Gabrielle and I dish on how to be a sneaky creator and get the wheel of creativity moving so much it feels inevitable.

My guest, Gabrielle Thomas, is a Director and Producer based in LA. She works across film, TV, commercials, and music videos as a digital specialist. She was the Creative Director at Alienware and an executive at Skybound Entertainment.

Gabrielle directed the beautiful and dark short film Hunger, which explored our industry's challenging side, and then completely switched gears to direct "God of Work" for G4—a hilarious office mockumentary about video game heroes between gigs.

Gabrielle is an incredibly versatile creative; she has directed stop motion commercials, beautiful music videos, and post-apocalyptic dramas starring children. She produced the podcast "The San Miguel Kidnappings," which was nominated for a CLue Award and featured in Variety. For animation fans, she directed and co-wrote the upcoming live show with the "Spike and Mike Extravaganza," which is hitting theatres soon.

Gabrielle has been an incredible mentor to me, teaching me how to be a great AD and producer when we worked together on Rob Koteki’s psychological thriller “Safe+Sound. And just this past weekend, we were together making high-end athletic apparel look amazing during a night shoot in a warehouse!

Please enjoy my inspiring conversation with my friend, Gabrielle Thomas.

Follow Gabrielle: https://www.instagram.com/gabrielle.m4.thomas/

Creator's Cafe with Jessica Payne of Kika Labs

Host Jessica Payne of Kika Labs breaks down the subtle and the sublime of the creative process with inspiring artists at the Creator's Cafe.

Find out more info on the show and host Jessica Payne.
Offering creative strategy, performance coaching, and more! www.kikalabs.com

More info and resources at | www.kikalabs.com
Watch the video podcast on YouTube | YouTube Creator's Cafe Podcast Playlist
Follow the Show | @creatorscafebykikalabs
Facebook Group | Creator's Cafe by Kika Labs
Transcripts and YouTube Links at | www.kikalabs.com/creators-cafe-shownotes

Theme Music
Our theme music is composed and performed by Kyle deTarnowsky.
www.kyledetarnowskymusic.com

Megan reveals how she stays committed to her craft through the tough times and creates stories of people rising above their situation.

My guest Megan Green is an award-winning screenwriter based in Los Angeles. Megan's work has been recognized by the Austin Film Festival, Screencraft, Stowe Story Labs, Sundance Labs, and the Coverfly/Act Two mentorship program.

ONLY HUMANS, the indie drama feature she co-wrote, premiered at the Napa Valley Film Festival.

Her feature THE FAMILY HARVEST was later developed with Atlas Entertainment. Her feature biopic drama, ELEANOR & JACK, has ranked in the top 1% of projects on Coverfly and was a Nicholl Fellowship semifinalist twice.

Megan has both her MFA from UCLA and her MBA from UNC-Chapel Hill. She used her expertise at the nexus of screenwriting, tech, and business to write her incredible drama pilot, DANNI’S HARD DRIVE. I recently got to act in a Hollywood reading of this true story of the only woman to appear on the cover of The Wall Street Journal and Juggs Magazine, which won the Drama Division for CineStory’s TV Retreat and Fellowship and was selected for The Women’s List.

Check out her work at https://meganwritesscreenplays.com/

@meggersssss.bsky.social‬

IG: @meggerssssssss

Mentioned:

Save The Cat! by Blake Snyder

Creator's Cafe with Jessica Payne of Kika Labs

Host Jessica Payne of Kika Labs breaks down the subtle and the sublime of the creative process with inspiring artists at the Creator's Cafe.

Find out more info on the show and host Jessica Payne.
Offering creative strategy, performance coaching, and more! www.kikalabs.com

More info and resources at | www.kikalabs.com
Watch the video podcast on YouTube | YouTube Creator's Cafe Podcast Playlist
Follow the Show | @creatorscafebykikalabs
Facebook Group | Creator's Cafe by Kika Labs
Transcripts and YouTube Links at | www.kikalabs.com/creators-cafe-shownotes

Theme Music
Our theme music is composed and performed by Kyle deTarnowsky.
www.kyledetarnowskymusic.com

Jerome lets the spark of the story start a composition.

JEROME KURTENBACH

WRITER | DIRECTOR | COMPOSER

Jerome Kurtenbach loves to tell stories! He has directed and written several films in conjunction with his web series Someone, Thomas, Mark, and Hope (YouTube), including the psycho/thrillers Ready or Not and The Misconception Trilogy, the comedies Dümscrolt and Anything But Normal, and co-directed/wrote the PSA Rise of the Phoenix. As a composer he's worked on Death Let Me Do My Show/Special (Off-Broadway/Netflix), The Simpsons, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and NASA's Planets Blocking Light. Recent film scores include Sal Bardo's feature debut Out of the Woods and Come Clean, Nick Demos' features Body Electric and Invisible, and Marco Ragozzino's Mondays at the Office among many others. Notable stage works are Life-Giving Waters for Chorus and Chamber Ensemble, the opera Unleashed, two symphonies Westerly and Wanderlust, and four musicals Outside the Lines, Spectra and the Miss Fits Right In, Broadway Crazy! (with Rachel Bloom), and The Final Journey.

