As those of you pursuing an acting career can attest, one of the main problems in starting out is getting attention for your work. And as casting professionals can attest, finding genuinely talented new talent is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Today, we’re spotlighting a website/web service which aims to solve both of those problems. Starcast CEO Gary Beer, founding CEO of the Sundance Film Festival, answered our questions.

What was the inspiration for starting the site? Starcast Auditions is a collaboration by Chairman Jules Haimovitz (former president of MGM Networks and Viacom Networks), Co-CEO David Hope (former COO of Polygram TV), and me. It was created to fill several voids in the industry. It’s difficult for actors to have their acting objectively assessed, and there was no affordable platform to get feedback from a professional. But more importantly, there was no venue for actors to be guaranteed their auditions would be seen.

There are many listing services out there or sites where you can submit an audition, but those services are just a numbers game. When there are thousands of people submitting for the same part, most audition tapes aren’t even going to be reviewed. Likewise, there was no easy way for those outside Hollywood (and often, even those inside Hollywood) to get seen by industry professionals. There are, of course, platforms like YouTube—but the chances are slim that the right people will come across your video. And YouTube has been much less successful at launching actors than singers. So StarCast guarantees actors visibility. We get them seen by the right people, no matter where they live. If they’ve got talent, they’ll get the exposure they need. It’s very simple, but it’s unprecedented.

When did it launch?  Very recently. We held our first auditions in late December of 2011.

How many videos currently go up per cycle in each demographic?  Casting directors are allowed to chose four videos per demographic each cycle (up to 96 videos every two weeks), but they typically choose far less. There are many people who are on the border of best performance quality, but still need a little work before they can put their best foot forward to the industry. That’s why we give feedback.

How can an actor outside of Los Angeles benefit from the site?  One of the best things about StarCast is that it’s all online, so you can audition from anywhere. Our casting directors are in Los Angeles and New York, but we’ve selected actors from as far away as the UK, Canada, and Korea. They get exposure to key people in Hollywood without having to go anywhere.

What is the #1 rookie mistake you’ve noticed or your experts have pointed out? That’s a great question. We get a lot of videos from actors who likely have experience in school or professional plays who need to take it down a notch when doing an audition meant for film and TV casting directors. Everything is very big for the stage. Acting styles have to be adjusted.

What is the #1 thing actors can do to give themselves an advantage?  Memorize their lines, and bring their own personality to the performance.

Who are the industry members currently using the site? Our official reviewers are Yesi Ramirez, Gretchen Rennell Court and Amy Taksen Somers. Their credits are just phenomenal, including THE DESCENDENTS, the new 21 JUMP STREET, THE HORSE WHISPERER, and “The Office.” As far as the industry members who are registered with us to find talent, we respect their privacy and don’t disclose that information. But we have a great selection of managers, producers, casting directors, and talent agents who have used our site to find talent already, including a talent manager who reps a series regular on the show “New Girl,” and talent managers from Evolution Management, which reps Charlie Sheen.

What are some of the results that actors have had by being featured on your site?  Many have been contacted by producers, managers and talent agents for roles or representation. Three of StarCast’s best performers have signed with reps, two with managers and the other by an agent.

How do you see the site (or brand) growing in the future? Is there a life beyond this website that you foresee?  We have all kinds of great plans for the future. There will be a lot of services and functionalities that we’re adding in the next 6 months. We’ll be excited to be able to talk about it when the time comes.

Is there anything I haven’t asked that you feel is key in talking about this site?  One of the things that we hate seeing in this space is how many scammers there are out there. We encounter a lot of actors who have been burned before. And less harmful but not quite harmless, there are lots of sites and services out there that don’t really do for actors what they claim—or don’t do it well. We have a robust Twitter and Facebook following, and our users are always messaging us on those platforms how much they love our service, and how it has renewed hope for them. They’ve all butted against so many dead ends and false starts. We’re thrilled to be able to come into this space with the incredible team of industry vets that we have, throw our collective weight behind this, and deliver for these people. The value proposition to actors is huge, and it’s unseen in this space.

For more info or to get information on the next round of auditions, visit Starcast Auditions.

Photo of founders by Thomas Wasper/LABJ.

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One of the things regular readers of Your Industry Insider hear a lot is: “Make it real!” This means if you want to be a music manager, find an up-and-coming band and represent them for free in order to get your feet wet and find out if you really like managing a band. If you want to be a screenwriter – duh! – write a script. (Note: Some people find the butt-in chair requirements of actual screenwriting – as opposed to talking about being a screenwriter – a deal breaker.) And if you want to direct or produce or act, create something great and put in on the web!

Today we’re highlighting the International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV), an organization that supports web content creators, on the eve of a landmark occasion in the history of new media content creation. The first annual Digital Content NewFronts (as opposed to the Upfronts, the TV networks’ annual programming unveiling) are taking place in New York City from April 19th through May 2nd. This will include 15 events by leading distributors, producers, creators and thought leaders in online video content, including IAWTV.

IAWTV was founded in 2009 to promote artistic and technological achievement in original entertainment content distributed on the internet. Its membership is comprised of actors, composers, developers, directors, editors, producers, and others in web television, web video, and digital entertainment. According to Susyn Duris, the PR/Marketing Director, IAWTV is “the first organization for any creative who’s interested in or already involved in doing original web television programming, whether hosted, fiction, non-fiction… any type of program that you would see online. IAWTV provides the tools, education, and networking opportunities to be better at their craft.”

The inaugural IAWTV awards presentation was held this past January. Awards were given out for Best Web Series in the Comedy, Drama, Animated, News, Documentary and Variety categories, Best Hosted Taped and Best Hosted Live Web Series, Best Writing for Comedy, Drama & Non-Fiction, Best Directing for Comedy, Drama & Non-Fiction, Best Female and Best Male Performance for Comedy & Drama, and many more categories. Though the organization want to draw attention to as many worthy projects and contributions as they can, they stress that the mission is to go beyond to awards and provide a true organization.

Susyn Duris came to IAWTV herself as a creative, having had a hybrid career involving finance, marketing, acting, and producing. The first web series she was in, in 2010, was the “Proposition 8 Trial Reenactment,” which took the transcripts from the actual courtroom proceedings and reenacted them out. “It was really exciting,” she says now. “I got very interested in creating web series and started networking with people who were involved.” From there, she got a regular role on the popular “The Unemployment of Danny London.”

Around that time, she also joined IAWTV and immediately saw a need for promotion. “We now have over 600 members,” she explains, “but I think we’ve only touched the surface. I meet people at other events who don’t know about us. But the good news is Variety covered our awards, both the nominations and then the winners.” She points out the success had by some Bay Area web content producers who raised over a million dollars to fund their project as an example of the popularity and appeal of the medium. “If you have a good concept, and it fills a need or a niche, you’re going to get the audience. Or in this case, the funding. But you have to make it for the audience.”

Duris recommends that anyone in the Los Angeles area interested in the organization visit the website to check out the upcoming events, which are usually free. Pick one or two and go to them to meet some of the members and see what they are doing and what they have to say about the organization. “We do events in conjunction with YouTube and we’re partnering with Vidcon, which has conferences in June at the Anaheim Convention Center,” she says. “Anybody interested in WebTV needs to network with people who are in WebTV and IAWTV is the outlet to do it.”

And if you’re in the New York area, consider attending the Digital Content Newfronts. About the IAWTV’s involvement, Duris says, “This is really good news for the IAWTV. We couldn’t be more excited. We are the organization for original web TV, web video and digital entertainment programming. This is our core competency, and we have an amazing corps of members who are leaders in this industry. To be included in this event only solidifies that fact.”

Your Industry Insider recently attended a Boston University Alumni/Los Angeles Program event on “How Media and Consumer Trends Affect Talent Representation.”

