Tanya McRae: News Anchor & Multimedia Journalist

Episode Description:

Tanya McRae is an Emmy-Award winning television producer, with more than three decades of experience working in news, talk, lifestyle and reality TV. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in communications and is currently an anchor, journalist and host of the award-winning community affairs program “In Focus SoCal” for Spectrum News in Los Angeles. On today’s episode Fanshen and Tanya discuss Tanya’s path to journalism, her decision to reinvent herself mid-career and the responsibility she feels to give voice to the voiceless.

TRANSCRIPT:

00:00:11:12 - 00:00:41:29

FANSHEN: Welcome back to Sista Brunch, the podcast all about black women and gender expansive people bringing joy and breaking barriers in entertainment and media. We have added a listener question segment you all. So now you can leave us a voicemail at (424) 587-4870. We will be sharing listener questions on our episodes and also on our social media. So don't be shy Sistas! We want to provide you with all the tools you need to succeed in entertainment and media.

00:00:42:01 - 00:01:12:03

FANSHEN: We also love your reviews. We're so appreciative. And here's one we got recently from Dope Women who says, "So excited love these voices and the space created for them. Can't wait to hear more stories of black women in the film industry who are killing it." And it is so true. They are all killing it. So thank you so much. Dope women. And if you're listening now and you're loving our show, go ahead and subscribe rate and leave us a review as well. I'm Fanshen Cox.

00:01:12:05 - 00:01:50:05

FANSHEN: I'm the founder of TruJuLo Productions. And today's guest is the fabulous - also she's my big sister - Tanya McRae. She's an Emmy Award winning television producer with more than three decades of experience working in news, talk, lifestyle and reality TV. She graduated from UPenn with a degree in Communication, and she is currently an anchor, journalist and host. And if you live in SoCal, you have seen this woman's face everywhere because she runs the award winning community affairs program In Focus, SoCal for Spectrum News in Los Angeles.

00:01:50:07 - 00:01:52:21

FANSHEN: Welcome, Big Sister Tanya.

00:01:52:23 - 00:02:05:23

TANYA: Hello, my darling Fanshen, this is such an honor to be on your show. And I am so in awe of all of the incredible things that you are doing these days. It's really, really spectacular.

00:02:05:27 - 00:02:37:00

FANSHEN: Well, I just in full disclosure, if y'all didn't hear it yet, Tanya is my big sister. We met when I was 14, a freshman in high school. And we are so lucky to have a group of friends that we all grew up with together in Cambridge. And all are out here in various areas of the entertainment industry and other industries, and we meet up frequently. But Tanya has always been somebody that I...she's my shero.

00:02:37:02 - 00:03:09:02

FANSHEN: She's my everything. And so it's so wonderful to even have something that makes sense for you to be on that I get to have a conversation with you, but also to uplift who you are and everything you've done and what you're doing and and let other young women know that they can do this, too. So take us back as far as you'd like to go and tell us about the trajectory that  brought you to the fabulousness and all this success that you have now.

00:03:09:07 - 00:03:48:22

TANYA: Well, a little backstory. So before I made it to Cambridge, where I met you, I was born and raised in New York City, on the island of Manhattan, to Lucy and Leroy. And when anybody asks me, what are you what box do you check? I say, Well, my daddy's name is Leroy. My mother's name is Lucy. You figure it out. Yeah. And that kind of see the, you know, the brain spinning and then they have an aha moment and start laughing. So my mother was white, my father was black. They were both very involved in civil rights movement and a number of movements in New York City, everything from urban development to getting childcare for families.

00:03:48:24 - 00:04:22:14

TANYA: And my parents got married in 1966 when it was still illegal in most parts of the United States for interracial marriages. Luckily, New York City did not have that law at the time. And then you and I both celebrate "Loving Day" every year in honor of our parents and their love and their decision to create a family amidst all of that strife in the 60 seconds. So I grew up in New York City and went to Amherst, Massachusetts, for junior high school.

00:04:22:16 - 00:04:40:03

TANYA: My mother was going to get her PhD. I was ten years old and sort of the the bribe to get me from New York City to Amherst, Massachusetts, was that I could ride all the horses I wanted to because in third grade I had started riding horses thanks to my teacher at a school in Brooklyn, so moved to Amherst, Massachusetts.

