Jaimie writes stories with a magic touch in books, streaming, film, and comics across multipl...

Film Florida Podcast Episode 113- Elsten Torres is a Cuban born, New York City raised singer-songwriter, having been credited as one of the prominent creators of the Latin Alternative Rock sound of the late 1990’s. His eclectic and unconventional sound has been heard for more than 3 decades now. Elsten is a multicultural bilingual artist who has performed on stages all over the world as well as be...

Film Florida Podcast Episode 112- David Tochterman is an Emmy-nominated executive and producer with a record of launching award-winning television and digital properties. His first job in Hollywood was the director's assistant on the pilot of "Seinfeld." He was the Executive VP of Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment and Senior VP of the Carsey Werner Company, where he developed hit shows includin...