The event was moderated by entertainment executive Randi Siegel and featured:

William Morris Endeavor partner Jenny Rawlings, a graduate of the famed CAA Mailroom Trainee Program and a talent representative, primarily on the film side, of many award-winning actors and actresses.

APA Talent and Literary Agency Senior Vice President, Danny Robinson, also an agency mailroom veteran, who is focused on comedy and the personal appearance side of talent representation, which means touring, standup comedy, and concerts.

Mark Scroggs, an agent at David Shapira & Associates who started as a temp at William Morris and now represents some top actors and actresses, hosts, comics, and improv and sketch performers. (Read Mark’s Inside Scoop profile here.)

Below are selected excerpts from the night’s discussion edited for length and clarity. The panelists were all consummate professionals, smart and very passionate about what they do, and it’s no wonder they are at the top of the talent representation ladder. They graciously gave up a night of their time and imparted their wisdom on the students and professionals gathered at the BU in Los Angeles Program offices.

Randi Siegel: Let’s just start out briefly by discussing what talent representation is. What is being an agent in Hollywood?

Jenny Rawlings: When you start out at an agency, you work your way up the ranks, more than likely, unless you’re brought in from the outside. At first, you’re given the more challenging clients, the ones that are harder to get jobs for. You scour the town to try to find them work because, as an agent, you’re responsible for putting food on their tables. Now, my job is to help clients navigate the studio system, to figure out what television or movie projects that they want to do, to help them get the jobs, and also educate them as to how the business works and how they can best position themselves to get jobs.

Randi: Danny, why does somebody need an agent?  

Danny Robinson: As weird as that sounds to say, it’s really the truth because, as Jenny said, our job is to pay their bills. Every time I talk to an artist and look at an act that we represent, my first thought is, I’m responsible ‑‑ I mean, their talent is ultimately responsible, but our purpose and our job is to find them the best deals we can, find them work, give them the option, so they can feed their families and buy their homes. I would venture to say all of us think this way. We’re taking on their livelihood, and we have to take that seriously.

Randi: So, Mark, what’s a typical day for you? 

Mark Scroggs: The day starts early. I’ll look at my Blackberry right when I wake up. There’s always something, because a lot of what I do is on the East Coast too. And when I get to the office, I catch up and check e‑mails, go through the trades and breakdowns.

Randi: A breakdown is a description of every character that’s in a T.V. show. It breaks down the characters. It’ll say, “A male who’s 25 and crazy, strung out on heroin all the time and has a weird twitch.” And then Mark will be like, I’ve got five clients for that.

Mark: I want to catch up on the last things I dealt with the night before and anything for the East Coast, especially, because they go to lunch. Then, I start making calls about the projects on the breakdowns. I follow up on somebody who may be going back into test. A lot of it, if there aren’t meetings with staff or with clients, involves just doing calls and keeping up with the breakdowns.

Randi: Today, all everybody cares about the box office, right? Why is that? And what does it mean that somebody can’t open a film? How does that work for your clients as far as who you want to have for different projects?

Jenny: A lot of what drives what we call the domestic box office, the box office performance within the United States, is what we call Middle America, okay? Whether or not a movie opens strong is not what people in California or New York think because we don’t make up that much of the total gross U.S. box office. And these days, it’s becoming more and more about the subject matter more so than the stars.

It won’t be fair for me to start naming names of people who don’t open movies, but actors that we consider to be ”movie stars” in genres that people in Middle America don’t necessarily want to see them in, they don’t open the movies. I think who’s in them makes a difference, but I don’t think people say, “Julia Roberts is in this movie. I’m definitively going.” Look at CAPTAIN AMERICA. The box office numbers were tremendous. Is Chris Evans a movie star? I don’t think so. Not yet. People went, more than likely, because they were a fan of the comic or thought the trailer looked cool their friends told them about it.

I think there are probably only three or four actors that really open movies these days. You know that if you got Will Smith in a movie, more than likely, he’s going to open it. Or Leonardo Dicaprio. So for me, the definition of what a ”movie star” is has changed drastically because of this.

Randi: Danny, why don’t you speak to them about the impact of new media these days? What has changed in your perspective? Are people not going to be going to the movies anymore?

Danny: Well, people still, thank God, they still go to the movies. I don’t think that will ever change. The numbers are going to go up and down depending on the things happening in the world – wars, economy, things like that, but for going out to films or going out to shows whether it’s a musician, actor, or comedian, that will never change because people like leaving their house. People have a need for live experiences.

What new media has changed, I think, is the immediacy of things and the way people get it. They’re still going to go out and see a movie. They’re still going to watch the special on HBO or Showtime. But they will then rent it or buy it ‑‑ it’s so cheap to buy now ‑‑ and download it. It’s the afterlife in our business that has changed dramatically. Used to be, if you liked a movie, you went back to the theater three or four times.  Well now, in the first few weeks, the only ones that you get real repeat business from are kids because the rest of us will go see it once and then get it on the DVD or download it or whatever it may be.

Randi: Mark, what, as a rep, do you find challenging in making your clients’ deals now to make sure you’re covering these streams of income?  

Mark: You’ve got to just make sure your client is not abused. In the television deals, they would buy a certain amount of online work. For NBC shows, they’ll do promotions like “Go to NBC.com to watch this,” and it was part of the deals. But a couple of years ago, they were really taking advantage of it. You just have to really watch over it and make sure the unions watch over it, too.

[Editor’s note: At this point, one of the panelists mentioned “Entourage,” which happened multiple times during the evening because of the subject matter of the show and because one of the main characters is a talent agent famously modeled after one of the heads of William Morris Endeavor, Jenny’s agency.]

Danny: The only problem with “Entourage,” it’s a greatly written show and the actors are all wonderful and it’s great, but my here’s my problem with that show: It started off as a story about four friends. It was supposed to be a show about friendship and no matter what happens, you’re friends are your friends and you stick with them through thick and thin, and that’s a brilliant ‑‑ that’s a great concept. What it has morphed into is everything that I don’t like, and I wouldn’t venture to say my friends here will agree, everything that is negative about our industry.

It glorifies the parties, the drugs, the going after women, and the crap that goes on in the agent’s and actor’s offices behind the scenes. Yes, a lot of it is dead on, a lot of it is funny, but it puts it in such a bad light. Now they’re doing it because they want people to watch, but it drives me crazy because –-

Mark: That’s not what I do. But my relatives in Virginia think that’s what I do.

Randi: With all the channels and outlets out there, how do you keep track of all of these different options and decide what’s the right way for your clients to go? 

Mark: It’s completely different now. Everything that we used to do for a film or television or an album or whatever has completely changed. You have to, because there is so much out there, we have many more options for our artists to perform in. The bad news is, now it’s a dog fight to get eyeballs on you. The network you’re on helps a bit. The writer who creates it or directs it, that helps a bit.  The artist, if it’s Steve Carell or a name people want to see, that helps, but still, you are fighting. You’ve got your major networks and cable, then you’ve got the Internet where this (gestures to the room) could be a show tomorrow.

Danny: There are networks out there you’ve never heard of and people are watching. New media’s doubled and soared. It’s just like technology. Like you said, we used to communicate through the mail when we were young agents. We didn’t have to worry about what was going on with our clients until we got into the office or when we got a call on our landline at home. Now, you wake up in the morning and the first thing you look at is your phone.

Mark: Or it’s on the news.

