Storybeat with Steve Cuden

Cleo Childs released her spoken word poetry album, “Moving With” in May 2024. And her book, also called “Moving With,” is soon to be released. 

Both projects are the culmination of years of writing about the journey of grief Cleo experienced after losing her mother to Alzheimer’s when she was 28 years old. 

Cleo’s mom was an English major in college and her grandmother, who is also one of her editors, was an English teacher for 30 ye...

Gabby Gruen spent most of his professional life as a writer-producer inside the country’s most prominent ad agencies. 

After twenty years of elevating the brands of some of our most prestigious advertisers, and with the help of a Screenwriting MFA from UCLA, Gabby started writing screenplays. His original scripts found homes inside a major motion picture studio and on assignment for several less prominent purveyors of the cinematic ...

The very busy actress, Laila Robins, was recently seen in Ryan Murphy’s anthology series, American Horror Stories. She also has a recurring role as Colonel Grace Mallory on the hugely popular Amazon series, The Boys.  Laila starred opposite Amanda Seyfried in the Apple+ limited series, The Crowded Room and opposite Joshua Jackson and Alec Baldwin in the Hulu limited series, Dr. Death.  She also recurred memorably as Katarina Rostov...

Making a return for his third appearance on StoryBeat is the great jazz and world flutist, Michael Mason.  Michael’s been a professional musician and composer for forty years, while simultaneously working in the fire service of the Downers Grove, Illinois Fire Department, recently retiring at the rank of Lieutenant. Michael is one of the first responders from the Chicago area who flew to New York City just days after the destructio...

Doctor Tom Stein recently published his first book, Gratitude Is Not Enough, The True Story of a Belgian Family Forever Changed by a Band of American WWII Soldiers. The book focuses on the Remember Museum ‘39-‘45 in Clermont, Belgium that was opened by Marcel and Mathilde Schmetz, better known as the M&Ms by soldiers in a U.S. Army Company of the First Infantry Division who were briefly quartered on Marcel’s family farm in Dece...

Robert Monroe worked for more than a decade as a New York casting director and talent executive. His credits include projects with the Walt Disney Company, the John Houseman Theater, the Annual MDA Telethon, and the United Paramount Network.  

Robert won a Clio Award for casting the Best Performance for Children for a Dole Pre-Cut Vegetables commercial.

Robert eventually moved to Portland, Maine to pursue a career as a photographer. ...

Screenwriter, producer, and podcaster Adam “Tex” Davis is best known for writing the screenplay of the cult rom-com classic Just Friends, which stars Ryan Reynolds, Amy Smart, and Anna Faris. He also wrote the screenplay for the drama Gardener of Eden, which stars Lukas Haas and was produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way.  

A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Tex has contributed to over 25 feature film scripts and serv...

Adam Rosenbaum recently published his beautifully written book, The Ghost Rules. 

I’ve read The Ghost Rules and can tell you this is a thoroughly charming, fun and funny story about 12-year-old Elwood McGee, who never asked to have “ghost-sight,” but winds up seeing more than his share of drooling, mostly hilarious apparitions. 

Wonderful, lovable ghosts are everywhere in Adam’s joyful debut novel. Adam’s had a varied career, includi...

Documentary film director Laura Gabbert has made critically acclaimed films that deploy humor and emotion to tell penetrating, character-driven stories about American culture and society. 

Among her documentaries, Food and Country, premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically in October 2024. Laura’s film, Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles, explores chef Yotam Ottolenghi’s collaboration with the Me...

L. A. Starks is the author of the award-winning Lynn Dayton thriller series that includes: 13 Days: The Pythagoras Conspiracy, the multi-award-nominated Strike Price, The Second Law, and the recently released Winner’s Curse. 

            I’ve read Winner’s Curse and can tell you it’s an exciting adventure into the high stakes world of the oil and gas industry, with corporate intrigue, sabotage, and ruthless, power-hungry characters ...

Hal Ackerman is making his second appearance on StoryBeat. Hal spent thirty years teaching screenwriting in UCLA’s legendary screenwriting program. Along with Richard Walter and Lew Hunter, Hal helped launch the careers of many dozens of writers whose work you’ve seen on screens large and small. 

Hal has sold film and television material to all the outlets. His screenplay Holmeyer’s Bridge, holds the unofficial Guinness record for h...

David Paul Kirkpatrick is the former Walt Disney Studios production chief and also the former president of Paramount Pictures. He’s worked on more than 200 motion pictures and their screenplays, including such global franchises as Indiana Jones and Star Trek. 

David has guided countless adaptations of books and plays to movies including Forrest Gump, The Elephant Man, Ordinary People, and Terms of Endearment. He also won an Emmy and...

Theresa Griffin Kennedy is a longtime Portland, Oregon writer, author and occasional poet.  She works as a proofreader, developmental editor and is chief editor of Oregon Greystone Press. 

Theresa writes both creative nonfiction, including crime profiles, as well as literary fiction, specifically in the genre of domestic noir. Theresa sometimes writes essays about saving old buildings, and the environment, which includes a long essa...

         Ana Benitez is one of the founders of Storyrocket.com, a leading internet site where thousands of writers from around the world showcase their works to producers and agents.  Ana’s mission is to help educate writers on how to get their stories seen by producers and agents. As such, she’s an impassioned author’s advocate for the entertainment community. She also works hard at leading Storyrocket’s brand expansion and partne...

R.J. Stewart spent more than 20 years as a writer and producer in Hollywood. He got his first break writing for the NBC romantic-detective drama, Remington Steele that starred Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist.  He’s best known for developing, writing and producing Xena: Warrior Princess (starring Lucy Lawless), once the highest-rated television show in syndication.  Among his other Hollywood credits are movies like The Rundow...

This is an encore of our episode with the great director, Rob Marshall. He has made numerous films that have been honored with a total of 30 Academy Award nominations — winning 9 in all, including Best Picture for “Chicago,” which alone won a total of 6 of those Oscars. Also, for “Chicago,” Rob received the Directors Guild Award, and nominations for Best Director for the Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA awards. Additionally, he won Be...

Martin Dugard is the New York Times bestselling author known for his nonfiction works and historical thrillers, among them Taking London, Taking Paris, Taking Berlin, the Killing series with Bill O’Reilly, Into Africa, and The Explorers. 

Recently, I read Martin’s excellent book, Taking London: Winston Churchill and the Fight to Save Civilization, and can tell you it’s a riveting, well-researched tale of truly fascinating people in ...

Mark Arnold is a comic book, animation and pop culture historian. He’s published 10 books and numerous articles in various publications. 

His books include: "The Harveyville Fun Times!", "If You're Cracked, You're Happy: The Story of Cracked Magazine, Book 1 and Book 2", "Mark Arnold Picks on The Beatles", "Frozen in Ice: The Story of Walt Disney Productions: 1966-1985", "Think ...

Michael Buzzelli calls himself a stand-up comedian and sit-down author. Michael’s performed comedy nationwide, most notably at three legendary clubs, the Ice House, the Comedy Store, and the Improv in Los Angeles. 

As a writer, Michael has been published in various websites, magazines, and newspapers. He’s the theater & arts critic for ‘Burgh Vivant, Pittsburgh’s online cultural talk magazine. He’s also a Moth Grand Slam storyte...