Kelly Edwards: Networking is Everything!
Episode Description:
Kelly Edwards is the SVP of Talent Development for WarnerMedia Entertainment—which includes HBO, Turner, and Warner Brothers. Before this, she was a key corporate diversity executive at Comcast/NBCUniversal for over five years. She's produced films and TV shows -- and helped develop a few iconic titles including "Girlfriends", "Malcolm in the Middle" and "Clueless.”
Her experience shows us what can happen when you ask for what you want, stay open to new opportunities and create strong networks. Find out how, as she tells Fanshen Cox and Anya Adams about working with the legendary filmmaker Garry Marshall, being an advocate for diversity through her work and the organization Colour Entertainment and coaching aspiring Hollywood writers— all while nurturing her own writing goals.
Transcript:
Anya (00:11):
Hey, y'all, welcome to Sista Brunch.
Fanshen (00:13):
Yes. Thanks for being here again.
Anya (00:14):
I'm Anya Adams.
Fanshen (00:15):
And I'm Fanshen Cox. We have an amazing guest today. I am so excited that she's here with us.
Anya (00:19):
Me too.
Fanshen (00:20):
The whole reason we get together is to have black women, the sistas, talk about what it's like to work in entertainment and we've had some stories.
Anya (00:29):
Who better to do it with than Kelly Edwards?
Kelly (00:32):
Thank you.
Fanshen (00:32):
Yeah, pretty much I would say that.
Anya (00:33):
Because she's done a ton of things.
Fanshen (00:34):
Yeah, what has she done? You want to get into it already?
Anya (00:37):
In this bio here, it says she's worn many hats.
Fanshen (00:39):
She has, I like that.
Kelly (00:40):
I have.
Fanshen (00:40):
How many hats?
Anya (00:41):
She's a many hat wearer.
Fanshen (00:41):
She's not wearing a hat today.
Kelly (00:43):
And I have very big hair.
Fanshen (00:44):
You do.
Kelly (00:45):
So you can imagine how difficult it is.
Anya (00:46):
We all look cute with our headsets on.
Fanshen (00:48):
It's true, yes.
Anya (00:50):
But now the hat she's wearing is SVP of Talent Development for Warner Media Entertainment, and that covers HBO, Turner and Warner Brothers.
Kelly (00:58):
Correct.
Anya (00:58):
And you oversee emerging talent programs for series, films and mini series. Is that right?
Kelly (01:03):
That's right.
Fanshen (01:03):
As an example is HBO ACCESS, which is this incredible program that is churning out some beautiful, beautiful, short films that have gone to festivals. She was also a key corporate diversity executive at Comcast NBC Universal for five years. And she oversaw 20 divisions. 20.
Kelly (01:24):
Just a couple.
Fanshen (01:25):
Yeah, just a little bit. She launched employee resource groups, introduced diverse creative talent to NBC, USA, Syfy, Bravo and Telemundo. Her career has also spanned TV and film. She produced the movie of the week, A Christmas Detour, for Hallmark, the one hour series, Sex, Love and Secrets, for UPN and okay, I love this part, this excites me, Girlfriends. This is so Sista Brunch. Yeah, she helped develop the series Girlfriends, The Parkers, Malcolm in the Middle, Clueless, and The Wild Thornberrys.
Kelly (01:58):
Which, incidentally Malcolm in the Middle was the first show I ever worked on in the industry as a [crosstalk 00:02:04] trainee.
Anya (02:03):
Oh, you're kidding.
Fanshen (02:04):
I love it.
Kelly (02:04):
So, thank you for that.
Anya (02:06):
[crosstalk 00:02:06] That connection.
Fanshen (02:07):
[crosstalk 00:02:07] Yeah, that's right.
Kelly (02:07):
I know.
Anya (02:07):
That's exciting.
Fanshen (02:08):
Because of Kelly. All because of Kelly. So Kelly is a connector.
Anya (02:12):
Yes.
Fanshen (02:15):
Sometimes I even say she's a little too much about helping others because this woman needs a publicist. This woman needs five- [crosstalk 00:02:25].