Danny: Exactly. (Laughing.) There’s so much information out there and so many options. That’s wonderful for the viewing public. The downside is, artists are scratching and crawling to get noticed. It’s really all about getting noticed. In the early days when I started working with comedians, all it took was a ”Tonight Show” shot. If you did well with Johnny Carson, you weren’t a star, but you were on your way. The club owners would be calling for you, people would recognize you on the streets. I knew we had way too many television shows and way too many networks when, a number of years ago, a manager called me and said, “I’d like you to see my client, Joe Blow.” I told him to send me a tape of the guy. The tape they sent me to see if I would want to represent this guy was ”The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, and I’m like, seriously? This is to get me excited?  That used to be what made you.

Randi: How do you have conversations with your clients about, this movie is not really a good movie, but you’re going to have to do all of this press? Do some of them ever just say, “I’m not doing it”?

Jenny: I have a couple of clients that work really hard, they work really hard to promote a movie, but there are certain things that they’re not willing to do. I have one client who’s not willing to Facebook or tweet. I think it’s less about the amount that you’re doing and more about what it is specifically that you’re doing. I think that’s incredibly important. Otherwise, you’re spinning your wheels. When I get these lists from the publicists about the 9 million newspapers and stuff that they’re going to talk to, I ask why they want my client to do all of these and tell me what the reach is. That’s really what I want to know, because doing publicity is hard. You’re answering the same questions over and over and over again and trying to freshen it up while sitting in a small, hot room with lights glaring down on you and every interview you’re trying to do your best like it’s the first one you’ve done of the day.

Randi: Do you think that the audience and fans of celebrities, movie stars, TV stars, do you think that they have a different sense of entitlement to the talent now? Like, “I know you better because of Facebook and Twitter”? 

Danny: Yeah. In the old days, I mean way before any of us, there used to be mystique. Basically a publicist’s job was to keep the press away and keep the stories out of the paper. Now, it’s the complete opposite. There are stars – and not just the Paris Hiltons of the world – there are actually legitimate actors who have their publicists leak when they’re going to go have dinner somewhere or when they’re taking their kid to a movie or whatever it might be.  There is no, literally, almost no mystique.

Randi: Mark, does this make your job harder or easier as an agent these days?  

Mark: It’s a little harder cause a lot of times, when they’re doing stuff on their own. I know with tweeting, it’s trying to not give away plot points. And people will tell stuff about themselves. They’ll volunteer stuff. So we have to educate people to know what’s right and what’s not.

Jenny: It’s overexposure. We all saw what happened, years ago, to Kate Moss. Somebody took a picture of her snorting a line of cocaine. She was doing it in the privacy of a recording studio and, not that she should have been doing it, but she lost all her endorsement deals. Gone. She had no control over the woman she thought was a friend who took the picture and sold it to every major publication.

Randi: And that happened with the Olympic swimmer.

Danny: Yeah. Michael Phelps.

Randi: So as an agent, would you be inclined to say that a lot of your job is hand‑holding or do you like to push that off on the manager?  When I was a manager, I had the handholding. I got the calls from jail, I got all that.

Jenny: I think ‑‑ honestly, I think it’s both. I think it just depends on the client.

Mark: Some clients take more than others.

Danny: Sometimes it’s like mom and dad. Or good cop and bad cop. The dad in me comes out sometimes and I don’t realize it. I’m like, I’m talking to my client like they’re 13. But sometimes that’s what you have to do.

Randi: Do you feel that because of how media has changed, with all of this immediacy, overexposure, all that, do you think that you have a bigger responsibility to protect your client than you ever did?  

Danny: Yeah. There’s way more to it to anticipate. As Jenny said, half our day is anticipating what’s going to happen, and the other half of it is, no matter what you do to protect, because of technology, people can find things out. It’s crazy.

Randi: Mark, you mentioned something earlier about how even though their stuff is posted, it doesn’t mean it’s accurate.

Mark: Right. Right. We were just talking about IMDB and how it’s usually about 80 percent accurate, but a lot of times, there are things that are just not put in right for certain people. They put birthdays down wrong and put people’s heads on other bodies and things. There’s just so much of it now, or just taking advantage of people, using clips of people and putting it on something else in some Youtube video and you’re like, what is this?

Danny: One of the things I have to deal with working in comedy is personal appearance.  The up side of the internet is that I can see things on people immediately. The bad news is that some people out there, they take almost everything they do and then they put it on Youtube or whatever. And if I’m trying to get someone – a producer, concert promoter, big night clubber in Vegas – to take someone seriously and say this person would be good in your project or event. It’s sometimes challenging.

And ninety-nine percent of the time, corporate engagements have to be clean. Now, if you go into a club, you can get a little dirty here and there, but when you’re going to do a corporate gig, you have to be clean. We put together special tapes for corporate or church shows. You know that’s what they need to see and that’s where they need to hire their artists. If your client is putting every set they do online ‑‑ talking about getting girls and taking them back to their house, they’re not going to get that job. The Internet is like a tattoo. It never goes away.

Randi: I want to ask about what it takes to be an agent or a rep. And at what point in your career, or was there a point in your career, where you felt you knew what you were doing?  

Jenny: I think it changes. There are moments every day where I’m like, okay, I got this, and then five minutes later, I’ll get a call and I’m like, “What the…?” But I think that’s sort of what keeps us going. My sister-in-law lives in Idaho. She calls me and she’s like, “You sit in your office and you talk on the phone all day long and they pay you all this money.” I said, “Are you kidding me? You think that’s what I do for a living?”

Danny: (Laughing.) It’s “Entourage.”

Jenny: I think it’s what keeps it exciting, you know. It’s sort of like you’re taking a class and you have a professor who’s throwing different things at you. Sometimes, they’re totally out of left field, and then sometimes they’re straight down the middle, curve balls, fast balls, whatever they are, and that’s what keeps it exciting. I get to learn new things from people that I would never imagine learning things.

Randi: So what makes you look at a talent and go, that guy’s going to be a star?

Jenny: It’s experience, obviously.

Mark: You just have to watch a lot. It’s like reading scripts. You see or watch a lot and you just filter through some of it. You have to go with your gut instinct. Sometimes you’re going to be wrong. Sometimes you’re going to be really wrong. Sometimes you’re going to be right, and maybe it’s later. A lot of times with comics, it takes a long time for them to develop who they are and all that. You just have to go with what you like ‑‑ if you really believe in someone, that’s the main thing.

Danny: Well I think any of us that stays in the business long enough, you can’t stay in our business and be wrong all the time.  (Laughing.) Danny: You build your reputation by how many times you’ll stand on a table and say, you got to watch this guy or gal. Yes, we’re going to be wrong now and again, but if you’re right more than you’re wrong and you hit it out of the park a few times, people are going to listen to you, as they should.

That’s how we all learned, by watching agents and managers before us, seeing how they did it. It’s gut. That’s part of what builds reputation as an agent is they have an eye. It’s like a director has an eye or if you were a record executive in the old days, you could sit in a club and see a guy with a guitar in the corner and go, that’s a star. And sometimes, you’re the only person who believes.

Randi: Would you sign a Snooki? 

Jenny: I don’t know.  I mean ‑- I think, if I had seen something that he or she had done that inspired me, yeah. I took on an actor, I won’t name names, but I took on an actor about two and a half years ago that had a tremendous amount of success and then made some really bad choices that I can’t say I would have necessarily not recommended he do, it’s just bad luck, and then was known to be difficult or had a bad reputation. He was firing agents left and right and I got a call and I said well, I’d like to talk to him.

He came in my office and I said, “Hey listen, here’s the deal… I think you’re super talented, I have a feeling you could probably get back in, but it’s going to be a lot of hard work and people out there, they’re not rooting for you and you’re going to have to go back to ground zero.” I’ve got to say, we just made a really substantial deal for him to be on a television show that I think will put him right back on the map, I’m hoping. I couldn’t have done it alone. He had to be there right there with me, and I’ve got to tell you something, those conversations are brutal where they’re used to taking offers for millions of dollars. You’re like, “Hey buddy, you’ve got to go and wait for this casting director because she really doesn’t like you because you really pissed her off a year and a half ago. You got to go read for her.” It just depends if they’re game. I believed in him and I think he felt that, and he’s not quite back there, but we’ve made a tremendous amount of progress and I’m really proud of him.

