Episode 122: Terri Edda Miller, Creator/Showrunner/Director/Writer

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Terri is a Creator, Executive Producer, Showrunner and Director. Watch her season finale of Take Two tonight on ABC (9/13/18). She was also the executive producer of the award-winning hit ABC series “Castle” for its first seven seasons. 

Terri is an award-winning writer and director of numerous shorts and documentaries. Her films have appeared worldwide, including top Sundance and International Film Fest favorite “DysEnchanted,” starring Alexis Bledel, Sarah Winter and Jim Belushi. She has developed features and television pilots with DreamWorks, NBC, Disney and ABC. Miller serves on both the executive committee of the board of Young Storytellers and on the board of the Writers Guild Foundation.

Miller and her producing partner, Andrew W. Marlowe, first met when they both won the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Under the MilMar banner, the pair has developed projects for ABC, Endemol and CBS Studios. Their productions have garnered honors from the People’s Choice Awards, Imagen Awards, ALMA Awards, PRISM Awards, TV Guide Magazine and the Primetime Emmys®.

We had a great conversation about her journey as a writer, her thoughts about leadership, and the state of women in this moment.

Episode 99: Hilary Wagner, VP Production Finance, CBS

Hilary is the Vice President of Production Finance at CBS Studios. Here’s a story about how the entertainment industry lures you in. If your first couple of jobs are Seinfeld and Waiting for Guffman, are you really going back to corporate audit? Of course not.

Hilary tells her story of how she worked her way up through production accounting, to production finance on the studio side with a brief stint in the production department.

She’s now at the point in her career where leadership and mentorship has become as important as getting the numbers right. It’s legacy time, and when you can see big trends in the industry and are positioned to make a difference, you do.

Episode 55: Heather Cappiello, Director

Heather is a Director. Her TV directing credits include Freakish, Madam Secretary, Criminal Minds, Blue Bloods, and Saving Grace with Holly Hunter. Before transitioning to Director, she was a sought-after Script Supervisor for many years.  Think Six Feet Under, Carnivále, Huff, Monk, Being Mary Jane, etc., etc. Her initial training was in theatre. She is the real deal.

She says that script supervising is the best day job that leads to directing.  And how could it not be?  You’re sitting next to all the directors for the best master class you can have.

We talked about steeling your courage to throw your hat in the ring, balancing your life and family, and how TV directing is a G*dd*&$n spiritual practice.

Episode 43: Taj Paxton, Filmmaker, Executive

Taj is the VP of Documentary Films at Logo. She is an award-winning producer, writer and filmmaker. As one of few Black and openly LGBT film executives, Taj proudly stands on the front lines of diversity and representation.

She started on Wall Street and became a filmmaker and executive.  Along the way she produced films, ran Forrest Whittaker’s company, wrote and sold a pilot, traveled, worked as a production executive, served on the Board for Outfest, and became a yoga teacher. As you do.

And from her bio, which I cannot state better: Taj interests lie at the intersections of art and social change. Her journey is filled with life lessons that cannot be confined to the boxes of gender, race and sexual orientation. She hopes her work will continue to shape the conversation around the kinds of stories we tell and that those stories become a tool for greater cultural understanding and cohesion.

We talked about loaves and fishes, redefining masculinity, and your gut perception of a woman as competent. And can we replace "minority" with "underrepresented?"

Episode 25: Lia Dosik Carney, COO

Lia is the COO of the newly formed company, Topspin Content. She is also the former SVP of Production at Discovery Studios. She steadily worked her way up in the business, learned how to negotiate on her own behalf, and recently took a giant leap of faith. And she did it while raising twins.  No easy task. 

We talked about her journey, the benefits of coming from a long line of badass women, and how most things circle back to the need to be liked. And this: She who is brave is free.  That one got me.  Tattoo worthy, don’t you think?  

Episode 20: Mary O'Leary, Producer

Mary is an award-winning Producer of General Hospital and The Young & The Restless. She was also nominated several times for Guiding Light, Another World and One Life to Live. Seven Emmy’s, people, seven. This woman knows how to run a Soap.

Interestingly, while nonchalantly rising in the ranks of daytime dramas, she also developed and produced a series of one-man shows with Jonathan Frid, of Dark Shadows fame.

As it turns out, asking for what you want and sharing your intentions can actually open doors, good mothering goes a long way, and having the arts in high school really can make all the difference. And the world of daytime drama moves very fast…

Episode 5: Linda Burstyn, Writer/Producer

Linda had several careers in her life before her current one as a Writer for television dramas.  She has been a political writer, a TV news producer, a journalist and a feminist activist.

(She wrote a powerful article about female genital mutilation in America, which you can read here: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1995/10/female-circumcision-comes-to-america/306051/.)

Some of her TV writing/producing credits include The Education of Max Bickford, State of Affairs, In Plain Sight, NCIS and Chasing Life.  We talked about her journey to television writing (via a train ride with Seinfeld), her mothering, and her philosophy for achieving your dreams and having a happy life. 

We also talked about quid pro quo vs hostile work environment laws, and how the latter can sometimes be detrimental to women – by actually creating the hostile work environment it was meant prevent.

Episode 3: Jennifer Warren, Actor, Director, Producer

Jennifer Warren began her career as an Actor on Broadway, Television and in Films.  Some credits include Night Moves, Slap Shot and Cagney and Lacey.  She won an Academy Award for the short documentary she co-produced, You Don’t Have to Die, and she directed several award winning feature films.  She is also a founding member of the Alliance of Women Directors and teaches at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. We talked about how she encourages the young women of today to exhibit more political thought and not be so complacent about their basic rights.  She is an activist, a mentor, an inspiration.