Anya (02:23):
You've been trying to get me to do that for a while now.
Fanshen (02:25):
It's true... Five assistants. So, I want to quickly talk about Color Entertainment, which Kelly co-created, co founded-
Kelly (02:33):
When do I get to jump in?
Anya (02:34):
Never.
Fanshen (02:34):
We're going to get it. But we just love you. Okay. [crosstalk 00:02:38] I love Kelly so much. I wore makeup today. I know, oh my gosh, that's the only reason. Okay, anyway, so yeah, Color Entertainment is amazing networking group where you assign mentors, kind of emerging people, executives, which is one of a kind.
Kelly (02:56):
We do quite a few things. We've we've been going for 19 years. Next year will be our 20th year.
Anya (03:03):
Congratulations.
Kelly (03:04):
I know, it's exciting. When you look back and you go, "Oh, wow. That was-"
Anya (03:07):
20 years ago.
Kelly (03:08):
It feels like the time has flown by in so many ways, but it's a networking group for creative executives of color. We span the TV film and digital groups out here in Hollywood. And the original idea was that we were usually feeling, there were a handful of us creative executives, and we were pretty much the only person of color at our company or our floor and we were feeling very isolated. And we thought, well, why don't we get in a room? All of us could fit in a room, so we should get in a room.
Kelly (03:40):
And our first dinner we had was, I think it was 34 executives, that was total. We could find.
Fanshen (03:46):
34.
Kelly (03:48):
34. And we had a dinner at Off Vine. And then what we started to do was, on a regular basis, we started to have potluck dinners, essentially. It was sort of getting together with a group of people, whoever could make it. And then whoever had an expense account would [crosstalk 00:04:01].
Kelly (04:04):
We gathered together at a Manhattan Wonton, which no longer exists anymore, but it was in Beverly Hills and we just started to network. And we realized that by working together, we would stay working longer. We had people who could advocate for us. We had a system of sharing job openings. We would find that there was a lot of support that we could give each other just in navigating the whole culture of Hollywood. And that turned into, I think, eight years in. And we ended up starting to have conversations with network presidents.
Kelly (04:39):
So we would invite a network president and Jeff Zucker was our very first at NBC.
Anya (04:43):
That's really fantastic.
Kelly (04:44):
And the ulterior motive with that was to say, "Look, we're going to give you 50 executives at all levels in entertainment for you to come and meet so that you can no longer say, "well, we looked and we couldn't find anybody."" So we started to do that. And then as we've grown, we entered into working with more of our assistants. And now we have a mentoring program which has been going on, I think for four or five years now. And it's been pretty amazing to bring up that next generation.
Kelly (05:12):
They are a very robust group and they do their own events during the year as well. And then we do a lot of other panels and networking events. So we do a ton of things during the year and we have a board now. We are just now five at once [inaudible 00:05:30]. And we're hoping to launch a leadership program.
Fanshen (05:30):
This is a one of a kind. There are lots of programs for writers, lots of diversity programs, but to really think about the executives where these decisions get made, right? You've got mentors connected and they get to see people that look like them, right? The assistants see people that look like them actually doing the job. I just love it.
Anya (05:49):
And the great thing about having you here today is, because that's kind of what this podcast is about, pulling back this veil of what are all the jobs behind the scenes and is something that people don't talk about a lot. They talk about directors, they talk about DP's, they talk about actors, but the executives that are in charge of taking these ideas and helping create them. But that's a huge job.
Kelly (06:10):
I think we forget in this industry, we forget that there are a lot of things. We have institutional knowledge that we just forget to disseminate. We need to lift that veil. We need to make sure that we're not flying blind, that we all have-
Fanshen (06:24):
A hundred percent.
Kelly (06:24):
...Access to the right information.
Fanshen (06:25):
Love it.
Anya (06:26):
That you get when you grow up in entertainment. If you grew up in an entertainment family, you know what the [crosstalk 00:06:30].