00:04:40:05 - 00:04:57:26

FANSHEN: I don't think I knew that. I love that. Also, I just have to say Tanya is quintessential New York. Like Tanya is somebody who goes out and enjoys herself. So getting this, this even at that age, getting her I know that must have been hard, but I love that it was horses that drew you there to Amherst.

00:04:57:28 - 00:05:29:24

TANYA: And it was really difficult. We were there for five years and, you know, to go from New York City to a western Massachusetts New England town where there were very, very few black people. People of color of any kind. Bill Cosby and his five kids lived in Amherst and went to my school. So those were really one of the few families that lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. And by the time I was in ninth grade, I had started going to Cambridge to visit a family friend who lived there and her two kids that were my age.

00:05:29:26 - 00:05:51:09

TANYA: You both know them, both Marguerite Hicks and Che Hicks, that went to high school with us. And by ninth grade, I told my mom, "Listen, I can't stay in this hobo town anymore. I have to go to a city. I am moving to Cambridge. I'll stay in a Holiday Inn for high school if I need to, but I have got to get out of here."

00:05:51:11 - 00:05:52:18

FANSHEN: That's Tanya for you.

00:05:52:20 - 00:06:30:11

TANYA: Sometimes that's what you got to do. So. I was 15. So that's to go. And my mother had just remarried, and my stepfather is an artist, and they both realized that it was what was best for me, that I really was struggling living in that kind of a small environment. So we moved to Cambridge and I started high school my sophomore year in Cambridge, at Cambridge Rindge and Latin high school, and it was so eye opening Fanshen. And as someone who is also mixed, you can appreciate for me, you know, in my teen years going through the struggles of being biracial and a time when people didn't know what that meant, they didn't interracial biracial being mixed.

00:06:30:13 - 00:06:31:27

FANSHEN: Mulatto, mulatto.

00:06:32:09 - 00:06:43:07

TANYA: Which hated that term. Yeah. Did not understand what that meant. But Cambridge had a lot of interracial families, so it was, you know, easy for me to sort of find my place.

00:06:43:11 - 00:07:07:23

FANSHEN: I love that. This is one of the most I think you're sharing some more personal stories, which is so nice because often people focus on career and that's probably how I lead the questions. But I also wonder if so many things that you're talking about led you to into storytelling like this. You know, being in new environments where you weren't necessarily comfortable and you had to remake yourself, do you think those were planting seeds for you as a storyteller?

00:07:07:29 - 00:07:42:28

TANYA: So I realized in high school that I did much better in classes where you had to have conversations and pose questions and have discussions about topics than doing multiple choice exams. And the storytelling part of those discussion classes was really what got me into, you know, being one of those people that was comfortable in front of a crowd, number one and two didn't mind debating. So that sort of set things up for when I went to college and again, I went to the University of Pennsylvania.

00:07:43:00 - 00:08:21:08

TANYA: Everyone knows it as the school where Wharton resides. But I was sort of trying to find my way. I changed majors five times. I started out wanting to be a zoologist that's going to San Diego Zoo. And working with the babies was my dream job. I always loved animals. I wanted to be a veterinarian until I realized that required blood and Math. So that was not up my alley. Eventually, at Penn, I ended up with communications as my major. Yes. And really, one of the my senior project was that I did with two other students was about student apathy in our era.

00:08:21:10 - 00:08:52:07

TANYA: And this was in the 80's. And I had the honor of interviewing Jesse Jackson, Angela Davis, Abbie Hoffman and Bobby Seale for my senior project at Penn. And I was the interviewer and my other two student cohorts. One was the producer, one was a photographer. But I was the one who did the talking, shockingly enough. And that was kind of the beginning for me. And I ended up deciding that I was either going to go into news or public relations.

00:08:52:11 - 00:09:24:15

TANYA: I remember Fanshen, I sent out 200 resumes and cover letter. This is, mind you, the era, the dinosaur era, before email and the Internet, right? So I sent out 200 letters for jobs. I ended up with seven job interviews. They were all in New York City. And the job offer that I took was to be a vacation relief assignment desk assistant at ABC World News Tonight and Nightline, which was incredible, not too shabby.