Danny: To answer your question, would we sign an Snooki, that’s, again, 10 years ago, we had departments in my company, and I know both Jenny and Mark had the same, that are part of our industry now mainly because of multimedia. It’s so funny. In the early, early days, if you had a sex tape that got out, it killed your career. Now, it’s launched careers. There are whole departments, we don’t have to deal with them except now and again, but it is part of our industries. For better or worse, there is a lot of money and the public likes the Snooki’s of the world.

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As you know, here at YII, we LOVE getting the inside story on successful professionals in the biz, as well as finding out about great resources we can all use. In this case, we’re getting both! Sarah Sido and Claire Winters are dedicated working L.A.-based actors who have taken their own “lessons from the trenches” and the expertise of those professionals in their boundless rolodexes and created the site they would’ve wanted when they were just starting out. Now that’s something that we can get behind!

 YII: Thank you ladies for agreeing to talk to us. So, to start with, give us a little background on your careers and where you were in them when you co-founded Brains of Minerva.

SARAH SIDO: I’ve always considered myself one of the lucky ones as far as my career is concerned. I’ve been working professionally for many years now, first in New York and, for the last decade, here in L.A. I’ve consistently gotten jobs in all the different mediums, including film, television, and theater. Voice-over work has allowed me to pay my bills and can be incredibly fun. After a video game session, I may barely be able to speak, but where else would you get direction like, “Now gurgle and drown in your own blood.”

At the time that we formed Brains of Minerva, I was doing a play with the Push to Talk Theatre Company. I really adored the group of artists that I was working with, and the fact that we truly felt like an ensemble. Commercial and television work, both on-camera and voice-over, had slowed down to a trickle as the recession had pretty firmly taken hold, making me financially far less stable than I had been in years.  This change definitely put me in a place to ask myself a lot of questions about what I wanted from my career and how I was going to go about it.

CLAIRE WINTERS: Prior to moving to Los Angeles, I had acted professionally for several years in New York – N.Y. & regional theater, some film and television – and had graduated from the MFA Program at American Conservatory Theater (ACT). During my last year in N.Y., I had realized that the on-camera work I’d done was actually the most creatively exciting for me, and started to wonder what was I doing in a town that revolved around theater. Also, I had fallen into a job teaching on-camera work to young actors at The Lee Strasberg Institute in which I’d coach the students through writing autobiographical scripts that we’d then shoot. Since film was where my heart was, I knew it was time to come to the city where the craft and business of it are in the air.

I was a year-and-a-half into my time in L.A. when Sarah approached me about doing the website. I’d know her forever. We’d met as seniors at The Interlochen Arts Academy, an arts high school in MI. And she was a huge part of my support network here. I was still trying to find my way and build a community. I was auditioning (though not as frequently as I’d expected), teaching film workshops in L.A. schools, and hosting monthly get-togethers of readings/career networking sessions for ACT alums in L.A. I was also learning how to drive in this city! I still can remember the first day, months in, when I got through the day without someone honking at me.

YII: What was the moment of inspiration that led you to co-create Brains of Minerva?

SARAH: I was working on the above-mentioned play and taking a career and marketing class. As one of the more experienced actors involved, I found that people were coming to me with questions, both about their careers and about the actor’s life in general. I’ve always found there to be a gap between the way that acting is discussed in the media and the real issues that actors struggle with in the day-to-day. I started to think about ways that these questions could be addressed on a wider stage. My career and the industry as a whole were experiencing so much change, and I also wanted a forum to explore my own questions about the business.

CLAIRE: When Sarah and I would get together socially, we’d often kvetch about what more we wanted to be doing in our careers. We sometimes got into the habit of glossing over how far we’d come. Sarah thought it would be great to develop an online community where we could share a lot of the information and perspective we had amassed over the years. About the same time, I’d gotten my first taste of journalism by writing a couple of articles on teen actor training for a now-defunct magazine called “Intercut.” I knew I wanted to do more writing.

When I moved to L.A., I was shocked by the assumption I encountered, when meeting new people and telling them I was an actor, that I was an idiot! I could feel my social currency at parties, etc., drop ten-fold. And yet, all the actors I knew out here were incredibly hardworking and intelligent people. I was excited about the information on our site not only adding value to the lives of actors, but also reflecting an alternative image of the power and intelligence of actors.

YII: What are your criteria for including content on the site?

SARAH: We are interested in content that enriches and engages our community.  When speaking with our writers, we regularly refer to “takeaways”. We want our readers to leave with something they can act on. That comes in many different forms. It may be advice, a specific plan of action, more in-depth knowledge, or perhaps inspiration.

CLAIRE: Our tag-line is “The Guide to the L.A. Actor Hustle,” so we ask that all pieces contain actionable information, something a reader can use immediately to improve his or her own acting hustle. That said, we encourage a variety of styles and love to change things up. Some pieces are very instructional (e.g., “The Craft of Romance” has exercises to create chemistry with your acting partner). Other articles might be first-person narratives (e.g., “Queer as Folk”’s Scott Lowell’s piece on finding his community in television) in which case the reader can find out about turning points in the writer’s personal story and apply them to his or her own life and work.

YII: What is your favorite thing about your blog?

SARAH: There are so many different ways I could answer this, but I’ll go with this: It has taught me the power of partnerships. Claire and I have truly created this together and it could never be what it is without both of us.

CLAIRE: I don’t think there’s anything out there like it. Our articles assume their audience is made up of smart, hard-working professionals. Many actor resources are written from a fear-based or expert-on-the-mountaintop perspective – “You Must Sit Like a Good Little Girl in the Waiting Room and Not Be Rude to the Receptionist!!” On Brains, we avoid the “should”s and “must”s and instead offer “this is how I did it/ didn’t do it/wished I’d done it/might do it differently in the future.” We want our site to encourage actors to share resources and to recognize how much knowledge and power they already possess (especially when the nature of the day-to-day life can often make it seem otherwise).

YII: What are your some of your favorite posts?

SARAH: It’s incredibly difficult for me to single out just a few. I know just how much work has gone into each article, but if I must pick a few to highlight:

Claire’s articles on the Breakdowns (Part One and Part Two) set the bar incredibly high and really let our readers know that this was not your run of the mill blog. and

Jody Rosen Knower’s “So I Married an Actor” makes me cry it’s so sweet and I re-read it whenever I need inspiration. It is a must read for anyone crazy enough to spend their life with an actor.

Risa Bramon Garcia (FATAL ATTRACTION, DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN, NBC’s “The Cape”) is a casting legend and we were absolutely honored when she reached out to us about writing. Her piece reminds me that what we do is needed in the world as it makes our own and others’ lives all the richer.

Do I have to stop?  Kai Soremekun’s series is so generous with vital information  and I love Jeffrey Marcus’ article on creating chemistry.

CLAIRE: That is a Sophie’s Choice question! All of our posts are tops! Though, some which stand out as particularly unique to our site are actor Suzie Plakson’s “The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly- A Vet’s Take on 30 Years of Auditioning,” Sarah’s “How Volunteering Enriches My Life in Acting” and Brendan O’Malley’s “10 Books to Inspire” (about using literature in your craft).

YII: What is the most surprising thing about running Brains of Minerva?

SARAH: The biggest surprise for me has perhaps been the reception by the community. Others have regularly referred to it as a service (as in, an act of service) that Claire and I are providing to our fellow actors. In some ways, it’s silly that this came as a surprise. We are putting enormous amounts of our time and energy into this project which we give away for free, but having others recognize it as that right away, was somehow a big surprise.

