Jason Shuman has had a prolific film and television career as both a writer and producer. From his beginning days, producing a horror film about the tooth fairy in Australia through projects from BANGKOK DANGEROUS to REBEL IN THE RYE, LONE SURVIVOR, ARE WE THERE YET, HALF BROTHERS, ACAPULCO, and the HBO Series WINNING TIME: THE RISE OF THE LAKERS DYNASTY - he is the embodiment of a story machine. This is even more clear with his upcoming projects, feature pitch, COLA WARS, and DRIFT - which he first co-wrote as a short story with one of his partners, Ben Queen. Both of these projects sold in recent bidding wars. Success aside, Jason manages to be a funny, humble and thoughtful human being as you will see in today’s discussion.

Carole Kirschner has been a Career Coach in Hollywood for over 25 years and is the Director of the WGA Showrunner Training Program & the Paramount Writers Mentoring Program. She actually started off as a stand-up comic and then spent 15 years as a senior-level development executive, including at CBS and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television. And this episode is pretty special because not only is she a much beloved figure in the entertainment industry, but I also worked with Carole for over a decade and I consider her one of my greatest influences.

Jeane Phan Wong has sold numerous pilots, a feature, and has experience producing television from prep to post including episodes she wrote on freelance for ARROW. She staffed on Freemantle's SANDOKAN and consulted for Freeform's pilot AZNBBYGRL. She previously worked as an assistant in representation and in television, and has a unique perspective in that she has sold more than staffed. In this episode we discuss many of Jeane’s effective practices including the financial elements that allow her to say yes or no to opportunities with confidence, trusting her instincts and lateral networking.

Known for multiple award-winning concepts, Adrien Prevost has scored custom work for companies like A24, Sony Pictures Classics, Amazon Studios, Disney / Pixar, Focus Features, Aviron, Hulu, FX, Universal, Warner Brothers and AMC and his work is a testament to the magic that only comes to storytelling through music.

Fresh off runs on the series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “IT: Welcome to Derry,” Helen Shang rose from Researcher and EP assistant to Co-Executive Producer with writing and producing work on shows including “Hannibal,” “The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power,” “Hawaii Five-O,” and “13 Reasons Why.” Part of her journey included a stint in David Mamet’s corner office on the FOX lot - and one of the massively important skills Helen has mastered is: staying in touch with all of the good people she has met along the way.

Keegan DeWitt has over 80 credits as composer on film and television projects including “People We Meet On Vacation,” “The Chair Company,” “Friendship,” “Kevin Can F**k Himself,” “Sorry For Your Loss,” “The OA” and “How I Met Your Mother.” He has worked in New York, Nashville and Los Angeles and toured as a lead singer in the band Wild Cub. With over 20 years working as a professional in the entertainment industry, Keegan’s point of view is one forged in the furnace of dedication to the storytelling that can only come through music.

David Bianchi has established himself as not only a multi-hyphenate actor, producer and screenwriter with over 120 professional film and TV credits, he is also an entrepreneur with a massive online following who provides industry information and courses like the one he just released for actors to master their self tapes. He has booked more than 55 episodes on 18 shows using the methods in his course. As a producer and writer, David’s recent Emmy-nominated, short form dystopian series, RZR, which is a flagship web3 project, can be seen on the Gala film platform on YouTube. David is a nonstop powerhouse with volumes of creative and business knowledge who has the kind of drive and hustle that only comes with 24/7 commitment. Listen in to hear David speak for himself.

Rebecca Metz got her start on planet Earth in Bruce Springsteen‘s hometown of Freehold New Jersey. Born to classically trained singers, Rebecca went on to act in recurring roles including projects like “Shameless,” “Better Things” and “Coop & Cami Ask the World.” She is a screen and stage actor and voice actor who trained through both Carnegie Mellon and UCB Improv and much of her inspiration caught fire when she sat on the floor as a kid watching TV and told herself “that’s where I belong.”