00:09:25:25 - 00:09:54:17

TANYA: And a very good friend of mine. I'm going to give her a shout out to Charmaine Dixon, who is also a fellow Bostonian. She went to Wesleyan a year ahead of me, and she was one of the I think there were 12 assignment desk assistants and there were only two who are black. And it was Charmaine and another woman. And Charmaine helped me get my first interview with ABC News. So shout out to Charmaine for reaching back over the wall and helping me get my first job at ABC News. And that was the beginning.

00:09:55:16 - 00:10:26:07

FANSHEN: This is Sista Brunch, the podcast by and about black women and gender expansive people thriving in entertainment and media. Stay tuned. More for this conversation with our guest reporter and Spectrum 1 News anchor, Tanya McRae. Also one of my besties and my big sister. Also, will you do us a favor? If you love our show, leave us a great review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever. You listen to your podcasts and go ahead and share with friends and family.

00:10:34:07 - 00:11:11:12

FANSHEN: Welcome back and we hope you are as excited as we are to continue this conversation with my sister, Tanya McRae. Okay. So now cut to you are basically running things with and I had the the opportunity to see Tanya at the beginning of COVID. We I got to drop off some groceries and you were doing a story. And it was amazing to watch you doing the story. And then also you've interviewed me, you've interviewed some friends. So we want to know what a typical day in the life of a producer, especially on a show like In Focus SoCal.

00:11:11:14 - 00:11:13:29

FANSHEN: What does a typical day look like for you?  

00:11:14:01 - 00:11:45:03

TANYA: So let me just back up and say that in 2018. I was going through an existential crises of. I was working on a lot of reality shows as co-executive producer, field producer, which I had been doing on and off for basically 30 years as a producer. I'd say 75% of my career has been behind the camera and 25% in front of the camera. So the majority of it I've spent as a producer and in 2018, I just didn't want to do it anymore.

00:11:45:05 - 00:12:16:05

TANYA: The shows I was working on, I just were not fulfilling for me and I was trying to figure out what next, right? So what am I going to do when I grow up? Although I was already at that point 50 years old and I decided that I needed to find something that was going to give me a sense of purpose. And I got on to website Indeed.com, which I'd never used before, because most production positions are not even posted. And if they are, it's usually after they've already hired someone, but they have to do it for legal reasons.

00:12:16:21 - 00:12:36:14

TANYA: And I went on there looking at jobs, communications, jobs. And finally I saw this new posting for a new 24 hour network that was going to launch in LA called Spectrum News 1, and it was going to be the West Coast sister station of New York 1. Which has been around since 1993.

00:12:36:22 - 00:12:43:10

FANSHEN: New, you can't get New York out of you. The New York kept calling.

00:12:43:18 - 00:13:17:09

TANYA: Kept pulling me back in. I tried to get away but it kept pulling me back in. So I applied for three jobs. When I saw this listing, I applied for an executive producer of news, a producer for original programming, and for a MMJ - a multimedia journalist position in the San Fernando Valley. I was living in Sherman Oaks at the time, so I'd applied for all three, just threw them at the wall and said, Let's see. And I got a call the next day and I was brought in by a woman named Cater Lee, who was the new vice president of News for Spectrum here in LA. And I wasn't she was about my age. And we had a very similar background and which is unusual for news.

00:13:17:11 - 00:13:50:16

TANYA: oftentimes people start in news and they stay in news and we both had done a lot of original programming from news magazine shows to talk shows to lifestyle shows, entertainment shows. So she appreciated that part of my background. Whereas I think if I had been talking to a traditional news person, they probably would have had doubts about the fact that I had not had a straight path in news and all those positions. She hired me as a MMJ. Now, for those of you who don't know what it means to be a MMJ - a multimedia journalist, that means that you are a one man band.

00:13:50:27 - 00:14:25:12

TANYA: Ultimately, you have seven jobs in one. You are your own researcher. You are your own, you know, assignment desk operator. So you have to find your stories. You have to research them. You have to find characters, you have to coordinate the shoots. You have to go on the shoots. You have to shoot everything yourself. So we were shooting with Sony 280Z cameras within six months, of course, had a torn rotator cuff, had to have surgery for that. I don't suggest anyone being 51 years old and being a MMJ, by the way, that is challenging.

