Act One Podcast - Episode 21 - Interview with Actor Max McLean and Director Norman Stone of the new film, THE MOST RELUCTANT CONVERT. THE MOST RELUCTANT CONVERT features award-winning actor Max McLean as the older Lewis and Nicholas Ralph – breakout star of PBS Masterpiece’s All Creatures Great and Small – as young Lewis. Beautifully filmed in and around Oxford this engaging biopic follows the creator of The Chronicles of Narnia from the tragic death of his mother when he was just nine years...

Act One Podcast - Episode 20 - Interview with Author, Houston Howard. Houston is an entrepreneur, creator, producer, professor, author, speaker and thought-leader in the space of multiplatform, transmediated entertainment — or what he simply calls, Super Story. Driven by a passion and desire to build generational IP that leverages both narrative velocity and brand scalability, Houston has created Super Story IP and multiplatform strategy for the likes of Fox, CBS, Mattel, Disney...

Act One Podcast - Episode 19 - Interview with Screenwriter and Director, Scott Teems. Scott is an Act One alumni and a Georgia-born filmmaker whose upcoming projects include the Universal/Blumhouse releases HALLOWEEN KILLS, which he co-wrote with David Gordon Green and Danny McBride, THE EXORCIST, another collaboration with Green and McBride, and Stephen King’s FIRESTARTER, which he adapted for the screen and will executive produce. Scott adapted another King property, THE BREATHING METHOD,...

Act One Podcast - Episode 18 - Interview with Screenwriter, James Cary. James Cary is the co-creator and co-writer of the BBC comedy BLUESTONE 42. His other TV credits include MIRANDA, MY HERO and MY FAMILY as well as co-writing several series with comedian, Milton Jones. James has also script-edited and written for a number of other British comedy series including CONCRETE COW, RECORDED FOR TRAINING PURPOSES, BRIDGET & EAMON and CITIZEN KHAN. James is also a podcaster and the author of...

Act One Podcast - Episode 17 - Interview with Filmmaker Brent Gudgel of the new documentary film, FREE BURMA RANGERS. For the past 20 years Brent has been a busy documentary director. His credits include the acclaimed documentary Free Burma Rangers, Dear Francis (Showtime television), and Lovin’ Lakin for Hulu (featuring Kristen Bell, Seth McFarlin, Jamie Lee Curtis). He has also directed over 300 short documentaries with brands such as Toyota, LA Clippers, Union Rescue Mission, and...

Act One Podcast - Episode 16 - Special Episode featuring the Act One TV Showrunner Roundtable Discussion with Saladin K. Patterson (ABC's THE WONDER YEARS), Monica Macer (CBS' MACGVYER), Sheryl J. Anderson (Netflix's SWEET MAGNOLIAS), and Brian Bird (Hallmark's WHEN CALLS THE HEART). Recorded on Thursday, February 11th, 2021, this roundtable offers a fascinating look "behind the curtain” of making television. Some of the topics discussed includes how to get a job writing for tv, creative...

Act One Podcast - Episode 15 - Interview with Producer Darren Moorman of the new Netflix film, Blue Miracle. Darren Moorman is a seasoned producer and the head of Reserve Entertainment. He has worked with studios that include MGM, Lionsgate, and Paramount Pictures. His latest film, Blue Miracle, starring Dennis Quaid, premiered on Netflix on May 27th, 2021. Darren’s debut film was the 1999 feature All Over Again, starring Craig T. Nelson and Academy Award® nominee Robert Loggia. He founded...

Act One Podcast - Episode 14 - Interview with Director Roman White and Producer Gabriel Vasquez. An accomplished director, White has worked with some of the biggest names in entertainment including Taylor Swift, Blake Shelton, Justin Bieber, Kelly Clarkson, Colbie Caillat, Josh Groban, Reba, and Shakira. Also an animator and FX artist, White has earned numerous Emmy Awards, plus multiple Director of the Year nods, and he’s been recognized by MTV, ACM, CMA and CMT for his work. His video for...

Act One Podcast - Episode 13 - Interview with Comic Book Writer, Jim Krueger. Jim is an American comic book writer, novelist, and filmmaker. He is considered one of the top-rated writers currently working in American comics. In addition to creating his own comics properties such as The High Cost of Happily Ever After and The Runner, his projects include the prestigious X Trilogy from Marvel Comics, and Justice from DC Comics. The Act One Podcast provides insight and inspiration about the...