Fanshen (06:32):
And of course, we don't. This is part of the thing is that we don't have a lot of access to family members or otherwise. So actually let's take it back to how you grew up and how you ended up deciding, right? I'm kind of talking about what happens if you don't necessarily have that access. But you were here at least. So I think that kind of makes a big difference. A lot of our guests kind of grew up elsewhere. But what did that mean for you and how did you end up doing what you do?
Kelly (06:59):
Well, both of my parents, my mother and my stepfather, and my previous stepfather, were all in the dental business. So I always say if you want to know what a malocclusion looks like, I can help identify your dental issues really, really quickly.
Fanshen (07:17):
I'm going to Keep her mouth closed through the rest of this.
Kelly (07:20):
I feel like I know way too much about dentistry.
Fanshen (07:25):
So all to say, your family was not in the industry.
Kelly (07:27):
They were not in the industry.
Fanshen (07:29):
You did not inherit any knowledge from them.
Kelly (07:30):
But, my mother and I lived in this tiny little apartment off of Bedford Drive and I went to Beverly High, but I went to dance class down Pico, and I had to take a bus down Pico. And every day I would go by 20th century Fox, or I guess it was [inaudible 00:07:50] Century at that time. So I would go by Fox and I would look up and I'd go, "I really want to work there." But I knew very very early on, I'm going to say as early as 13, that I wanted to work behind the scenes, I did not want to be in front of the camera. I felt very uncomfortable about having that kind of spotlight on me. My mother had a very close friend who worked at 20th at one point and I kept getting posters, and at the time LPs, and I had grease, there were all these really great things, sort of the perks of the job.
Kelly (08:22):
And I just knew I really wanted to be in entertainment. And every afternoon after school, I was watching the ABC 3:30 movie and watching Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. And I just had this whole history of desperately wanting to be a dancer, but musicals were no longer a thing anymore. So, that was not going to be an option. Unfortunately, I had to find something else to do. So I give up dancing and little do I know that the year after, I think it was the year after I got into school, that's when MTV came [crosstalk 00:08:56]. And I was like, "I could have been an MTV dancer."
Anya (09:01):
In living color.
Kelly (09:02):
I could've, I would have been a fly girl. For sure. But, so I get into college and I ended up on the theater track, but loving the written word. And so I was going to be an English minor. And when I got out of school, I knew that I wanted to be in the business. And as every single job I've ever had in the entire history of my career, my first job out of school was a hookup from a friend.
Fanshen (09:28):
Yeah, network is important
Kelly (09:30):
Network is everything. So I ended up coming out and a friend of mine who was working for Dolores Robinson at the time, she was between assistants, she needed someone for a month. And he said he was working for her. He was waiting for the permanent assistant to come in, he said, "I can't do this month. Can you come in?" And so I worked for her for about a month and across the courtyard from Dolores's office was a place called the Casting Company run by Jane Jenkins and Janet Hirshenson. They were casting some of the biggest movies of the time. All the John Hughes movies were cast by them.
Kelly (10:04):
They were doing Stand By Me at the time, Willow, which was Ron Howard's first movie. And so I had this fantastic entree into the business and I thought casting was going to be my thing because I thought, "Oh, I'm really good with-"
Anya (10:18):
Wait, can I just stop you? So you were assisting, and then just across the street was this casting company. And you wandered over there and started working there?
Kelly (10:26):
I wandered over there and I said, "Are you looking for anybody?" And they happened to be looking for a receptionist. It was a tiny little office. It was the two casting directors. There was a woman named Jill who was assisting Janet and Jane at the time. Janet's husband, Michael was there. And me. Again, as you know, the connection process sort of continued. I was working there for a while, realized that I didn't want to be a casting person. And I realized that because I was looking for who makes the decisions? And you realize that casting people don't make the decisions.
Kelly (11:01):
I had a great time working there though. They were amazing people, but Denise happened to be friends with a guy named Jerry Perzigian. So, Jerry Perzigian had just come off of running The Jefferson's with his partner, Don Siegel at the time. And they were looking for an assistant. And so I went to work for Siegel and Perzigian and had a great time. Again, I was really felt as though I was finding the thing that I really wanted to do, which was to be a writer.
