HOW DID YOU GET HERE

My guest this week is someone I admire and I’m lucky I get to call her my friend. She has so much wisdom to offer, so get a notepad and write down all the good takeaways she’s about to offer. She got her start in the voiceover and theater worlds of Chicago, and explains why Chicago theater is hands down the best ever. Went to NY for theater, then to LA and landed some “serious” roles, one of them was in a Cohen Brother’s film, anot...

My guest this week is originally from down under. She won the lottery, a different kind of lottery, and came to the U. S. and became a makeup artist, but it didn’t happen fast and it wasn’t easy. But she has amazing tips on who to follow in the industry, what’s real on Instagram, and how to approach someone to get a job in a make up trailer on set. She also offers up what she does when she takes a breather. I hope you enjoy my chat...

My guest this week was a music fanatic from his earliest years, rock n roll in particular, so much so that you can say that Motley Crue got him suspended from school. He met a wildly famous songwriter at a luncheon that changed his trajectory forever, and landed a job in publicity for a major label. Four days into that job he knew that was it! Ken Phillips is a consummate professional, protective of his clients and kind. Listen her...

I don’t know if I’ve ever met anyone more active on their own creative behalf than my guest this week, Katie Malia. She is perhaps the most multi-hyphenated person I currently know in showbiz. Now, I could let that send me into a shame spiral about my own level of creative production, OR I could let it blow me away in a good way and be inspired to do more. I choose the latter. Thank you Katie for sharing your story and what moves y...

My guest today is Emmy Award winning costume designer, Marie Schley. Marie found her love through her first showbiz gig, which happened to be returning clothes to stores from a production that had wrapped. She explains how she connects her (seemingly unrelated) college degree relates to her design job, and she shares advice on how to get started in the costume biz. I asked Marie who she works most with on set, and she walks me thro...

My new man crush, actor @rayabruzzo Ray Abruzzo, has a career that spans many decades, beginning with theater as a young man in high school in New York City. 

He fearlessly opened the first scene in his first play in school , and it felt right to him, something clicked. 

Filled with inspiration, he and his friends created theater collectives and...

Chris Haston got his first camera when he was 9, that was 48 years ago. He used his $5 allowance to purchase one roll of film per week to shoot it and develop it. He read articles in the art mags to learn how to light his photography. His early love of the art form brought him to taking photos of speed racing before landing his current job on the NBC Universal lot here in Los Angeles. Haston has worked on and captured some of TVs m...

Show biz includes the music biz, and my next guest is from Mississippi, that’s where the accent is from. She started playing out at chapel when she was 15 and got started in the Memphis music scene not long after that, which led her to a development deal with Geffen when she was 19. The music industry shifted in major ways and she’s managed to keep up and pivot, all while deprogramming herself from fundamentalist christianity, well...

My guest this week on HOW DID YOU GET HERE podcast is Silas Howard. Silas went from San Francisco punk rocker, who didn’t know how to play his instrument when he first started and ended up touring the world with his band; to cafe entrepreneur; to screenwriting a feature he and his buddy wrote, starred in and directed and that landed them at Sundance in 2002. He became a screenwriting teacher and was later the recipient of a Guggenh...

Fortune Feimster’s accent used to be thicker when she was younger and reporting the school news. A “right place right time” well-written speech at college got her a job offer in LA, so she moved to the west coast. Her speech writing skills again landed her a second job in LA. Needing friends she applied to funny school, and later auditioned for SNL. Chelsea Handler often elevates smart and funny people who are often overlooked, and...

My first guest is wanabee hospitality king, turned screenwriter, turned talent manager, David Laffey. It's only fitting for my inaugural episode to have my very own manager on the pod to talk about how he found his career, what it takes to be good at it, and how he selects the artists that he represents. 

He's inspired by connecting his artists with others in showbiz and helping make deals happen, he's unafraid of picking up the ph...