This is week my guest is Desiree Akhavan!
Desiree’s first feature film was 2014’s APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOUR, in which she also starred. It came off the back of a web series she made in 2010 called The Slope, with fellow NYU postgrad film student Ingrid Jungermann.
After Appropriate Behaviour, Desiree had a guest spot on the TV show Girls, and also began adapting the book THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST, alongside her co-writer and producer Cecilia Frugiuele. The film, which Desiree also directed, would star Chloe Grace Moretz and Sasha Lane and went on to win the Sundance Dramatic Grand Jury Prize in 2018.
Around the same time, Desiree also created, wrote and directed a brilliant 6-part TV show for Channel 4 called THE BISEXUAL, starring Maxine Peake, Brian Gleeson, Naomi Ackie and Desiree herself and all set in London.
Since 2018 Desiree has been working on a very personal project which we talk about, as well directing episodes of many brilliant TV shows, including RAMY, HACKS and TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS.
We talk about a lot, and if you’ve ever read an interview with Desiree you know she’s very good at cutting through the bullshit and this is no exception. We dig into how the past five years have seen her working at a different pace and why that is, we talk about the moments after success and the expectations that were placed on her career, we talk about what it actually means or requires to direct an episode of TV, finding a soulmate in her creative partner Cecilia and why learning and having fun is at the centre of everything she does…
#118: Carmen Thompson, Curator & Creative Producer
117: Adelaide Waldrop, Intimacy Coordinator
#116: Reetu Kabra, publicist
#115: Aoife McArdle, Filmmaker
Bonus Minisode: Sara Dosa, Documentary Filmmaker
#114: Claire Anne Williams, Hair & Make-Up Designer
#113: Jessica Kiang, Film Critic & Writer
#112: Sheena Patel, Assistant Director & Author
#111: Tabitha Jackson, Director of the Sundance Film Festival (Live at Sundance London)
#110: Ashley Connor, Cinematographer
#109: Katie Sinclair, Development Exec & Independent Producer
#108: Renee Zhan, Director & Animator
#107: Chi Thai, Independent Filmmaker & Producer
#106: Lizzie Gillett, Director of Feature Docs at Passion Pictures
#105: Aisha Bywaters, Casting Director
#104: Ruth Greenberg, Writer & Director
#103: Elhum Shakerifar, Documentary Producer
#102: Henrietta & Jessica Ashworth, screenwriters & directors
#101: Sandra Hebron, Head of Screen Arts at NFTS
#100: Rose Garnett, Director of BBC Film
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