Movies used to be good, and now they are kind of shitty. After taking a film class almost by chance, Mike Cheda spent years honing his craft as a scriptwriter and executive producer at HBO and the Walt Disney Studios before feeling he "aged out" of being a working screenwriter and becoming a Professional Script Consultant. He is best known for co-authoring 1999's Chill Factor with Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Skeet Ulrich. As a developer and producer, he worked on The Opposite Sex, Next of Kin, Why Shoot the Teacher, and Shape of Things To Come. For TV, he produced and developed Wheels of Terror, Pa ..read more

We're all here because, for some odd reason, we have this uncanny ability to believe in imaginary circumstances really, really hard. So much that they are our own, in the most intimate kind of way. Mike Markoff knew he belonged on stage at a very young age. He started acting in the Chicago theater scene when he was eight, and five years later; he was already acting for a traveling theater company from the same city. Despite conquering a respectable space in the acting community of LA at only 20 years old, Mike left Hollywood, became a food and beverage consultant, and traveled around Southeas ..read more

Now that I am where I am and look back, everything I did prepared me to create the Manhattan Model Studio. Diana Gallo, aka The Model Maker, has over 20 years of experience modeling professionally, appearing on magazine covers, commercials, television shows, movies, music videos, and print catalogs. She owns the Manhattan Model Studio, where she coaches and mentors aspiring models to get their careers started, guiding them on how to book jobs quicker, easier, and, above all things, safer.  Diana uses the Manhattan Model Studio to help her students be more confident and self-aware of the ..read more

What I love about the stories of how people become actors is that we were filling wounds, and when we get underneath, we understand there are subconscious beliefs that brought us here. Anastasia Griffith is a film and TV Actress and an Empowerment Coach for Actresses, known for starring in the award-winning dramas "Damages" and "Once Upon A Time." Despite her success in Hollywood and the UK, where she masterfully embodied all kinds of roles from CIA villains to fairy tale princesses, Anastasia considers being a single mom to her 8-year-old son her most prominent role. Her passion for psycholo ..read more

They're not really accidents at all. It's not some lightning strike of good fortune that's bashing you in the head; it's a result of your being on a journey. John Frank Levey didn't know it, but his life was about to radically change the afternoon his mother took him to the theatre. He was a confused 12-year-old boy, unsure of his role in his family, school, and friendships, and emotionally unstable as he helplessly saw his parents' marriage falling apart. When the curtains opened, and the lights hit the stage, he knew he wanted to be part of the storytelling art. Fast forward many years, Joh ..read more

I don't teach acting; I don't want to see anybody act. I want to see you be real. The camera is a lie detector, but it's also a truth detector.  In today's episode, the last one before the end-of-the-year break, I take a moment to look back at the fantastic things we've accomplished with this pod, thank every one of you, the audience, for supporting and sharing the show, and review some of the most valuable tips we've learned from the almost a hundred interviews with the talented actors, acting students, producers, writers, and directors that visited us.  Today's show is also a rem ..read more

If you really want something, do it, and then just keep doing it, and doing it until you get really good at it. Born in New York and raised in Chicago, David Llauger Meiselman grew up in a gypsy, artsy-fartsy environment that heavily influenced him, so after he turned 18, he went back to New York to "do theatre" out there. The Big Apple was just too much for him, so he tried LA, where he found the place to evolve his art and realized he wanted to direct, not act. His first project, a Blair Witch type of material "no one ever saw" called "LA River Stories," taught him dozens of valuable lesson ..read more

Attack the roles that are easy to get, make your name, and once you've made a mark, tell your agent, Hey, give me some opportunities that I can use to stretch myself creatively. Actor and Director Maximilian Carlo Martini was born in New York. His father was a Roman sculptor and Doctor of Philosophy and Phenomenology, and his mother was a law enforcement officer in Texas. Curiously enough, Max Martini's trajectory in Hollywood was strongly influenced by both parents, his father instilling curiosity for all things creative, and his mother inspiring him for law enforcement and military roles, i ..read more

In this special episode, we celebrate the life of Cedric "Beastie" Jones. Cedric was a loving father and husband, a caring son, a supportive brother, a leader in his community, a father figure to many, a friend, and a true inspiration.  He moved to L.A. to become an actor, and as he didn't know the meaning of the word "quit," he simply never stopped believing, went after his dreams with a vengeance, and eventually made it. Cedric faced homelessness shortly after arriving in L.A., yet the compassion a total stranger showed him opened his eyes to the true meaning of kindness. Alongside h ..read more

"Find out what makes you happy and walk towards it. Then run towards it. Then chase it. Then, hold on and never let go! Then you'll be happy." Zavian Monegan grew up in South Central LA, where gang violence, prostitution, and drug abuse were just an unavoidable part of the landscape. Although a quiet, timid part of himself wholeheartedly knew that life was more than being hood rich or having hood fame, the environment he grew up in absorbed him for decades. After suffering multiple losses and facing the fact that street life never ends well, Zavian decided to bet on himself, chase his dreams ..read more