Follow Jerome:

jeromekurtenbach.com

http://www.youtube.com/@SomeoneThomasMarkandHope

Instagram

Facebook

Creator's Cafe with Jessica Payne of Kika Labs

Host Jessica Payne of Kika Labs breaks down the subtle and the sublime of the creative process with inspiring artists at the Creator's Cafe.

Find out more info on the show and host Jessica Payne.
Offering creative strategy, performance coaching, and more! www.kikalabs.com

More info and resources at | www.kikalabs.com
Watch the video podcast on YouTube | YouTube Creator's Cafe Podcast Playlist
Follow the Show | @creatorscafebykikalabs
Facebook Group | Creator's Cafe by Kika Labs
Transcripts and YouTube Links at | www.kikalabs.com/creators-cafe-shownotes

Theme Music
Our theme music is composed and performed by Kyle deTarnowsky.
www.kyledetarnowskymusic.com

Clara Griffith

My guest Clara Griffith is a visual artist based in Austin, Texas. She is also my sister-in-law!

Coming from classical training in music and art, she now works across mediums, from painting and photography to sculpture and textiles.

Clara’s signature triangle series is an original invention where she uses her decade as a software developer to build a program that kaleidoscopes pictures into an abstract triangular puzzle-like field. They are beautifully compelling and pair well with her large, colorful quilts she sews.

As a seamstress, Clara also designs ready-to-wear clothes, formal wear, and costumes for photographic shoots. Some of her costumes, accessories, and body paint are featured in my brother Chris’s book of his nude photography, Fine Art.

From ceramics to dollhouses and photography to 3D printing, Clara is a force of creation whom I’m proud to call family.

Learn more at https://www.claragriffith.com

Creator's Cafe with Jessica Payne of Kika Labs

Host Jessica Payne of Kika Labs breaks down the subtle and the sublime of the creative process with inspiring artists at the Creator's Cafe.

Find out more info on the show and host Jessica Payne.
Offering creative strategy, performance coaching, and more! www.kikalabs.com

More info and resources at | www.kikalabs.com
Watch the video podcast on YouTube | YouTube Creator's Cafe Podcast Playlist
Follow the Show | @creatorscafebykikalabs
Facebook Group | Creator's Cafe by Kika Labs
Transcripts and YouTube Links at | www.kikalabs.com/creators-cafe-shownotes

Theme Music
Our theme music is composed and performed by Kyle deTarnowsky.
www.kyledetarnowskymusic.com

TV writer Marshall Knight and I connect on the need to create or explode, and on crafting a career that fits his indoor cat personality.

My guest Marshall Knight is a Hollywood TV writer. Most recently, he and his writing partner Rob LaMorgese were executive story editors on Suits LA. This was a natural continuation of their success in the writing room of the original hit show Suits, which was my pandemic comfort show, and I have watched every episode of it.

He first got into the studio system with an internship at Paramount in the Motion Picture Creative Division while he was finishing his degree at UCLA. Marshall then went on to get in a writer’s room as a PA on Lone Star. This led to a position on Homeland, yes, that Homeland, where he got to be in a room of writing greats, plus call the FBI to fact-check episodes.

One of my favorite things about this year has been getting to peek behind the curtain on projects Marshall is working on. It’s incredible to see real-time progress from a writer of his caliber as he talks through projects in development, searches for new ideas, and pitches new projects to studios. His shows are in my living room and have building-sized billboards on the Sunset Strip, but I know him as my smart cafe buddy, enjoy my convo with the incredible Marshall Knight!

Creator's Cafe with Jessica Payne of Kika Labs

Host Jessica Payne of Kika Labs breaks down the subtle and the sublime of the creative process with inspiring artists at the Creator's Cafe.

Find out more info on the show and host Jessica Payne.
Offering creative strategy, performance coaching, and more! www.kikalabs.com

More info and resources at | www.kikalabs.com
Watch the video podcast on YouTube | YouTube Creator's Cafe Podcast Playlist
Follow the Show | @creatorscafebykikalabs
Facebook Group | Creator's Cafe by Kika Labs
Transcripts and YouTube Links at | www.kikalabs.com/creators-cafe-shownotes

Theme Music
Our theme music is composed and performed by Kyle deTarnowsky.
www.kyledetarnowskymusic.com

Rachel Lee and I dig into finding yourself to bravely embody your own brand.

My guest, Rachel Lee, is an artist, designer, and co-founder of Neo Genesis, a personal branding agency for creatives and misfit entrepreneurs who are ready to own their weird and finally, rocket online. Rachel believes that there's no better way of marketing yourself than actually being yourself.

Rachel's taking these important foundational concepts from branding that have made Neo Genesis be a successful service providing agency to transitioning her brand to becoming a household brand that will include a clothing line, comic series, merch, and more. And she's doing this whole process on Twitch to be as unedited and transparent in her journey to be a full-time working artist as possible.