Kelly (11:29):
And so I went to work for them as a writer's assistant. I was probably there for about a couple of years and they had a show on the air on CBS, and I got to see the whole production process.
Anya (11:41):
That's great.
Kelly (11:41):
And we were in development with some amazing talent at the time. And we did that for, for a few years.
Fanshen (11:48):
And can we just mention, kelly, that obviously you were working really well at these jobs? Because I think this is something that you try to impart on the folks that you interview for access or that you kind of help nurture, is that once you get these jobs, if you want to continue and have this kind of "luck" or these connections it's because when you get there, you work your tail off.
Kelly (12:10):
Absolutely.
Fanshen (12:10):
So that then they... And I feel like we can't say that enough, is that if you get that opportunity-
Kelly (12:17):
You have to be the best you possibly [crosstalk 00:12:18].
Anya (12:18):
Don't take it for granted.
Kelly (12:20):
And learn as much as you possibly can.
Fanshen (12:21):
Humility is important, right? That you don't walk in saying, "I already know this," but you're open to learning everything.
Kelly (12:28):
And raise your hand every single time someone says they need something, or try to anticipate what they might need. So long story short, I was there, sort of batted around between working in production and in development on the TV side to the film side and back and forth. After a while, I ended up working as a story editor for Gary Marshall. And I worked for him for about two years.
Fanshen (12:50):
We're all just over here fainting over all the folks.
Kelly (12:53):
He was great.
Anya (12:54):
Just Gary Mashall. [crosstalk 00:12:54]
Kelly (12:53):
Always wonderful. So I worked there but then when the deal came up and he decided he wanted to really just be a director for hire at that point, I ended up realizing that I wanted to go back to television because of the pace. The pace was just a little bit better for me. I liked moving quickly and having a lot of projects on my plate. And so I interviewed for a job at Fox. At the time they called it FBC. And this is back in the old days. And I interviewed for what was called the minority manager position. So not a lot of people know this, but I was a diversity hire.
Fanshen (13:36):
Wow. What?
Kelly (13:40):
Yes.
Fanshen (13:40):
Wait.
Anya (13:40):
Minority manager position?
Fanshen (13:40):
Right, and it was minority-
Kelly (13:41):
That's right.
Fanshen (13:42):
Meaning you were hired in order to do diversity before it was called diversity.
Kelly (13:45):
No.
Anya (13:46):
You were hired because you were diverse.
Fanshen (13:48):
As the minority, they were like, "She's the..." Yo.
Fanshen (13:53):
Hey, you are listening to Sista Brunch with Anya Adams and me, Fanshen Cox. We will be right back. Join our community on Twitter at Sista Brunch and also on Instagram at Sister Brunch Podcast.
Anya (14:19):
All right. Hey, y'all we're back. I'm Anya Adams.
Fanshen (14:21):
And I'm Fanshen Cox.
Anya (14:23):
Kelly Edwards, part two. It's going to be great.
Anya (14:26):
Can I just ask you a quick question? Just on your way up, you were in a multitude of jobs. When you were in those jobs, did you feel like you had a goal to get to this next job? Or were you just in that job kind of absorbing and then things came up to you?
Kelly (14:39):
No, I wanted more. And I think at the time, if you remember, the whole industry was in a different place than it is now. Now you can get into a job and you can be in that job for years. Back then, if you didn't move every two years, you were considered not hot. You were not. You had to move every two years. So executives would move back and forth. It was a big shuffle, always happening.
Fanshen (15:09):
Another interesting thing I'm thinking about about that period was, and you've said, then you were hired as the minority manager. You must have been really alone.
Kelly (15:22):
Oh yeah.
Fanshen (15:22):
You were the only one, all the time, right?
Kelly (15:25):
Okay, so when I got the job, the first thing that one of my previous bosses, Steve Tao, who's now over at the CW, amazing man. So Steve Tao, who I'd worked with at Disney Touchstone years before, he calls me up and he says, "All right, I need you to do one thing for me when you get this job, go down to the second floor." I was on third floor, "Go to the second floor and meet a woman named Rose Catherine Pinkney." And I met her. She was the first person I met when I got the job. She's one of my closest friends. She was my lifeline.