00:14:25:14 - 00:14:51:15

TANYA: But I knew that if I wanted to get back into the game, I was going to have to reinvent myself. So I spent two years, Oh, so you have to shoot, You have to edit, you have to write your own stories, you have to upload them. You also have to write a web article. You have to in your contract, you have to be on social media. So all of those things and you had to do the three stories a week. So I worked basically 24/7 for two years straight Fanshen. And it was.

00:14:51:17 - 00:14:55:11

FANSHEN: We didn't see her during we did not see her at all during that period.

00:14:55:13 - 00:15:29:09

TANYA: You did not from mid 2018 to mid 2020 and then the pandemic hit. And you know the world stopped. But of course, news never stops. And during a crises or a pandemic, we were on overdrive. And during that, the very beginning of the pandemic, as you mentioned, bringing me food, I got really sick and I thought I had COVID and we weren't sure of all the symptoms at the time, but I had basically everything but the fever. So they started their the public COVID testing.

00:15:29:21 - 00:15:50:09

TANYA: And I was in the Valley. So the first day I went to get tested at Hansen Dam. And before I went, my news director called me and said, Tanya, would you be okay documenting your journey? And mind you, I am half dead to the world. You know, drag trying to get myself dressed to drive to the Hansen Dam. And that's when.

00:15:50:19 - 00:15:51:06

FANSHEN: We didn't know anything about the pandemic. We were like, Is she dying?  

00:15:55:06 - 00:15:56:01

TANYA: No idea what was.

00:15:56:03 - 00:16:33:02

TANYA: Happening, right? So I put my iPhone on my dashboard Fanshen as I was driving and I'm talking to the iPhone because there's no traffic anywhere. It was surreal. And so I had to document my journey. I documented my testing, you know, waiting for days for the outcome and ultimately tested negative. But quite honestly, we don't really know because I tested myself. I had no idea what I was doing. I think I may have had COVID, although a few months later I did not have the antibodies, so who knows? But the summer of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, I then got promoted to be the anchor and host of our public affairs show In Focus And.  

00:16:34:06 - 00:17:06:07

TANYA: This has just taken both my career and my life experience to a new level. And I say this because and, you know, this is just one of those things. It is what it is, where, you know, reporters are the ones who are out there, boots on the ground, in the streets. But anchors are the ones who get a lot more visibility and a lot more of the accolades. But what's unique about my position is I'm the only one on the show. I mean, I have a production team behind the camera, but I not only anchor the show, but I also go out and do stories every week. 

00:17:06:09 - 00:17:24:14

TANYA: And I write those stories and I do interviews with people, and I'm in the studio and I'm on location. It is the best of all possible worlds. Fanshen. I have never had a job where I can say I am 100% completely fulfilled and I am in that place now.

00:17:24:18 - 00:17:29:21

FANSHEN: Ya'll. Oh, Tanya, that you know.

00:17:30:00 - 00:17:34:22

TANYA: I've had my struggles. I have had. This is not to say I have not had my struggles. I have had many.

00:17:35:06 - 00:17:36:22

FANSHEN: Many, many, many.

00:17:37:07 - 00:18:09:06

FANSHEN: And that is I think it speaks to several things. One is your your kind of knowing somewhat the path that you want to go on and also being flexible. And when even when you talk about the three different jobs that you applied for, knowing that you could do any one of those three, which to someone else might look like, Oh no, you should only apply for the EP role, right like that, you could have done any of those. The fact that you had the skills and learn the skills quickly.

00:18:09:14 - 00:18:10:14

TANYA: Oh, I had, you know.

00:18:10:16 - 00:18:12:26

TANYA: I've been in fields. Exactly. I've been in.

00:18:12:28 - 00:18:44:27

TANYA: The field for, you know, many, many years. And I've been beside the, you know, camera operators and I've been asside the directors of photography, and I've spent thousands of hours in editing bays with a professionally trained editor. But I had never touched the buttons myself until this job. So I had to learn how to use a professional camera. I had to learn Adobe Premiere. The book is about this thick and you know the reason I bring my age up in this is because most of the MMJs that were coming in were in their 20's.

00:18:45:15 - 00:19:01:21

TANYA: A few were in their 30's. So it really was a unique learning curve mid-career for me to make the switch. But as I said, it was I knew that in order to make to keep myself relevant, I was going to have to learn a new skill set. So I did.

