Author: Samara Bay

“Samara, you have to change the way you email Hollywood people.” It hit me weirdly hard. Maybe because I’m a writer, and an English major, and I pride myself (yup, pride was definitely involved) in being a good communicator. But here was my good friend, who worked at one of the top talent agencies in Hollywood, calling me for a full-blown email intervention. I had just cc’d her on a note to an agent she was graciously hooking me up with for a meeting. And though I had written what I thought was a perfectly charming, delectably compelling introduction note,…

Talking in silly accents is super fun until you actually have to pass as someone from a foreign land in an audition room in front of people who may actually know good from bad. Then daunting is more the name of the game, along with choice expletives and rising terror. Which are all kinda fun-killers and most certainly death to good acting. It was just supposed to be a silly accent! When did it become HELL ON EARTH? When I moved to New York City in the mid-aughts, MFA papers in hand and acting on the brain, I was thrust…

There’s a lot of wisdom out there about how to get what you want. My morning inbox alone stands as a testament to the chorus of different voices in the mix: the daily emails from The Universe reminding me – in increasingly quirky ways – that thoughts become things jut up against the Danielle LaPorte bon mots encouraging me to head toward decisions that will evoke the feelings I desire to feel. You probably have a few favorite go-to’s for a boost of persuasion therapy, too (share in the comments below and help a sista out). After all, those of…

For all of you busy Mizzes in the Biz, if you’ve ever fallen out of love with clothes that used to be your favorites, and wondered where to donate the goods, you’ve probably thought about Goodwill. Score for brand recognition, but there are other options: the Downtown Women’s Center in LA or Dress for Success won’t resell your items – they’ll just give them to women in need. Or you could make an awesome day of it, sharing clothes and giggles and drinks and lovefest-y compliments with lady friends, and still accumulate a mass of donation-worthy material for your local…

I recently came across a Maya Angelou quote: “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” I spent the weekend in a hot room with a bunch of hot women stepping out on their own heroine’s journey in pursuit of that version of success. Is it possible to live with a sense of alignment between your values and your daily work, save the world, and make good money too? Can you like what you do and like HOW you do it? Many of us are trying to find that. If nothing else, trying to…

You know how it’s hard to be an actor – because you’ve got all these skills and no one’s hiring? Well, it’s hard to be a scientist too – because they’ve got all these skills and no one’s able to understand what the heck is coming out of their mouths. Sure sure, there’s Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye the Science Guy and how many public science communicators do we really need, you might ask – to say nothing of, um, what does this have to do with being an actor?? The thing is, the disconnect between science and the…

I went to a Silicon Beach Fest panel last week about YouTube celebrity. How to grow your following, how to keep it, how to make the analytics of that video platform your bitch. Five panelists were celebrities by design – they took that analytics stuff seriously and made content they knew would hit big based on the trends among their target demographic. The sixth guy had just made a cool piece of art that struck a chord so it garnered millions of views. He was the one who didn’t know what to do next. And I was struck by this…

I have a friend I’ll call Thalia who’s fierce and fun, charming, respectful, gorgeous, a European citizen with perfect English and a doctorate from the best university in England. She’s had 46 serious job interviews this year and was offered only one job, for a company that offered her an unpaid internship. She’s at her wit’s end. I have another friend who’s a guy, with a background in engineering and an impressive work history at one of the nation’s largest multinational corporations who left it all to become a now quite-successful performer. We were out drinking, the three of us.…

“She’s so lucky.” We’ve all thought it.  A dash of vinegar, before we quickly attempt to turn it sweet.  But I’m not here to talk about the abundance principle – that there’s enough to go around and a win for one member of our field is a win for all.  I mean, I’m a big proponent of that philosophy ‘cuz life is totally better if we believe it.  But I’m not talking about it.  I’m talking about: What if we were the lucky ones that evoked the response above? Maybe you think of yourself as lucky already – god knows,…

I’m wondering about pregnancy.  There are, of course, the obvious questions like: how will it feel to be making a person inside me, who will this so-called person be, how will he or she change me, will giving birth be the scariest thing ever in the history of ever? But there’s also this question about timing.  And how we lean into or out of our evolving careers as they happen to manifest themselves in that precious early-30s era.  God knows, a lot has been said about Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In.  From the how-dare-she’s regarding the position from which Ms. Sandberg…

6 Tips from an Evening with the Savvy Screenwriters Themselves Both women got major Oscar attention on their first screenplays, Juno and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, respectively.  Both are hilarious in person, as it turns out.  And both, although in possession of quite different voices as writers, collectively make a pretty unstoppable comedy duo. Ms. Cody and Ms. Vardalos spoke together at a Writing Pad function this week at WeWork Hollywood, a shared workspace I’m a member of, with a big open loft venue, endless coffee, and an awesome entrepreneurial vibe.  Sitting at WeWork it’s easy to feel like…

It’s a funny thing.  We all know that there are far too few female CEOs and US presidents, that boards of directors and university faculties rarely reach parity, and that the people who cast our movies in Hollywood are primarily women but that the people who helm them and edit them into the stories we remember are primarily men. We also know that those are real people, though, and with real people it’s complicated.  There’s all kinds of societally entrenched crap that started when we were kids or when our employers were kids. But what about fake people?  The fictional…

Because I get to host a fun, local travel show with IN Hollywood TV, I was in the lucky position of getting to sit on Santa’s lap for a legitimate purpose this past week.  It turns out that in the two and a half decades or so since I was last in that venerated spot, a few things have changed: for one, I knew to ask for world peace because I’m an adult now and I’ve got my priorities in order.  (Last time it was… what, mom?  A new Barbie whose hair I could chop off?  A sibling?)  For another,…

One cold Rhode Island morning the stern but huge-hearted gentleman who ran my MFA acting program sat us all down in the main studio for a “come to Jesus” about self-discipline.  Insidious lateness.  Skipping class. Generally sleazing by rather than doing the real homework of acting.  Examine your conscience, he said.  And just as I was drowning in a pool of guilt, as I imagined we all were, he wrapped with a warning: “those of you who think I’m talking to you – I’m not.  If your inner voice is going haywire right now, you’re not the problem.” And so…