CLAIRE: In her piece A Clarion Call to Plan and Dream Big! actor Leslie Ishii (“Lost”) shares how she’s grown through her long relationship with the East West Players theater company by having a place to practice “stick-to-it-iveness.” As an actor, your opportunity to practice your work long-term is often in others’ hands. Brains has given me a place to practice “stick-to-it-iveness.” Through consistently applying myself to it over the last year-and-a-half, I’ve seen my strengths and weaknesses in ways I couldn’t by just auditioning or going from one short-term acting project to another. I’ve learned a lot about balancing my workload, moving on from set-backs and setting the bar higher for myself.

YII: How, if at all, has your blog helped your acting career? 

Sarah from the film ROSEVILLE

SARAH: It’s a little difficult for me to answer this, because in many ways my focus has changed from how I went about my career before we started Minerva. Before, I was really an actor for hire. I just wanted other people to hire me to “just act” and often enough (well, it’s never enough, is it?) they did.

Since founding Brains of Minerva with Claire, I have really changed the way I look at the industry and see myself as more much more invested in the entire process than someone who is hired “just to act.” I fell in love with a script and launched a production company, Term of Art Productions, to develop it. I have honed my producing chops by working on a variety of projects, currently ControlTV.com. I still get hired to act and love it, but my entire perspective is so different now.

So, to answer the question, I have made relationships through the site that I really cherish. None of them are specific, “and then she hired me!” relationships, but I have no doubt that all will be valuable in this more holistic way that I currently view my career.

CLAIRE: I’ve certainly made loads of new contacts. When I arrived in L.A., I quickly realized that I had taken for granted all the years of contacts I had made, with little effort, in New York. When I arrived, even though I had friends and alum contacts in L.A., I didn’t have a community of directors, writers, and actors. Brains has definitely helped with that, and the site has renewed my already existing contacts.

Most importantly, working intimately on blog pieces with directors, actors I respect, casting directors, et al, has broken down the industry hierarchy in my head and made me less fearful. I take rejection a lot less personally since I’m always reaching out to contributors (and often hearing the tumbleweeds in response!), and through my own writing, I’ve started dialogues with people I respect. After “Love, Work and Documentaries” I heard from a couple of the filmmakers I wrote about and that was wonderful – to feel that by shining a light on the work I love, I’m building a community that is interested in and supports my work.

YII: What services do you offer through your blog?

CLAIRE: We offer peer-to-peer coaching sessions (“Brainstorming With the Brains”) in which both Sarah & I participate, helping an actor with their L.A. transition, opening up our Rolodexes to share the resources we’ve found valuable. We also speak to student groups, and we’re moving into live events to expand and to support the site (and us) financially.

We have two upcoming events we’re thrilled about! We’re partnering with event planner Christina Malpero to host an evening that’s a panel discussion and cocktail party with the creative team of the new NBC show, “The Cape.” We’re then offering a 4-part webinar series with celebrity publicist Joy Donnell called “Brave New World,” which teaches you how to use all the tools at your disposal to authentically develop your brand as an actor. (Email us at info@brainsofminerva.com to be notified of details for those events and other special offerings.)

YII: Where do you see Brains of Minerva going in the future?

SARAH: I see us continuing to be a place for great conversation and exploration. I’d like to include more video content.

YII: How has your acting career evolved in the time Brains of Minerva has existed?

SARAH: I went into this a bit before. The way I look at my career is very different now, but in some ways I have come full circle. As we end what has been an incredibly busy year, I look forward to re-focusing on my acting. Auditions have unquestionably picked up, and some recent bookings have made me realize that I don’t need to always do everything. It’s so nice to show up on set and get to “just act” and oh yes, the paychecks are lovely too. I always seem to learn with big pendulum swings, and perhaps now I can find some balance. I’m as excited as ever about the feature that I am producing, but I realize that doesn’t need to rule out work for hire.

CLAIRE: Prior to Brains, I had begun working on a passion project that started out as an audition tape for a film in development that’s based on a novel I love. As I worked on it, though, it took on a life of its own, and I ended up shooting a series of shorts about the character. I then started to envision it, now called ‘Analices,’ as a gaming-influenced web-based project about the intersection of an actor and a character. I’m now finishing the writing component, which has definitely been transformed by having to write consistently for Brains, as has my capacity to project-manage a creative work long-term. Brains has helped me develop a deeper understanding of both acting and writing, and I want to continue to use the actor in me to become a better writer, and vice versa.

YII: What would be your dream acting job?

SARAH: For me, I get excited about the people I’d love to work with.  The image that sprang to mind as I read this question – a feature film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson or Sofia Coppola. In it I’m working on a role that requires me to bring everything I have. It’s terrifying and pushes me to places I haven’t necessarily been before, but I’m surrounded and supported by such amazing talents. Sounds fun, no?

Claire in a scene from ANALICES

CLAIRE: I love the opportunity to collaborate long-term on the development of a character, as is the case with some feature projects (the Mike Leigh process, for instance, of improvisation to develop character and story). And I’d love to be part of the ongoing dialogue with society as with the best TV shows – “Mad Men,” “Modern Family,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”… When I hear interviews with the creators and actors of “Friday Night Lights,” my heart beats faster; the spontaneity of shooting with three cameras, characters so connected to a place and time, and the huge talents – it seems like the best of both worlds.

If you haven’t hopped over there yet, take a moment to check out Brains of Minerva. For actors and anyone else pursuing a creative live, it’s an inspiring and informative resource.

Know anyone who could use an entertainment industry insider? Encourage them to sign up on the YII home page to receive our Mogul Mindset eBlasts today!

Founded by career development coach Christine Tello-Lorenz, HollywoodEastConnection.com is a comprehensive resource for information on the entertainment industry in New England. The site covers production activity in the area, local entertainment professionals, resources, and events, and updates on celebrities from, based in, or otherwise connected to New England. We caught up with Christine recently to ask her a few questions about the site.

YII: How did you go from a degree in Biology to being a career development coach and founder of a New England-centric entertainment website?

Christine Tello-Lorenz: As far as the biology degree, like many college students, I didn’t know what I ultimately wanted to do, so I chose what I was interested in at the time. I was interested in conservation and wanting to save the planet.

I started out in environmental education which got me to organizational training and development, and that led me to discovering the type of work I like to do, which is helping people grow in the way they work and in their work lives. So I’m now doing career coaching, as well as contract work in training and development. As far as the entertainment industry, I’m a fan.

YII: When did your fan-dom turn into Hollywood East Connection?

Christine: We launched just over a year ago. It’s been fun & exciting to see it grow. The objective was to get all of this information in one place. Before I created the site, I would try to find out what movies were filming and casting info, etc. New Englandfilm.com is an amazing resource, but doesn’t cover TV or reality casting or online. I also wanted to offer up some resources on getting started on this type of career.

I continuously update content as I come across new information. I’ve had some great feedback. We have a couple hundred subscribers and have fans on MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook and are growing every day.

YII: How many people do you work with and how do you find your writers?

Christine: Our contributing writers are really passionate about entertainment news. I found the writers by figuring out what I needed and put an ad on Craigslist. I interviewed the people who submitted themselves and found people who are not only good writers (most have journalism degrees), but are passionate. One is an aspiring actor, one is an entertainment gossip fan, and I would say one of my strengths is in tracking what is going on in this area.

YII: What is your goal for the site?   

Christine: The goal of the website is to connect people and organizations throughout Hollywood East.  Our strength is that we keep people informed on a daily basis.  I don’t think there is another website that does this.  We also feature locals who work in the business and feature them in the hopes that it will help spread the work about their work and inspire others.