Act One Podcast - Episode 12 - Interview with Screenwriter, Clare Sera. Clare Sera has written both live action and animated films for Disney, Warner Bros., Sony, Paramount, Universal and more. A few even got made including BLENDED with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, and the Warner Bros. animated film, SMALLFOOT. When she isn’t writing movies, she helps to empower inner city gals with the world's greatest non-profit, WriteGirl. The Act One Podcast is a weekly podcast that provides insight...

Act One Podcast - Episode 11 - Interview with Assistant Executive Director of the WGA West, Charles Slocum. Charles Slocum is an Assistant Executive Director at the Writer’s Guild of America, West, and previously worked at Paramount Pictures as a financial analyst, NBC as a game show judge, and ABC as a Nielsen Ratings analyst. He has a BA from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, an MA in Theology and Film from Fuller...

Act One Podcast - Episode 10 - Interview with music journalist and poet, Steve Turner. Steve Turner is an English music journalist, biographer, and poet, who has spent his career chronicling and interviewing people from the worlds of music, film, television, fashion, art, and literature. He regularly contributes to newspapers such as The Mail on Sunday and The Times and his many books include Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts, Popcultured: Thinking Christianly About Style, Media...

Act One Podcast - Episode 09 - Interview with novelist, Carrie Arcos. Carrie Arcos was born in Albany, NY. She studied English and Philosophy at Gordon College and received her teaching credential through Chapman University and her MA in Creative Writing from California State University Los Angeles. A teacher of high school and college students for years, she finally had the courage to pursue her own writing after the birth of her third child. It’s never too late or the perfect time to...

Act One Podcast - Episode 08 - Interview with producer, Justin Bell. Justin Bell is a feature film, TV, and branded entertainment producer based in Los Angeles. Currently he’s in post production on the horror-comedy “Summoned” for Disney/20th Digital airing on Hulu, FX and Freeform Oct. 2020, in post-production on a 1970’s style superhero heist movie – The Hyperions (2020), starring Cary Elwes, and in pre-production on Andrew Hyatt’s “The Nazarene” – a horror movie about the origins of...

Act One Podcast - Episode 07 - Interview with filmmaker and director of the new comedy film, Faith Based, Vince Masciale. Vincent Masciale is a director, producer, and co-founder of Lone Suspect, a production company based in Los Angeles. He has directed two feature films, television pilots, a digital series and comedy sketches for Funny or Die, and spent 10 years as an editor for companies like TMZ, National Geographic, Discovery, Fox, VH1, and MTV. Masciale has directed and worked with...

Act One Podcast - Episode 06 - Interview with television screenwriter, Jeremy Howe. Born and raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Jeremy moved to Los Angeles in 2002 for an internship at “The Young and The Restless.” After three long years in the CBS mail room, he was fortunate enough to get a Production Assistant job on the short- lived CBS sitcom “Out of Practice.” Following a season as a PA on The CW sitcom “The Game,” he was promoted to Writers’ Assistant in 2007, where he was able to write...

Act One Podcast - Episode 05 - Interview with illusionist and author, Harris III. Harris III (“the third”) has almost 30 years of experimentation as a creative entrepreneur. Harris began his career at a young age, traveling the world as an award-winning, professional illusionist. He has performed for and spoken live to more than two million people in more than 30 countries on five continents. His performances have been televised to millions more on the Travel Channel and ABC Family. After...

Interview with filmmaker, Craig Detweiler. Filmmaker, author, and exec Craig Detweiler, Ph.D., wrote the screenplays for The Duke, the comedic road trip, Extreme Days and directed the award-winning documentary Remand, narrated by Angela Bassett. His acclaimed books include iGods: How Technology Shapes Our Spiritual and Social Lives (2013) Selfies: Searching for the Image of God in a Digital Age (2018), and Deep Focus: Film and Theology in Dialogue (2019) co-written with Robert Johnston and...

Interview with screenwriter, Scott Reynolds. Reynolds is a television writer who has worked on the Marvel and Netflix television series' Jessica Jones and Iron Fist and Marvel's Inhumans as a writer and executive producer. He was a consulting producer on the Fox series The Following, and was a supervising producer on Showtime's Dexter. Scott was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for best dramatic series for his work on the third and fourth seasons of Dexter. He has also...

Interview with screenwriter, Todd Komarnicki. Komarnicki is a prolific writer, producer and director of film and television as well as an acclaimed novelist. His screenplays include "Sully," directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks in the title role. Perfect Stranger, starring Bruce Willis and Halle Berry, and The Professor and the Madman starring Mel Gibson and Sean Penn. He has sold pilots to ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX. In addition, Komarnicki produced the Christmas blockbuster "Elf,"...

Interview with film producer, Ralph Winter