00:19:02:17 - 00:19:20:23

FANSHEN: Your background's gorgeous. We love the orchids. We love everything that's going on. There's something there that also is sparkly and shining. And I feel like we need to address. What is that loveliness?

00:19:20:25 - 00:19:21:29

TANYA: Her name is Emmy.

00:19:23:14 - 00:19:26:10

TANYA: Roommate. My only roommate. Isn't she pretty?

00:19:26:14 - 00:19:29:15

FANSHEN: She's real pretty. Oh.

00:19:31:24 - 00:19:51:22

TANYA: That's Emmy. And I won her in 2015 for Outstanding Lifestyle show. I was a senior producer on the Oprah Winfrey Network show, "Homemade Simple". And she makes, you know, the roller coaster ride of being in this industry. You know, it's validation for sure. That's validation.

00:19:51:27 - 00:19:52:12

FANSHEN: Well. Let's talk about that. So validation where we get it from being black women, being mixed black women, things that you've talked about in your identity. What do those mean for you at work? How have those been part of your journey or not? Um, how do they come in?

00:20:13:06 - 00:20:44:15

TANYA: When I was a producer, so I went from ABC News as an assignment desk assistant to being a field coordinator for a local station in New York WPIX and working in the community Affairs department. And then my third job was as an associate producer for a talk show on Lifetime, and it was called "Attitudes", and they used to kind of parody it on Saturday Night Live because it was really one of the first talk shows, and it was two women who were gossiping and chit chatting. And they did a lot of skits on Saturday Night Live for that.

00:20:44:17 - 00:21:15:05

TANYA: But on that show was my first job where I kind of just became "the black producer" of the show because we'd have, you know, story meetings and brainstorming for who we're going to interview. And I was always the one, the only one in the room who would raise my hand and mention, why don't we interview this person, why don't we interview that person? And the first guest that I was going to be producing for them ended up being Al B. Sure! Most people never even heard of him, but he was a star.

00:21:15:07 - 00:21:16:16

FANSHEN: Whatcha mean? We love Al B!

00:21:17:12 - 00:21:38:11

TANYA: I was so excited Fanshen. And two hours before we were going to start taping, I get a call from Al B. Sure! and I'm like, Ah, yes, how can I help you, sir? And he said, I'm so sorry, Tanya. I'm not going to be able to make it. My girlfriend is in the hospital having a baby. That was Kim Porter and I'll get back to you. So but from that show.

00:21:38:26 - 00:21:39:11

FANSHEN: Whoa.  

00:21:39:13 - 00:22:00:23

TANYA: My Al B. Sure! experience, I went on to bring many other black entertainers and well-known people onto the show. But from that show, I realized that that was going to be a role that I was going to be playing in my professional life. And I think I have worked on 56 different shows over my career. Now, mind you, my mom's always like, Is that a good.

00:22:00:25 - 00:22:10:00

TANYA: thing to have a four page resume, Honey? I tell her, you know, in the production world, oftentimes you can work two, three, five, six jobs in

00:22:10:02 - 00:22:40:06

TANYA: a year because they're all, you know, some are a few weeks, some are a few months. But many, many, not all. But most of the jobs that I've had, I have ended up being "the black producer." And over the years, there have been more of us in positions. And I've worked on shows that had a black cast, for instance, like "Bring It" or did a show called "Atlanta Royalty", which was basically the black version of "Toddlers and Tiaras". But I definitely, you know, was put in that niche and accepted it willingly because I felt I had a responsibility.

00:22:40:08 - 00:22:43:05

TANYA: And if I wasn't there, folks would not have gotten on.  

00:22:43:26 - 00:23:18:12

FANSHEN: A question that we asked our guests to share. As much as you're comfortable, we like to share about salary ranges, especially so that if our Sistas who listen are in a position to negotiate their salaries, they even have a sense of where to start, or at least where to find out where to start. So especially with all the different kinds of roles you've had, could you tell us about salaries that you've received? You know, numbers if you want, or generals and and what women who are listening can expect.  