Your Industry Insider is certainly impressed and inspired by this best-we’ve-seen regional site on all things entertainment. If you are based in New England – and even if you are not- you should definitely check out Hollywood East Connection!

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The Boston University in Los Angeles and Boston University Alumni Association co-hosted an event earlier this week that highlights exactly why it is important (and to your benefit) to stay in touch with your alumni association and take advantage of opportunities they afford you. In this case, I had the opportunity to hear a Q & A with Debbie Liebling, the President of Production for Universal Pictures. In her position, she is directly responsible for what films get made by a major studio and earlier in her career, she was instrumental in getting “South Park” on the air while at Comedy Central and getting BORAT made while at 20^th Century Fox.

Now granted, over the course of my career and in writing for this blog, I have had the chance to meet a lot of people in the higher echelons of entertainment, but even so, this was a treat. I was invited to sit in a room full of BU students and fellow alums and have someone else, founding director (and current head faculty member) of the BU in Los Angeles Program, entertainment attorney Larry Weinberg, ask the kinds of questions I ask for YII’s Inside Scoop Profiles, plus get the dish on her projects, her views on comedy, and on the state of the industry as a whole. Why would I say no?

Debbie’s Early Career

Right off the bat, Debbie revealed something relevant to the current focus of Your Industry Insider (which, as loyal readers will know, is that it is possible to launch an entertainment career outside Los Angeles, at least with the right resource at your fingertips): After graduating from Boston University with a BS in Broadcasting & Film, Debbie’s first entertainment job was at WNET, a public TV station in New York. Even she admits it wasn’t exactly the epicenter of the TV biz and the job was administrative, but it got her foot in the door and she took advantage of the access it afforded her. In other words, she roamed around the place and met people and checked out what they were doing. And through that process she got an opportunity to work with avant garde filmmakers as part of a program funded by the station.

Golden Opportunities/Dream Jobs

From there, Debbbie went to work at MTV in its very early days. During her time there, the place was largely run by very young people. “We kept wondering where the grown ups were,” she said. “When the grown ups were going to show up.” She called it ‘DIY television’ and said that there wasn’t a lot of title or duty delineation. They all kind of did everything, which is great for someone just starting out.

She left MTV to work on a pilot project that ultimately didn’t go forward but, through freelancing, she found a niche she loved. She got into comedy during this time, and found that she was very good at dealing with big comedians. “Nervous, paranoid, famous comedians,” she said with a laugh.

She took a job at Nickelodeon as she was embarking on motherhood, in order to give herself some measure of stability and saner hours. And she was subsequently lured away from there by Doug Herzog, the head of Comedy Central who had been an executive while she was MTV. He brought her in to run programming at a time when they had just a couple of shows and were starting to garner some attention (and ratings). They needed more programming and fast. Her first move was developing “South Park” with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, when they were just out of college and only had a short as their calling card. She was also behind the Comedy Central programs, “The Man Show,” “Crank Yankers,” “Win Ben Stein’s Money,” and “Primetime Glick,” among others.

Shifting to Film

At this point, Debbie got an opportunity to work at 20^th Century Fox as a film executive. They needed someone with comedy chops to fill a hole in their slate and though Debbie had no film experience other than her work on the SOUTH PARK: BIGGER LONGER & UNCUT, they felt she was the right person for the job. Moving out of television and into film was a big change and she knew it would mean starting over in a lot of ways, learning a new system and a completely different community of executives, representatives, and producers. But “someone I respect very much told me I should just do it,” she explains. “I could always go back to TV.”

She talked a bit about the differences between television and film. Her experience at Comedy Central had been to just put something on the air and see if it hit. With film, the studio executives basically “join together and agree to spend 150 million dollars and then pray that people show up on a Friday a year and a half from then to see the movie.” (This provoked a laugh from those in the audience, but we all knew she wasn’t really kidding.) And add to that the challenges in producing comedy. She describes the making of a good comedy as “alchemy,” continuing, “You could have a hilarious script and then the director’s timing or vision could be off, or the lead actor could be wrong. Everyone has to be on the same page. There’s a lot of luck involved.”

When asked what the most important thing is when she is considering a pitch or a piece of material, Debbie does not hesitate. “Commercial appeal. Who does it appeal to? I talk to marketing, finance, home video, foreign sales, to get their take. An R-rated comedy will do great on home video, but might do nothing overseas.” And then, changing gears, she says, “I also have to really like the material. You live with a project for three or four years. If you don’t love it at the beginning, you end up hating it like a roommate you never should’ve moved in with in the first place.” (Another laugh, but we could feel the ‘been-there, done-that’ pain behind it.)

Closing Thoughts

Debbie obviously has a good sense of humor, which is not surprising considering that her career has largely been in comedy. But having a sense of humor about yourself and the realities of the business is also helpful in terms of being able to navigate the sometimes-choppy waters of the industry and in reaching the level where you are responsible for decisions involving many millions of dollars. How else can someone sleep at night with that kind of weight on their shoulders, much less wear it as well as she seems to? This is someone that relishes challenges and, it turns out, has a finely- tuned early warning system when it’s time to find a new one. In fact, when asked how she knows when it’s time to move on from a position, she doesn’t hesitate with her answer, “If I feel like I’ve mastered the job and there’s no opportunity to grow.”

Threaded throughout much of what Debbie said was the idea of finding what you like to do and then finding a way to do it and then, when you don’t like doing it anymore, moving on to a new thing that looks appealing. Sounds simple, right? But behind that strategy is keeping an eye out for opportunities and taking advantage of access and working the hardest wherever you are.

I looked around me and saw a lot of undergrad and grad students at the beginning of their careers and wondered how much of Debbie’s message they would take to heart. I hoped it would be a lot. Myself, I was just glad I’d come to this BU Alumni Association event and was looking forward to connecting more with them in the future.

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We here at YII are huge fans of creative marketing. Over ten years ago, while hiring for entry level positions at a studio-based production company, I got a resume submission from a young man in Florida. Now, normally, I would toss a resume submission from someone who didn’t live in L.A. in the trash. (You can’t hire someone who doesn’t live in the city where the job is, no matter how much the potential candidate says they are committed to relocating.) But this submission caught my eye because the cover page was laid out like a newspaper headline. “ANDREW PASKOFF IS HEADED FOR TINSELTOWN,” it read.

Below the headline was a clever mock-interview with Andrew. Attached was his resume. When he called a few days later to follow-up, I happily talked to him. By the time he got here, he had several hiring executives eager to meet him and he quickly got his foot-in-the-door job. Though I did not provide him with that first opportunity, I remember him well. Not only did he amuse me while I was slogging through a tall pile of resume submissions, his follow-up was impeccable. I still have that initial packet, the updated resume he sent when he got settled in L.A. and the handwritten thank-you note he sent me following that.

I got a similar charge from finding Playbills vs. Paying Bills as I did when I received Andrew’s initial resume submission. Out of hundreds of actor blogs, here was something with a fresh idea and top-notch execution. Playbills Vs. Paying Bills was put together by three fellow grads of the University of Colorado’s theater program, Ben Whitehair, Joe Von Bokern, and Emily Beuchat. They launched the blog after they fanned out to three different cities, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, respectively, to begin their professional acting careers.

The blog shares information on their own careers, as well as a lot of valuable takeaway for other aspiring actors (as well as recent college grads trying to launch life after school). It’s quickly becoming a favorite of actors and those who work with them. YII recently caught up to ask Ben, Joe, and Emily a few questions about their career choices and their blog.

Why did you choose your respective city in which to launch your acting career?