So we get into the details of what makes her business successful, how to brand yourself as a business owner and as an artist, and also how to embrace the transparency and messiness of the journey that we're all on.

Follow Rachel:

• Links:
  • Personal Website (art, design & cat stuff): https://racheltylee.com/
  • Business Website (personal branding stuff): https://neogenesis.me/
  • IG: @racheltylee
  • LI: Rachel Lee
  • Twitch: @caiyrii

Creator's Cafe with Jessica Payne of Kika Labs

Host Jessica Payne of Kika Labs breaks down the subtle and the sublime of the creative process with inspiring artists at the Creator's Cafe.

Find out more info on the show and host Jessica Payne.
Offering creative strategy, performance coaching, and more! www.kikalabs.com

More info and resources at | www.kikalabs.com
Watch the video podcast on YouTube | YouTube Creator's Cafe Podcast Playlist
Follow the Show | @creatorscafebykikalabs
Facebook Group | Creator's Cafe by Kika Labs
Transcripts and YouTube Links at | www.kikalabs.com/creators-cafe-shownotes

Theme Music
Our theme music is composed and performed by Kyle deTarnowsky.
www.kyledetarnowskymusic.com

The always delightful Jacob Smith and I chew on how to take your craft seriously and yourself silly-ly.

My guest is Jacob Smith, an audio expert who lives in Las Vegas and hails from Louisiana. Jacob is a dear friend, but we'll get into that in a second. If you've been to Vegas, there's a very good chance that you've heard a space that Jacob has set up the audio for, or might even be running right now. Jacob is the head of audio for Absinthe, one of the biggest and best shows in Vegas for years.

It's at Caesars Palace. It's incredible. Check it out. He's also done the audio for the same company's production of Rose Rabbit Lie and the burlesque show by Holly Madison called Peep Show, along with the Vegas residency of Spamalot. Jacob's work has been on Broadway, on tours, and all over Vegas, and he's a voice on two major podcasts as well: Ice Cream Social and Pod Therapy.

Creator's Cafe with Jessica Payne of Kika Labs

Host Jessica Payne of Kika Labs breaks down the subtle and the sublime of the creative process with inspiring artists at the Creator's Cafe.

Find out more info on the show and host Jessica Payne.
Offering creative strategy, performance coaching, and more! www.kikalabs.com

More info and resources at | www.kikalabs.com
Watch the video podcast on YouTube | YouTube Creator's Cafe Podcast Playlist
Follow the Show | @creatorscafebykikalabs
Facebook Group | Creator's Cafe by Kika Labs
Transcripts and YouTube Links at | www.kikalabs.com/creators-cafe-shownotes

Theme Music
Our theme music is composed and performed by Kyle deTarnowsky.
www.kyledetarnowskymusic.com

Makeup artist Fern Madden encourages us to find our signature look that allows our natural beauty to shine through.

Follow:
https://www.fernmaddenmakeup.com/
IG: @fernmaddenmakeup
Represented by Jk Artists Los Angeles

Work with Jessica: On-Camera Coaching
Create on-camera confidence by learning techniques from Hollywood Acting Coach Jessica Payne. Learn more here.

Creator's Challenge: Style Icons

Bio & Intro
Fern Madden is a hair and makeup artist from who lives in LA after getting her start in London and Australia. She has worked across fashion, beauty, film, and music. Fern is known for her radiant and glowy makeup. Fern's work has been featured in publications like ELLE, Harpers Bazaar, Marie Claire, Grazia, Frankie Magazine, OK! Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Cosmopolitan. She was the beauty editor for Tangent Magazine where she covered cutting edge global style. And she regularly works with some of the biggest brands on their advertising, from industry giants like Amazon, Apple, and Nike to iconic brands like Savage Fenty, Northface, free people, Hourglass cosmetics, Dolce Vita, and Halston. Fern has worked with celebreties, like Bon Jovi, Dave Chappelle, Duran Duran, Zara Larsoon, The B-52's, and so many more. She worked with Nicole Richie for the cover of Nylon Magazine. She was the key makeup designer for the Bulgari Cinemagia runway show overseeing a team of 10 makeup artists.

Mentioned
Imogen Clark, Bri Oglu, CeraVe PM, Milk Concealer

Creator's Cafe with Jessica Payne of Kika Labs

Host Jessica Payne of Kika Labs breaks down the subtle and the sublime of the creative process with inspiring artists at the Creator's Cafe.

Find out more info on the show and host Jessica Payne.
Offering creative strategy, performance coaching, and more! www.kikalabs.com

More info and resources at | www.kikalabs.com
Watch the video podcast on YouTube | YouTube Creator's Cafe Podcast Playlist
Follow the Show | @creatorscafebykikalabs
Facebook Group | Creator's Cafe by Kika Labs
Transcripts and YouTube Links at | www.kikalabs.com/creators-cafe-shownotes

Theme Music
Our theme music is composed and performed by Kyle deTarnowsky.
www.kyledetarnowskymusic.com