Author: Deborah Lee Smith

You know when you meet someone and they tap into your creative mind and inspire you in your own goals and dreams? That is how I felt interviewing the incredible Emily Oliver. This entrepreneurial make up artist has created her own professional business from the ground up and is building her own creative empire day by day. I say empire because I know without a doubt that this woman is going to continue to grow and motivate others in the years to come. Prepare to be inspired and energized by the amazing Emily Oliver. How do you define success? At…

There are no small jobs. In life or in filmmaking. In fact, some of the smallest jobs are often the most crucial. That is one of the key things I learned while producing my first feature this past January in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Let me start out by saying that our cast and crew were beyond measure. Our cast was a devoted, lovely group of talented actors, who proved their professionalism and love of this business every day on set. Our crew…I am beyond words. We had 11 interns who volunteered three weeks of their life to help make this movie…

 Inspiration and strength comes from the most unlikely places. For Asha Dahya it came from a difficult divorce and the renewed sense of purpose and drive that came after that experience. A few years ago Asha founded Girl Talk HQ, an online media source dedicated to publishing content about challenging and empowering women around the world. Their motto is “We are the headquarters for inspiring, empowering, informative, entertaining and positive news stories for millennial women.” and I first met Asha at a Comic-Con panel about body image in Hollywood and personal empowerment. Since the first time I heard Asha speak…

­Branding is a huge buzzword in Hollywood. Haven’t you heard? It is a must for any actor or actress but it can be a difficult thing to grasp. Your brand must be succinct, relatable and easily digestible but you also have to stand out from everyone else with the same brand in order to be selected as the person for the job. I have learned recently that it is a blessing and a curse to be a cute, 20 something brunette that everyone wants to take home to meet their mom. How do I stand out from the crowd with…

Filmmakers are generally an inspiring bunch. They all, we all, have ideas beating around in our heads just waiting for a chance to escape. These ideas are inspiring and thought-provoking but they often stay lodged inside our brains because we don’t have the right location, or it isn’t the right time, or we don’t have the funds to bring our ideas to life. After attending the 6th annual No Budget Film Festival at Barnsdale Art Park on October 18th, I can officially say that these limitations exist only in our minds. I had the pleasure of watching 21 films that…

I was introduced to the world of Joss Whedon from a dear friend at UC Berkeley and through the vessel of “Buffy” and “Angel”. I still remember holing up in my dorm room one weekend as I inhaled two seasons of “Buffy,” only breaking to get food from the cafeteria downstairs. Of course, this was after the show was wrapped so I was actually reliving a show that had ended years before. This was probably my first forte into binge watching… thank you Joss Whedon.   “Dollhouse” was special because it was the first of his shows that I found…

In this final part of my discussion with Australian filmmakers: Lauren and Tish, we discuss being women in the film industry, dressing the part, and a brilliant blog they have created called “Almost Corporate” in which they tell stories about their triumphs and failures as women learning to straddle the film and corporate world. If you have missed the first two parts of this incredible interview, be sure to catch up on Part 1 and Part 2! Being a female in the entertainment industry is a hot button topic these days. How do you handle that? Lauren: Being just two…

Last month I started an interview series with the incredible women behind L&L Film Productions, a Brisbane based film company that prides itself “on [their] ability to capture the real, and beautiful, and tell its story.”  In Part 1 we discussed the founders’, Lauren and Tish, background and their current projects that are bringing a voice to untold stories. In Part 2, we discuss the business aspect of their company as well as their difficulties starting out. What was the most difficult part of starting a production company? Lauren: We had a really hard time finding a team that was…

When we are trapped in the bubble that is lala land (Hollywood), it is easy to forget about the incredible creatives around the world that are exploring similar topics and experiencing similar hardships as my friends and myself in LA. Luckily, I have had the wonderful opportunity to learn about the Australian entertainment industry and work with some brilliant women that are creating change “down-under.” When I was in Australia a few weeks ago, I sat down with the creators of L&L Film Productions, a Brisbane based film company that prides itself “on [their] ability to capture the real, and…

There is no mistaking the fact that women in Hollywood are under-represented. This is old news, and women have been making strides by supporting each other and creating awesome communities like this one: the awesome ladies at Ms In the Biz. Destri Martino, the founder of The Director List, decided to create a database of female directors so that the excuse, “there are no female directors” would be unfounded. Currently at 850 directors and climbing every day, The Director List is a beacon for the change that is occurring in Hollywood. I sat down with Destri to learn more about…

I have been surrounding myself with some seriously amazing women lately. Of course I am referring to my amazing co-writers and readers at Ms. In the Biz, but also the rock-star women that I have been interviewing for my column. If you haven’t read my last two posts I forgive you, and I hope that you will learn even more from my wrap up below! I realized while writing my last interview that I did not have enough blog space to capture all their advice and then break it down into chunks that I could easily digest and translate into…

Workshops have become a necessary part of the acting business. Whether or not you feel strongly about them (for or against), everyone admits that they are a permanent fixture in the life of an actor. I had the opportunity to sit down with the inspirational, Ajarae Coleman, the founder of Workshop Guru, and discuss how she saw a problem with the system and set out to find a solution. As an actress, producer, and entrepreneur, she has created an invaluable database compiling all the workshops information into one place and supporting actors as they strive for success. Q: Tell us…

For the past 10 months or so, I have been delving into the world of entrepreneurship and relating it back to the entertainment industry. I have talked about my journey to becoming a multi-hyphenate actor-entrepreneur to risk taking to budgeting like a big business, to how the improv rule “yes, and” extends into your business life. I feel like we have covered some amazing topics, and if there is anything else you ever want to explore, just let me know! From here, however, I have decided to start interviewing some amazing female entrepreneurs associated with the business so we can…

Last month I introduced you to the brilliance of The E-Myth Revisited and Michael E. Gerber. I broke down the basic principles of the book and the idea that in order to succeed in business we need to have a balance of skills and the correct mindset to be an entrepreneur. To have this balance, we need to be a combination of three different people: the technician, the manager, and the entrepreneur. I walked through different ways to discover which of the three people you are the most, and then offered constructive ways you can incorporate the other personalities into…