Kelly (16:00):
Because again, I was on a floor where I was the only one. So let me fast forward through a lot of this and just sort of say that I was really fortunate to be at Fox at a time when diversity was a very, very important part of the process. And I was usually the person in the casting rooms, raising my hand and saying, "Can't we make this more diverse?" So I was a loud mouth and I did not realize that in a few years, there'd be a way for me to make money off of [crosstalk 00:16:35], but I was constantly having those conversations.
Kelly (16:38):
And when I went to run comedy for UPN, I made it very clear that I was never going to put something on the air where the pitch started off "This takes place in the ghetto." I had to make a decision that we were going to see other shades of life, middle class life, and upper-class life. And that's why Girlfriends looks the way it does because I think that there was a definite conversation about "Let's see women who are actually achieving. Who are doing well. And let's see what that looks like."
Fanshen (17:12):
How did you draw that line between being a loud mouth because you had to be, because you were like, "I'm not going to sit here and watch this," but where did you stop so that you didn't get fired?
Kelly (17:24):
I think sometimes it's in about meeting other people where they are.
Fanshen (17:29):
Oh girl, okay.
Kelly (17:30):
You can't necessarily run up onto them like a bull in a China shop. As much as you want to, because we are so much farther out than they are sometimes. And sometimes you have to start the conversation in a different place and realize that they take a little bit more time to get there.
Fanshen (17:50):
And their changes aren't huge, paradigm shifting changes every time, it's these small incremental changes that start to happen.
Kelly (17:57):
It's hard. And then there are times when I do get exhausted and there are times that I do get frustrated and there are times that are incredibly demoralizing, but then there are some amazing wins that you get every now and again, from my job, I get to see someone get staffed or see someone get an episode and it's incredibly rejuvenating. And I also take time to be with other people who look like me. And I find there's a lot of healing that goes on with that.
Kelly (18:26):
There's just something where you get to relax for a second and not have to worry about sometimes how you say something, not take care of someone else's feelings all the time. And they just get you. And that just revives me. So I think sometimes you have to find your little happy place. I made a choice to put boundaries around my existence to say, "I can't change other people. I can't change their negative energy. I can't change how they act. But I can change how I react to that. And I can change how I accept or don't accept that." I like to tell my kids, "Don't pick up other people's trash." Leave that stuff where it is, walk away from it. That's their issue.
Kelly (19:13):
Sometimes they're having a bad day. Sometimes that's just who they are. And if you can find a workaround and go to other people to get the information that you need, which is what I do a lot. I had to find, in every job, a way to get what I needed for myself. And sometimes sidestep some of the difficult people who come at you all the time with just their fears and their negativity and their bad energy.
Anya (19:41):
One of our other interviewees, Katie, was talking to us about emotional intelligence.
Fanshen (19:45):
Kady.
Anya (19:46):
Kady. Sorry. How much do you feel like that plays into what you do and connecting with people? And how do you build that?
Kelly (19:53):
When you come into a room and you're known as the diversity girl, it's you come in already with people's backs are up already. So you have to find a way of diffusing that, you have to find a way of giving them what they need in bite sized chunks. Because here's the thing. Everyone is overworked. Everyone. If you're a creative executive, you have a meeting every hour on the hour. Your whole day, there's virtually no time for you to even read the scripts that you're supposed to read and watch the cuts and watch the videos from the new talent. It's so hard. And having been on that side, I realized that.
Kelly (20:34):
And so I say, "Look, I can't give them a laundry list of people." Even though there might be 20 people who are perfectly capable of doing this job, I'm going to give them two. I'm going to give them three. And try to cut it down so that I'm a value add to them. So they see me coming and they go, "Oh, here's a solution. Not here's another problem."
Fanshen (20:52):
That's good, Kelly.
Kelly (20:53):
That's what I try to do.
Fanshen (20:54):
I learned so much.
