Sista Brunch

Hanelle Culpepper is an award-winning writer/director whose projects span film and episodic television. She was chosen to direct the pilot for Star Trek: Picard, which premiered earlier this year, becoming the first woman to helm a new Star Trek pilot series in its 53-year history. Listen as she talks with Fanshen and Anya about what makes a successful and thorough prep when directing TV, the appr...

Tatiana Lee is an award-winning actress, disability activist, and model who has appeared in campaigns for Target, Zappos, Apple and more. She's also the Hollywood Inclusion Advocate at RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to fight stigmas and advance opportunities so people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community. This episode, Fanshen and Anya chat...

News about actresses fighting the Hollywood power imbalance have dominated the headlines for years, but how are women behind the camera protected? In part 2 of our series with TIME'S UP, veteran stunt choreographer La Faye Baker and 1st AD/Director Shawn Pipkin join hosts Fanshen Cox and Anya Adams to talk about improving safety for women behind the camera, navigating (and dismantling) toxic workp...

Ann James is an intimacy choreographer, director, producer, and educator whose organization, Intimacy Coordinators of Color, promotes "decolonized intimacy practices" and inclusive hiring practices in the entertainment industry. In this episode, she reveals how to make set intimacy more inclusive, respectful, and encompassing of various gender identities, sexualities, racial identities, and disabi...

Sista Brunch has partnered up with the TIME’S UP Foundation for a special, 5-part series focusing on safety, equity, and power in Hollywood. We'll talk to Black women+ in the industry about the impact of these imbalances and what's being done to address them. In part 1 of the series, we speak to TIME'S UP Foundation COO Monifa Bandele about the worldwide impact of Black women's art, our voices, an...

We're back with a new season of truth-telling and celebrating with hosts Fanshen Cox and Anya Adams! First up with our hosts is an original "Sista Brunch-er," Shawn Pipkin! Shawn is a 1st AD and director whose list of credits include Grey's Anatomy and Greenleaf. She's also a Directors Guild of America committee member. Shawn talks about the movement that inspired our podcast, the importance of me...

Redelia Shaw is a producer and educator; she leads the Media Production program at Santa Monica College, where we taped many of our episodes for this season. Her projects include "Race Relay," a multi-media production that explores the state of race relations in America today. She co-produced the documentary "Cocaine Prison," which screened at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. An indus...

Felischa Marye is a TV writer. She’s also the creator and co-executive producer of “Bigger,” the hit comedy series on BET+ comedy series which recently got picked up for a second season. Felischa left a successful career in public relations and marketing to move to attend UCLA’s MFA in screenwriting program. While she was in school, she sold a pilot to HBO and was later staffed for two seasons on...

Felicia Pride creates content in all kinds of ways. She was a writer on Ava DuVernay’s Queen Sugar and is developing the erotic romance feature film Deeper with Universal Pictures and Will Packer Productions. She’s also the brains behind The Create Daily, a popular resource that curates jobs and opportunities for underrepresented creators. She says she created it in 2012 to thrive professionally a...

Our conversation with Elon Washington will give you LIFE.  We talked to Elon in late 2019, and this conversation feels just as relevant today. We talk about the importance of telling Black stories without the white gaze, why it's important to celebrate who we are in the media and how to pace yourself when you have to talk about repesentation all the time. This screenwriter and community organizer...

Bola Ogun is a first-generation Nigerian-American writer, director, and producer who made her directorial television debut last year on Ava Duvernay’s Queen Sugar. Since then she's directed episodes on other shows including LEGACIES, LUCIFER and SIREN. She’s participated in several training programs, like the AFI Directing Workshop for Women and the Warner Brothers Directors’ Workshop. One of her...

Jenise Whitehead is a digital utility and film loader. If you don’t know what that is, you’ll find out all about it on this episode. She learned her trade through Panavision’s two year program in 2016 and has worked on several shows since, including “Insecure” on HBO and the Netflix show “Gentefied”. She’s a talented musician and actually studied Spanish in college. She didn’t think about working...

If you’re early in your career, how can you keep working in an industry when your paychecks are small -- or aren’t coming regularly? How do you navigate on-set politics? Well, producer Kady Kamakaté says don’t be afraid to say ‘yes’ -- and meet any issues with logic and ‘reason’.  Kamakaté is an award-winning producer based in Los Angeles and has worked with brands such as Google, Amazon, and 20th...

Kelly Edwards is the SVP of Talent Development for WarnerMedia Entertainment—which includes HBO, Turner, and Warner Brothers. Before this, she was a key corporate diversity executive at Comcast/NBCUniversal for over five years. She's produced films and TV shows -- and helped develop a few iconic titles including "Girlfriends", "Malcolm in the Middle" and "Clueless". Her experience shows us what ca...

Malarie Howard is a Los Angeles-based screenwriter and musician who grew up as the only Black girl in various WASPY communities, listening to Christian screamo rock, singing opera, and writing fan-fiction. She graduated from Silicon Valley’s Santa Clara University, where she majored in “not engineering like she should have.”  These days, she's working on the CW show "In The Dark". She's also the c...

Want to know how to break into Hollywood? Anya Adams the NAACP Image award-winning director and Fanshen Cox, the co-author of the Hollywood Inclusion rider are here to help you. Through honest and engaging conversations, they're addressing myths about breaking into the industry while showcasing black women+ who are making a difference in an industry that continues to struggle with inclusion. Disco...