The Whisper Network

Rob Lowry is a music supervisor on The Bold Type, Future Man, and Ramy, and has music supervised dozens of films and documentaries as well. He talks us through what the job entails, how to get it, and the importance of continuing to love listening to music once it becomes your job.

Stunt coordinator Jess Harbeck focuses on action-driven stories that feature strong female characters, and Alex Marshall Brown is an actress and stuntwoman who played the lead in the Hulu thriller Seven Moons and keg-wielding Pepper on The New Girl, in addition to performing pyrotechnic stunts in a variety of films and shows. They join Dr. Nikita T. Hamilton to talk about the life of a stuntwoman, and navigating a part of the industry dominated by people who don't look like them. 

Marcia (Wright) Tillman and Lynn Adrianna gives us the ins and outs of being a working actress in Hollywood—how to get the training, how to get the auditions, and how to handle rejection. You can see Marcia in The Hate U Give in theaters now, directed by her husband George Tillman, Jr. Lynn and Marcia both teach acting at the I Am Marcia Tillman Actors Studio. More info here: http://www.iammarciatillmanactorstudio.com/

Wesley Allsbrook was the first person to draw an illustrated virtual reality film—"Dear Angelica," which was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival, nominated for an Emmy, and won a Peabody. As a woman and an early innovator in VR, she has an interesting perspective on the intersection of tech and film, and where women fit into it all.

Two top TV writers talk us through their journeys to the writers room, being a WOC writer and the various complexities of Hollywood "diversity" initiatives, and so much more. 

Justin Ching is the founder of j-school, a production company specializing in stories about diverse communities. Most recently, he produced the Amazon Exclusive Series “Ritual.” Ching was previously an award-winning showrunner at FOX where he produced “Z Dream” & “The Fighter & The Kid”. He also led the company’s partnership with Facebook to create @TheBuzzer, which became the #1 social video program in sports. Justin started his career at YouTube, launching the VICE, AwesomenessTV a

Just before starting her PhD dissertation on representation of black women in TV and film, Dr. Nikita T. Hamilton realized she wanted to be making the shows that solved the problem, not just reading the same reports every year. At 29, she started her career over, and got on the track toward being a showrunner. Step one: get an assistant gig. She's starting to learn about the industry but still has a lot of questions, and she's taking us along as she answers them. 

After working on shows like Atlanta and The Bold Type, Dr. Nikita T. Hamilton is starting to figure out how the TV industry works, but she still has plenty of questions and we get to join her quest for answers. In this season we explore all the different jobs in Hollywood, what they entail, how you get them, how diverse the industry really is, how the hierarchy works, and how to survive it all.