5. SCOUT DURWOOD

If you were to describe Scout Durwood in two words, those words would be “boundless optimism.” Whether she’s acting as Jordan, co star of the MTV show Mary + Jane, acting as herself in Oxygen’s Funny Girls or performing stand up and music in some of Los Angeles’ best comedy clubs, Scout does it with optimism. Scout and I talked for close to an hour about what it takes to be successful in the entertainment industry, creating your own work and her personal tagline “just keep swimming.” Instead of recording that, we recorded the two of us sitting in silence for 25 minutes. She used that time to work on a screenplay while I finished reading a digital copy of the book “Dream It! Screw It!” by Geoffrey Golden.