Ben on the set of STORYBOOK ENDING

Ben (Los Angeles): This is actually at the crux of why Playbills vs. Paying Bills was started. As I looked towards graduation, I knew that I wanted to pursue my career as an actor professionally, and it quickly became apparent that Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City were the best places to do so. I visited all three cities, and spoke with working actors in each place. Ultimately, I decided that based on my look, experience, and connections, Los Angeles was going to be the best fit for me. Primarily, it made sense to me to start my career in film, and I really resonated with the city of Los Angeles itself. 

Joe (Chicago): Chicago and I actually came together on a whim. I was working with a buddy of mine at a restaurant in Boulder, Colorado, and one day he turns to me and says “Hey, let’s move to Chicago, yeah?” I had never even been to Chicago, but I knew it was a great theatre town and I had several friends already living there, so I figured what the hell! I have since fallen madly in love with Chicago and have had an incredible time discovering myself as a professional actor in a city that welcomes newbies with open arms.

Emily (New York): It’s safe to say that I am the more “traditional theatre person” of the three of us, Ben being more of a film actor through and through and Joe being a tremendous musician, comedian, stand-up artist, and actor combined. I find myself dreaming of the classic stage, the lights, and Broadway (classical theatre, musical theatre, and straight plays). When I was making my decision, I knew it wasn’t about where I wanted to go geographically, but what sort of career I wanted to have. Of course, I know you can do theatre in L.A. and you can do film in New York, but I knew that I wanted more opportunities for the stage so I went to the “center of the American stage.” (I put this in quotes because Chicago has nearly as many equity, non-equity, regional, and community theatres as New York and often is referred to and self-references as the new theatre capital of the United States).

What is your favorite thing about your blog? 

Joe: I should preface my answer by saying that I LOVE my alma mater, the University of Colorado. But one of the biggest problems that I faced upon graduation was that my University theatre training in no way prepared me for life as a working actor. In a way, Playbills vs Paying Bills is the site I wish I had when I graduated college. My favorite part about our blog is being able to provide resources and advice to young actors who find themselves asking a lot of questions they never knew they had. We encourage readers to share their feedback, thoughts, experiences, and advice in the comments below every blog entry, and some of the stories our readers have shared are really quite remarkable and always very inspiring.

Emily on the Colorado U stage

Emily: I think my favorite thing about our blog is the idea behind it. One of our main ideas was to create a place for ‘new career’ actors and performers to find the information that they really just don’t teach you in undergraduate BA and BFA programs. I felt fully prepared to be an actor on stage but, after over a year in New York and a year-and-a-half out of college, I still feel fully unprepared to be an actor in the industry. These are two very different educations and the idea of being able to help other actors while simultaneously learning about the business for ourselves is one that really excites me. 

What is the best connection you have made for your career through your blog?

Ben: There are almost too many to list. Not only have I been cast in a number of roles as a direct result of someone reading the blog, but I’ve also been able to form a much stronger connection to the actor community as a whole. And I am extremely humbled to have casting legends and leaders in our community such as Marci Liroff, Heidi Levitt, and Bonnie Gillespie read and promote the blog. Their endorsements mean the world to me. 

Joe in action on stage

Joe: One of my favorite things about Chicago is how close-knit the acting scene is. I know it’s a cliché we’ve heard over and over, but it is such a small community, and everybody really does know everybody! When I’m introduced to people at a theatre or film event, Playbills vs. Paying Bills inevitably comes up, and I am constantly amazed by how many actors in Chicago have actually heard of the blog and read at least a few of the articles! My biggest connections made through the blog have been in the form of these hard-working actors, directors, and playwrights, many of whom I now call my friends.

Emily: New York is a harder animal to wrangle, let’s say, than the industry monsters of LA or even Chicago. I have heard stories from Ben and Joe that they have had a tremendous amount of feedback, connections, and even castings as a result of the blog. I, however, have not really had any sort of career-related goings-on as a result of this blog. I also am the younger member of the team (having about a year behind both of my constituents in the “adjusting to the new life and real world” spectrum), so I find that my posts tend to be a bit more “how to survive in the world” based and less on career connections and how to mingle. On that note… I fail at networking, schmoozing, mingling, connecting, etc. (And dating… for that matter.) So, those are things to work on. So then, to answer your question, the best connection I have made with this blog is the strengthening of my relationship with these two incredible guys, Ben and Joe. I know that I have life-long friends and career partners who I can really trust and go to with my industry and personal questions. They inspire me daily and have taught me so much through this process. I only hope that I can do the same for them and for our readers.

Where are you in your acting career?

Ben: As a result of the blog, hard work, and tons of amazing people, my career couldn’t be going better. I’ve worked on dozens and dozens of projects since I moved to Los Angeles a little over a year ago– short films, feature films, web series, commercials, and the like. I recently signed with CESD Talent Agency, and have continued to develop excellent relationships with managers, agents, casting directors, and other industry professionals. Admittedly, I am still very much at the beginning of my career, but I absolutely love every second of it. It’s very clear to me that it takes years, often decades, to build the career most actors aspire to; a reality I find important to remember. That said, what’s amazing about the entertainment industry, more than any other, is that every single step along that path proffers opportunities to inspire, create, collaborate, and do (daily!) what it is that we love.  

Joe: I have been blessed with opportunities since coming to Chicago, and have gotten to work with a ton of growing theatrecompanies. Earlier this year, I joined up with The Consortium Project, a theatre company dedicated to making a direct difference in the community by producing theatre and donating a large percentage of ticket sales to related charitable organizations. I completed the long-form improv training program at iO earlier this year and have been performing with the same improv team, Hugs and Pullups, for over a year. This summer, I began exploring film acting with the help of some incredible young filmmakers from the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia University, and DePaul University. I am currently seeking representation.

Emily: My career, on a whole, is going well, but is very, very new. Very. In Denver/Boulder, I was having a fair amount of success. I was in my second season in the acting company with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and had just gotten a dozen more points on my Equity Membership Candidacy. I am still ‘non-union,’ though I am EMC (equity membership candidate). I am un-repped, but I hope to change that in the next year or two. Auditions are going well, but are very difficult to get. (This is the greatest challenge I am having.) I just completed a small, off-off-Broadway touring Showcase production of Medea that was very well received. I have also teamed up with some National Theatre Conservatory graduates from Denver who have their own company here and have had me perform in a few of their productions. In New York, I find more than anything (and more true than anything they will tell you) is that it really IS just who you know. So I am looking into making those connections and possibly working with companies by taking classes or getting those connections and more training through grad programs. Fingers crossed.

Of course, pay a visit to PlaybillsvsPayingBills.com and check out the personal websites of Ben, Joe, and Emily for updates on their careers.

What image comes to mind when you hear “celebrity personal assistant”? Someone basking in the reflected limelight as they stroll down the awards ceremony red carpet alongside George Clooney or Jennifer Aniston? Or maybe a tortured minion working for the famous and real-life version of Miranda Priestly (“The Devil” in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA)?

YII caught up with Kimberly McFarland, Vice President and Board Member of the Association of Celebrity Personal Assistants, to find out the real story about the job and get the scoop on their ultra-cool professional organization.

YII: Thanks for agreeing to talk to us. We’d like to start out with some questions about being a personal assistant. As someone who has known many, many personal assistants, in addition to having been one yourself, you’re in a unique position to lend some insight to those on the outside. 

YII: What are the qualities that make a great personal assistant?  The number one quality is loyalty. Also, dedication. And you have to be able to think of things for your boss or your client before they would even think of them. Possess the willingness to go above and beyond, to be a go-getter and not take no for an answer. Last but not least, you must have a memory like an elephant…it is imperative in this industry.

A lot of things you are going to do are extremely challenging. Often, I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I know I’ll soon figure it out. Lastly, you must always have a hospitable mindset because you are taking care of your client or your boss and you must always remember you are working for a person, not a company.