00:23:18:14 - 00:23:54:21

TANYA: So salary is, you know, it's such an amorphous thing in the TV world, especially the unscripted TV world, especially in the cable TV world. And for me, most of the jobs that I had for many years were in cable, Lifetime, OWN, Travel channel. Medical channel. Yeah. Oxygen, just a lot of different cable channels. So when I was a field producer, the average salary was usually 2500 to $3000 a week.

00:23:54:23 - 00:24:26:11

TANYA: I will tell you, one of the reasons that I moved out of that was I had that same salary for 15 years and it's still is not going up much. And what has changed is you would think as you go up, that would go up. But it has stayed the same. And the problem is there's so much competition. And what's happened in, you know, the unscripted world. And I'm going to be very specific about that because the scripted world, quite honestly, is even more competitive than unscripted TV, but pays.

00:24:26:13 - 00:24:27:08

FANSHEN: Because at times.

00:24:27:10 - 00:24:27:25

FANSHEN: More.

00:24:27:27 - 00:24:28:19

FANSHEN: Partly Why?

00:24:28:24 - 00:24:29:09

FANSHEN: Sure.

00:24:29:11 - 00:24:34:09

TANYA: I know people who are making $30,000 a week that has never been in my stratosphere.

00:24:34:15 - 00:24:37:22

FANSHEN: As Producers in unscript. In scripted.

00:24:37:24 - 00:24:38:22

TANYA: In scripted. Exactly. 

00:24:39:04 - 00:25:11:11

TANYA: As an exec, as a co-executive producer in unscripted, I was ordinarily making about $4,000 a week. And one of the things that I did in 2015 was I started my own S-Corp Amazonia Productions. And, you know, the backstory to my Amazonian nickname really quick. I was in talent show. When Fanshen and I were at Cambridge Rindge and Latin, I did a song with some fellow students for the Purple Rain, and people started calling me Apollonia. [2] 

00:25:11:13 - 00:25:13:14

TANYA: And then the lead singer said, She's not.

00:25:13:16 - 00:25:15:18

TANYA: Apollonia, she's Amazonia.

00:25:15:22 - 00:26:02:10

TANYA: And that became the name of my production company. I embraced it being an Amazon, yes, I am six feet tall and proud of it. So Amazonian production. So I created my own production company so would get paid through that. And then I sort of with the other direction again when I said I had to make myself relevant again and go down a different track, going into news is a whole nother world and news does not pay a lot it unless you are a network anchor working for World News Tonight or working for CNN or MSNBC, you know, working for one of the biggies, you are not going to make a killing and end up in a mansion working and certainly not local news or cable news.

00:26:02:12 - 00:26:35:06

TANYA: But you can eventually make your way up. And I think one of the things I'm learning now is many of these companies have 401Ks that you do not get as an independent contractor, and many companies will match what you put into your 401K. Every year, which is a huge benefit, but would also tell people that they need to find ways to start their own savings because those of us who live and work in the freelance world, it's a whole nother beast. And my Social Security is going to be really small.

00:26:35:08 - 00:26:37:16

TANYA: So I would probably be working until I drop.

00:26:38:01 - 00:27:10:29

TANYA: Um, but that's one of the benefits of doing, you know, having your own plan. I would pay for an accountant to help me navigate that world. And then, you know, when you get into an, again in my world, the either network news or if you become an anchor, the salaries become much more negotiable because you are the face of a particular program, which is the morning news. Or like me, working on our public affairs show. It is a different responsibility that comes with that as well.

00:27:11:01 - 00:27:25:05

TANYA: And there's a different visibility that comes with, you know, being the face of a show and having your name on a show. But it's an incredible it's an incredible honor. And I take it very seriously.

00:27:25:17 - 00:27:26:02

FANSHEN: Yes you do.

00:27:26:15 - 00:27:32:13

TANYA: I take that responsibility seriously, but it's also, you know, an opportunity for me to.

00:27:34:12 - 00:27:38:18

TANYA: I give voice to a lot of different people who wouldn't have one.

00:27:39:09 - 00:27:50:25

FANSHEN: Hey, it's Fanshen Cox. And you're listening to Sista Brunch. We'll be right back. And during this quick break, head on over to Instagram. We're @SistaBrunchpodcast. If you're still on Twitter, we're there, too, @SistaBrunch.