Kelly (20:55):
And then you try to really connect on a personal basis, take them to lunch and get to know them and try to figure out what are the common pieces of your background that you can really build a relationship upon. It's not easy.
Fanshen (21:09):
Speaking to the lunches, because I know lots of people kind of want to know. This is tough because you go speak on a panel and you're going to get bombarded and people are like "She said she takes people lunch. You're going to take me." So one, how do you navigate that? And then also, something else that I appreciate you, is you are definitely a tough love person in the sense of being very, very honest. She has hurt my feelings for plays that I've taken her to. And she was like, "You can never suggest another play." You do it so well that you are both really honest with people about how to improve. But it's tough and also loving so that they don't feel completely rejected or that they're never going to be able to work again. How do you walk that line?
Kelly (21:54):
Wow. Well, I've been told I'm scary. This new class of writers that we're working with now, told me I was scary. And I thought that's so interesting. Because I never thought of myself as scary.
Anya (22:07):
But it's because you tell the truth.
Fanshen (22:07):
You do exactly.
Anya (22:08):
That's the scary guy.
Fanshen (22:09):
That's going to be scary.
Kelly (22:10):
Yeah. I also do recognize that sometimes my approach can be a little... I can be a little much, I think. I'm always on turbo. I'm always on hot.
Anya (22:21):
Well, tell us about that. What does that mean? What does that look like? You're just high energy?
Kelly (22:29):
I think so. I did go through the Sundance program, but while I was in the Sundance program, I'm still getting my MFA from Emerson in screenwriting, while I'm doing my job. And so people usually go, "Well, how do you do that?" And I went, "Well, when everybody else is going to the gym at 5:30 in the morning, I'm on my computer. I've skipped the gym." But I'm working constantly. And I feel like that's my resting speed.
Anya (22:54):
Hey, y'all, you're listening to Sista Brunch with Anya Adams and Fanshen Cox. Join our community. We're on Twitter at Sista Brunch and Instagram at Sista Brunch Podcast. We'll be right back.
Anya (23:14):
You said something earlier about having a dream. And I feel like in this industry you can have multiple dreams [crosstalk 00:23:21] and they can manifest. So I think it's really interesting that you've accomplished so many things and created so much, so many platforms for us to take part in and now you're kind of moving to another dream, which is really exciting.
Kelly (23:37):
I kind of look at it as sliding doors, where I was on a writer track and I put it on pause and it pursued a different Gwenyth Paltrow track. [crosstalk 00:23:50].
Fanshen (23:49):
You look cute in all of them.
Kelly (23:52):
Thank you. And I got on the other train and I ended up in this different life, which I love. And I think I needed that path in order to show me so many things. So many things. I got a ton of opportunities to stretch myself as a human being.
Kelly (24:09):
And I've always throughout my entire career, always gone to writing classes or Groundlings to perfect my ability to talk to writers. And that was really the goal is to be able to keep current with the language and keep current with what the trends are and keep current. Because comedy in particular changes so much, the business changes so much. So it was a chance for me to also do things that I loved in my spare time. So I was always writing something, whether it was short stories or some sort of script. I was writing for myself, but I wasn't showing anyone.
Kelly (24:43):
And I had this interesting moment where I had written a script. I had actually dreamt an entire script from start to finish. This was in April, 2017. I got up and I just transcribed it, I just wrote it out and I showed it to a friend. Again, something I'd never do. And he said, "This is great." He said, "It's not a movie though, it's a TV show." And so I started to work on this TV show idea and I showed it to a couple of friends, not a lot of people. I got some great notes. And so I decided that I was then going to apply to grad school and see if I got in.
Kelly (25:25):
Now here's what's interesting.
Fanshen (25:26):
"See if I got in." Do we hear all of the accolades and speaking of... We don't have time for that, Kelly. [crosstalk 00:25:34] But yes, no, I hear you, yes, yes.