YII: Conversely, what sorts of people don’t end up being very fulfilled and successful in the field?  If you’re in it for your own professional gain, for example, just trying to get contacts or run into the right person to help you, you’re not going to be successful because you’ll always be thinking about yourself and not the well-being of your boss, which should be your primary focus.

What is the most satisfying part of being a CPA as a career path?  Supporting and helping others in their personal lives and careers, helping them achieve their goals and aspirations. Even though you are in the background, you do share in their successes and that’s extremely fulfilling!

What is the most challenging thing about being a CPA?  The pressure of being so meticulous in all that you do in an effort not to make errors. And the thought of disappointing your boss or client. You should always go over everything with a fine-tooth comb to make sure everything is perfect. After you’ve been in the business a while, it gets easier, but you always want to anticipate potential hazards and fix them. You also have to think for everyone else working with your boss or client and help them avoid hazards as well.

What was the inspiration for starting the Association of Celebrity Personal Assistants?  The association was founded in 1992 by Jonathan Holiff. He saw a need for people to get together to network and help each other. Because of the nature of the job and the confidentiality involved, it’s not easy for people in these positions to get support and trade resources.

How many members did it originally have and how many does it currently have?  It stared in his living room with just a few members and now is over 150.

What is the criteria for membership?  In order to become a member, you have to have worked as a full-time celebrity personal assistant for at least a year. In terms of celebrities, it can be a high-profile dignitary, politician, businessman… a celebrity in their own field.

Applicants submit a letter of reference on official letterhead by a superior (who also works with the celebrity) usually a business manager- a bio and press coverage of them, as well as three other business references. And, of course, a copy of their resume and signed non-disclosure agreement.

The membership fee is $150/year for LA-area residents and $75/year for those a 75 mile radius of Los Angeles.

What does membership involve? I assume monthly meetings- what happens there?   We have monthly meetings with speakers who provide professional development to the attendees, such as experts on fashion or career coaches. We also have charities come and do presentations, in case our members or their employers are looking for an opportunity to work with a charity. It’s also our way of giving back. We meet at venues that are helpful to us in our jobs so that we can recommend to our boss or client, to out-of-town members or to others from our sister organizations when they come to Los Angeles.

Other membership features are job bank access, a membership directory, and an email request system ( if members need resources quickly). Also, we do a wage survey about our industry and offer a best-of-the-best service directory and a message board within our association website.

What is the biggest misconception people have about being a celebrity personal assistant?  The biggest misconception is that it’s a glamorous and fun job. It’s not always fun. It’s work! We do the work no one else wants to do or no one else can do. There are some perks, but it’s extremely challenging because you are responsible for running someone else’s life.

Also, people think that being a personal assistant is low-level, gopher work. The reality is that it’s not just getting someone coffee or doing each step as it’s fed to you. The job is a series of puzzles and you have to figure out every piece quickly with little or no direction.

What is the best way for someone who wants to be a personal assistant to break in?   I fell into it by default. I was in a database for a headhunter as an executive assistant and she told me she was looking for someone for a position she had to fill. It wasn’t until I tested and she looked at my results that she told me what the job was. I got the job five years ago.

To anyone who wants to be a CPA, I would suggest networking and seeking out work for entertainment companies, working with an agency or management company, for instance, or seeking out a position though a headhunter. I think just general experience as an executive assistant would give you the basic skills you need to do this job.

YII would like to thank Kimberly for taking the time to talk to us. For more information on the career path and on joining the organization, visit the website for Association of Celebrity Personal Assistants.

Know anyone who could use an entertainment industry insider? Encourage them to sign up on the YII home page to receive our Mogul Mindset eBlasts today!

The woman behind the “Ali on the Air” blog, Ali MacLean, is an award-winning writer, actor, filmmaker and on-air radio personality. A classically-trained actress, she has a degree from Miami University of Ohio, and studied at the La Jolla Playhouse under Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff and then at the Groundlings Theatre, in their famous improv training program, under “Friends” star Lisa Kudrow.

Her professional career has included stand-up comedy, TV hosting and VJing, acting, and writing for television, web, print, and film, including her own comedy shorts which have made the festival rounds, some winning awards. She was a DJ back when DJ was a term for someone on a radio station playing music and talking and is now an on-air personality (see DJ for definition).

We wanted to find out what inspired this creative Jill-of-all-trades to put her distinctive voice and point-of-view on the web for everyone to enjoy and how it’s been going so far.

When and why did you start the “Ali on the Air” blog? I started Ali On The Air when I was on air at Little Radio and at Music Plus TV. I needed an AIM Chat for when I was on the air and taking questions from listeners and so one day I made an aim chat profile called Ali On The Air to differentiate from my private chat moniker. I started getting a lot of followers and the name stuck.

Meanwhile, I was blogging on Myspace and Facebook about behind-the-scenes of my life, interviewing these bands and going to festivals and movie premieres, art openings and fashion events. My friend Kyra Reed, who is a social media expert, suggested I move it to WordPress and get official about it.

People found my behind the scenes stuff interesting and I think liked the way that I didn’t pull punches. If I saw someone acting like a diva or being obnoxious, I called them out on it and named names. If I thought a movie was crap or a party was a waste of time, I said so. Everyone that makes money in the entertainment industry is incredibly fortunate. There is no room for throwing your weight around and I also have little patience for half-assed and half-baked ideas being presented as gold. I’m not afraid to say so.

What is your favorite thing about writing your blog? I love that it’s mine and I have the freedom to cover what I want, when I want and I can say what I want. When I’m hired out for another magazine, it’s expected that I will turn in a specific piece. Although at this point, I think people know my personality. I have a wry sense of humor so that is going to sneak into even the most straightforward interview.

With my blog I can be as funny, insightful, wistful, silly, tenacious or snarky as I want to. It’s my beautiful beast of a blog. That being said, I take great care in my pieces. I do video when I have the resources. I don’t blog every day. I only write about things that I feel passionately about or that lights a fire under my ass to go out and cover.

What’s the best reaction you’ve ever had? People loved my piece on laptops and hipsters being a possible downfall of DJing and turntablism. That led the way for a silly short film I made called “DJ Intervention” which took off and was on the front page of Funny Or Die. So a blog rant went all the way to Will Ferrell’s website home page.

I also got a great response from my piece about how much I hated “Jersey Shore.” That piece got thousands and thousands of hits and eventually got me a gig writing comedy for Huffington Post.

What’s the most surprising reaction? Most recently, the “Jersey Shore” piece. If so many people hate it as much as I do, then how is it still on the air? C’mon people. Turn it off.

In addition to writing her Ali on the Air blog, Ali has recently shot several pilots and has been writing for the Huffington Post and several other publications. She also has a new web series on Comedy Time and is shooting a pilot for My Damn Channel this summer.

Know anyone who could use an entertainment industry insider? Encourage them to sign up on the YII home page to receive our Mogul Mindset eBlasts today!

We here at YII HQ have been fans of “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross for many years. But it was a special treat to find the iPod loaded up with an interview of Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong.

The description provided indicated that they would talk about the award-winning album, “American Idiot”‘s transformation into a Broadway musical, which they did, but Terry Gross trained her anthropologist’s mindset on the process of becoming (and enduring as) a band, touring, performing, songwriting, and so much more.

For those who are fans of Green Day, aspiring rock stars, or just people who are particularly interested in the creative process, this is not to be missed. So check out this interview of Billie Joe on NPR’s “Fresh Air.” If you like it, consider supporting your local NPR station that carries “Fresh Air” (assuming you are lucky enough to have one).

Know anyone who could use an entertainment industry insider? Encourage them to sign up on the YII home page to receive our Mogul Mindset eBlasts today!