00:27:55:08 - 00:27:59:18

TANYA: This is Tanya McRae and you're listening to Sista Brunch, the podcast

00:27:59:20 - 00:28:03:03

TANYA: all about black women thriving in entertainment and media.

00:28:05:07 - 00:28:16:22

FANSHEN: So, Tanya, we've got a Sista Brunch question, and this is from Lisa Crest. Again. Thanks, Lisa. She's an aspiring filmmaker. And here's her question.

00:28:17:05 - 00:29:08:28

Lisa: Hello, Sista Brunch again. It's me, Lisa Krest. I'm a young filmmaker and aspiring producer, and I am really interested in screenwriting and telling important stories that matter that haven't been told before. And my question to you is, how do you see good representation in media? And because it's something that I feel like the industry really needs to work on and how can we make our industry better in that terms? And what can we as storytellers and screenwriters focus on to make better choices and make this industry better and more representative of our human race? Yes.

00:29:09:00 - 00:29:10:00

Lisa: Thank you very much.

00:29:10:28 - 00:29:45:22

TANYA: I think inclusive representation means that you have to create your own content. Number one, you can't expect someone who does not understand what life is like in your community, in your world, in your family. To write about it, you have to write about it. And the challenge is getting people who don't know about your world, so to speak, to think that it's important. And that has been the consummate issue that Hollywood has faced for many, many, many, many years.

00:29:45:24 - 00:30:26:16

TANYA: And it is changing. It is changing as we get people of color in studio executive positions, as we get them running networks, running news organizations, running production facilities, running, you know, the streaming channels. It is a matter of getting the gatekeepers to represent the rest of us as well, because those are the folks who give the green light. So, you know, as much as it is important for us to see representation on camera, on our TVs, on the movie, you know, on a movie screen, it is also really important that people work towards becoming one of the gatekeepers.

00:30:26:18 - 00:30:57:26

TANYA: And it is essential because those are the people who greenlight projects and those are the people who either say yes or say no to whether something is going to get the money and get the distribution. So, number one, it is being willing to be a creator and Fanshen I think one thing that you have always been very involved in, people on all sides of the entertainment and media world in front of the camera and behind the camera, the gatekeepers and the creatives.

00:30:58:14 - 00:31:12:21

TANYA: We have to tell our own stories in order for people to even understand that it's important. I just happened the other day. It was like a Sunday and turned on the TV and what is it, million Millionaire. Slumdog.

00:31:13:05 - 00:31:15:04

FANSHEN: Oh, Slumdog Millionaire. Yeah.

00:31:15:20 - 00:31:17:08

TANYA: So was watching TV a few weeks ago, and Slumdog Millionaire came on. That was one of the best movies ever made. And you would not think that a movie about, you know children in India who were orphans and struggling to survive would be something that would capture the mass audience's attention. But it was a story about humanity and it was a story about, you know, finding your way through the world despite all of the challenges, when you have nothing and you know about children that are going through this, and it is a universal story. It's a universal struggle. So I think while there are aspects to our experience, to the experience of so people in so many different demographic groups, although when people say, what is your race? I say, I'm a member of the human race, as are you.

00:32:09:18 - 00:32:36:16

TANYA: So we are brothers and sisters is understanding that there are stories that are universal where you can add the nuances and the layers of, you know, whether you are black or whether you are Asian American or whether you are Native American, or if you are from another country and come to America, or whether you don't live in America at all, making these stories of interest to people in their humanity, I think is really important.

00:32:38:09 - 00:32:52:25

FANSHEN: Okay. So, Tanya, you and young Tanya are sitting down for a Sista Brunch. Okay. What are you both eating? What are you both drinking? And what do you tell young Tanya?

00:32:54:24 - 00:33:01:28

TANYA: Uh, still, my absolute favorite is good Chinese food needs to be Sichuan. Little Tanya loved

00:33:02:00 - 00:33:06:16

TANYA: Hot and sour soup and dumplings. Uh, Big Tanya,

00:33:06:18 - 00:33:07:24

TANYA: I was big back then too. Tall

00:33:07:26 - 00:33:09:18

TANYA: Tanya still loves

00:33:09:23 - 00:33:21:00

TANYA: Hot and sour soup and soy sauce and literally anything that has soy sauce on it, I am happy with it. So whether it is Japanese food, Thai food, Chinese food, Korean food, Vietnamese food.