Kelly (25:36):
Part of it too was, I'm working for HBO. They are very generous with their-
Anya (25:42):
Development
Kelly (25:43):
...College. Yeah, they'll support you. So they were going to pay for 80% of my education. So I thought, "Well, let me just do this." I always wanted to do it. And I always wanted to be able to have a career, if I wanted to, teaching at the college level. And I didn't want the degree to stand in my way. So I knew I wanted an MFA. So I decided, "Well, now's a good time. My kids are going to school." Everyone was in college and I had an empty house for the first time. So I applied. I thought I had applied to two colleges, I'd only applied to one. Emerson was my first choice. I got in thankfully. There was no need for a second choice.
Kelly (26:18):
And I loved it. Loved the process, loved the program, loved everything about it. And part of the program is, they encourage you to apply to things. So it's film festivals or whatever it is, they encouraged you to apply. And I thought, "Oh, okay." And my friend again, Rose Catherine Pinkney, The person that I met early on in my career said, "Why don't you apply to Sundance?" And I went, "Okay." So I apply and the application takes a minute so [crosstalk 00:26:45]. And then I didn't hear anything. And I thought, "Okay, well, no harm, no foul, no one's going to know. It will be my own little fresh hell."
Anya (26:56):
"My own little fresh hell." But that's a very important point. You should apply. You should try. You should just try.
Fanshen (27:02):
A hundred percent.
Kelly (27:03):
Sure, yeah, nobody has to know.
Fanshen (27:03):
Why not? It's free to do.
Kelly (27:05):
That's right.
Fanshen (27:06):
And, also to point out that application is extremely long and detailed. And even if you are learning screenwriting and want to know what programs look for and you understand what you have to know as a writer to apply to programs like that, it's also great just as a learning experience. But you already knew.
Kelly (27:25):
I think I had a-
Fanshen (27:25):
You did, you already knew.
Kelly (27:26):
Well, having run my own, I knew how to put it on the page, I think. So, beginning of August, I get a call that I'm a finalist.
Anya (27:38):
That's amazing.
Kelly (27:40):
And then when I finally found out that I got in, I was terrified and excited at the same time. But I realized that everyone was going to know my secret. Everyone was going to know, but then I always-
Fanshen (27:55):
What a great way to know. [crosstalk 00:27:57] By the way, I'm a writer and I'm going to Sundance.
Kelly (28:00):
Exactly, exactly. But I thought, now it's no longer going to be my little... And I'm constantly counseling people saying, "It's okay to have your dream, have your dream and start to speak that." If you want to be a writer, don't say "I want to be a writer or an aspiring writer. You are a writer and just own it." And I'm constantly telling people that. And I wasn't telling myself that because I thought I was believing the old thing of you have to be in a lane in you stay in your head.
Anya (28:26):
Pick a lane and stay in it, yeah.
Fanshen (28:28):
Right.
Kelly (28:28):
And what were people going to think if the person who's running the programs is going to actually be in a program? But getting in that program was life changing. The reason it's so great is A. It is validation. B. When you get to Sundance and you are sitting and people are talking to you as a creator, as opposed to an executive. I liken it to feeling as though I was in the right skin for the first time. It just felt right. And they put you through the paces, the mentors and the advisors are just brilliant. The most brilliant people.
Kelly (29:01):
I'm sitting up there with Graham Yost who I literally, the last day he was there, I had to confess to him that I've probably seen Speed... If I've seen them 400 times, I might be collaborating with 400 times, but literally every single time it's on, I own it, I watch it all the time. I'm just obsessed with that film. The way that they do their program is it's they have the creative advisors come in and then once they leave and once you've cried your eyes out at the final ceremony with them, you have a chance to be with the executives. And then they bring in all these amazing executives, very, very high level executives from across the industry.
Kelly (29:39):
And you have to pitch your show that you were just breaking down into pieces with them. You have to pitch your show. As if you've got a brain in your head at that point. And the feedback process begins. And it's an amazing conversation that you have on a whole nother level. And at the very end that they talk to you about next steps and how to move you forward. So I'm still in that place.
Anya (30:03):
Wait, was it weird for you to go to the exact set, knew you as an exec, and like, "Oh, hi I'm Kelly." And they're like, "Well we know you." That must have been crazy.
Kelly (30:11):
It is because when I was producing, sure, I'd go into people that I knew and I'd sit there and I'd do the windup and then I'd hand it off to the writer and the writer would pour their heart out and pitch and then we'd follow up and see if we got a show or whatever. But this is, you are really putting yourself out there in a lot of ways. Because it's you. But I did learn some very valuable lessons. One of which being when I had to pitch the first time I reconstitute the pilot that we just sort of decimated and I pitch it and I pitched it to, I'm going to call it a cold room.
Kelly (30:45):
So, I didn't get a lot of feedback, but it was the best thing that I could have gotten because then I got to pitch it to a second room and I was able to make adjustments and knowing for myself that I could make those adjustments., find some new jokes, be a little bit more personal. I really took it to a much more personal level. And that seemed to really work.
Fanshen (31:06):
Made a difference.
Kelly (31:06):
Yeah.
Anya (31:06):
Hi, Chris.
Fanshen (31:06):
Yeah, hi, Chris is waving at us. Hi. How are you? Oh, she's got a five on it. I think that means five minutes. Oh no. We want to keep you forever. Okay. So, we're going to skip to our closing questions. And then we might add in some questions after that we could cut into... Okay. Anyway, Miss Anya is going to take it away.
Anya (31:25):
No, it's just a lot of the people we hope to reach are people that aren't here, are trying to find a way in this industry and discover the different jobs and things. And so you came up through a very interesting route that a lot of our people that we've talked to haven't even touched. So what is some wisdom you would impart on those of us listening?
Kelly (31:44):
This business changes so quickly that I'm saying to people now, nobody knows nothing. So go pitch yourself. You're a subject matter expert in something, create something that you want and go pitch it to someone, because I guarantee you there's so many jobs out there. My job didn't exist at HBO. Someone was doing it as a consultant. But when I went in and had a general meeting with Shirley Black, she was talking about all these things that they wanted to do in diversity. And I said, "I want that job." And she said, "Look, there is no job." And I said, "But I want that job." And she says, "Well, I'll introduce you to," again, connections. "I'll let you see my boss."
Kelly (32:21):
Ultimately, I did 11 interviews with that company, but nine interviews later, there was a job. So that's number one. I like to say that you can find any job in entertainment that you can find in the real world; doctors, lawyers, anything, pick it, insurance. It all exists.
Fanshen (32:37):
Within the system, yeah.
Kelly (32:40):
If you're a shoe maker, we need shoes. [crosstalk 00:32:42]
Fanshen (32:43):
Yeah. Good point. It's such a good point. Yes.
Kelly (32:45):
Yeah. So you just come ask the question. And we would need you. We need people to show up because we don't exist without new life's blood. Those are my [crosstalk 00:32:57] tips.
Anya (32:57):
Thank you.
Fanshen (32:57):
Do you see why we love her so much?
Anya (33:00):
She's awesome.
Fanshen (33:00):
We love you, Kelly Edwards, thank you.
Kelly (33:04):
And I love you too. I'm so happy to be here, thank you.
Anya (33:04):
Thank you for coming.
Fanshen (33:04):
We're so glad to have you on, we're honored that you were here.
Kelly (33:08):
Thank you both.
Fanshen (33:08):
Yeah. It was wonderful.
Kelly (33:10):
Thank you Chris.
Fanshen (33:10):
Okay.
Anya (33:10):
Thank you.
Anya (33:12):
That's it. Thanks for listening to Sista brunch. I'm Anya Adams.
Fanshen (33:15):
And I'm Fanshen Cox.
Anya (33:17):
Join us next time.
Fanshen (33:18):
Yeah.
Christabel (33:24):
I am executive producer Christabel Nsiah-Buadi. We really hope you enjoyed the show. We'll be back with a new episode next Tuesday. Look out for it then, and be sure to subscribe and rate our show where ever you get your podcasts. Our show producer is Brittany Turner. Visit our website. We're at sistabrunch.com and join our community of creators. We're on Twitter at Sista Brunch, on Instagram, at Sista Brunch Podcast, and we're on Facebook on facebook.com/sistabrunchpodcast. We'll see you next time.