00:33:21:26 - 00:33:26:29

FANSHEN: And it's from the Hong Kong you're taking little Tanya to the to the Hong Kong in Harvard Square.

00:33:28:06 - 00:33:29:16

FANSHEN: Many a fun time.

00:33:29:27 - 00:33:32:02

TANYA: I passed up the school lunches for Hong Kong lunch many, many, many times.

00:33:35:20 - 00:33:36:05

TANYA: Um. I think the thing that Big Tanya would tell little Tanya is to slow down. I was always so eager to be grown.

00:33:48:00 - 00:34:08:10

TANYA: You know, I wanted to get out in the world and wanted to do things, and I wanted to be independent. And I was frantic. When I was in elementary school. I wanted to be in junior high school. When I was in junior high school, I wanted to be in high school. When I was in high school, I wanted to be in college. When I was in college, I wanted to get into the working world and I think Big Tanya would tell her, Honey, adulting is really hard. Enjoy the fact that your only responsibility today is to do that math worksheet and go to basketball practice and then come home and have dinner with your parents, watch a little TV, read a book,

00:34:27:15 - 00:34:37:08

TANYA: and enjoy the life that you have today." And it would be to be present because I was always looking ahead and looking at what's next. And, you know, honestly

00:34:37:10 - 00:34:38:25

TANYA: It's it's brought me a lot

00:34:38:27 - 00:35:08:06

TANYA: of anxiety and stress and angst over the years. I'm always looking at what's next. So, you know, get a producer job. Okay, when am I getting my co-executive producer job? I get a job. Okay. When am I getting my executive producer job? You know, I was always looking for the next I accomplished this. Great. Got that checked off. What's next? And it really is to appreciate where you are today. That is a life lesson. And when I have it took me a long time 

00:35:08:08 - 00:35:10:06

TANYA: to get to the point of realizing being

00:35:10:08 - 00:35:30:04

TANYA: present and appreciating NOW. I think the pandemic was a game changer for me Fanshen in terms of my mentality of: appreciate today. Because you really have no idea what tomorrow is going to bring and to be present and to accept things as they are. Not what you want them to be, not what they could be, not

00:35:30:06 - 00:35:31:21

TANYA: what they should be, but accept

00:35:31:23 - 00:35:46:04

TANYA: things as they are. And when you work within that realm, you'll be amazed at the weight that is lifted off your shoulders. So I would say to be present and to appreciate what you have today.

00:35:48:04 - 00:36:18:18

FANSHEN: Thank you for being my friend for so long and my sister and my mentor. I love you too, Tanya, and I'm so glad to be able to share you with with all of our Sista Brunch listeners and inspire them and let them know to to come full circle, Tanya, and to see you say you are living your dream is incredible and so inspiring.

00:36:18:20 - 00:36:20:00

FANSHEN: So thank you.

00:36:20:20 - 00:36:21:05

TANYA: Love you.

00:36:21:10 - 00:36:22:06

FANSHEN: Love you too.

00:36:29:11 - 00:36:59:16

FANSHEN: Thank you for listening to Sista Brunch, our podcast, bringing you the stories of black women breaking barriers and bringing so much joy to entertainment and media. This is our fourth season you all. Lots of shows for you to listen to. You can go to our website: www.SistaBrunch.Com. Listen to our previous three seasons or also to all of the guests we've had for season four. We so appreciate those of you who subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a great review. Share it with others.

00:36:59:18 - 00:37:30:20

FANSHEN: You can always follow us on Instagram @SistaBrunchpodcast, on Twitter,  @SistaBrunch and support us by rating the show and reviewing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere else you listen to your podcasts. Sista Brunch is brought to you by TruJuLo Productions. Our senior producer is Sonata Lee Narcisse. Our co-producer is Brittany Turner. Our associate producers are Farida Abdul-Wahab and Mimi Slater. Our executive producers are Christabel Nsiah-Buadi and Anya Adams.

00:37:30:22 - 00:37:41:13

FANSHEN: And we acknowledge that the land we record our podcast on is the original land of the Tongva and the Chumash people. That's our show and we will catch you next time on Sista Brunch.