How did Young Guns get on your radar?

I got an email from the YG Team inviting me to apply! Once I dug into the past winners, it took me about 10 seconds to decide I had to do it. Especially after I saw that some of my favorite artists, including Mike Mills, the Daniels, and Christoph Niemann were former Young Guns winners.

How did you end up in the creative field?

I’ve always been interested in the arts. I recently found photos of an art exhibit I created in my childhood home in the first grade. I hung strings throughout the apartment, clipped up my drawings with wooden laundry pins, and invited everyone I knew, including the school’s principal (and she came!)

I felt embarrassed and proud, like a total idiot and a fearless creator, like I was in trouble and couldn’t wait to do it again.

In the third grade I became interested in theatre, but kept getting cast in background roles because of my accent. So I decided to put up my own plays in our house, where I cast myself as the lead. I made at least 32 productions, which I know because I had my dad film them.

His camera skills didn’t capture the magic of the plays, so I began giving him notes. The filming soon became more important than the plays, and that’s how I got into filmmaking.

Why did you decide to enter this year?

Exactly! I’m 30, so it was now or never. It was my first time entering. I got an email two years ago inviting me to apply, but I missed the deadline and was bummed at myself.

Still, it stuck in my mind, and when I turned 30, I remembered there was something I’d told myself I needed to do at this age or it would be too late. It took me a second to remember… what was it? There are so many things you’re supposed to do before you turn 30.

Then it came back to me: Young Guns! I dug up the email from two years ago and didn’t miss the deadline this time.

“When I’m lost, I try to bring my ten-year-old self back and let him take over.”

You only get to submit six projects. How did you decide what made the cut?

I chose the pieces where I took the biggest risks or challenged myself the most. Those usually turn out the best. But I also wanted some contrast. I don’t like when people look at a body of work and immediately think, “Oh, this is what you do.”

That’s why, when people ask about my favorite movies, I usually say Ratatouille, Beginners, and Synecdoche, New York. It makes it harder to pin me down, which I think is good. Filmmaking is about contradictions, so I wanted my portfolio to have that too.

What was your reaction when you found out you won?

Shock! I called my boyfriend at work and told him I won the same award that Mike Mills won. I’m so enamored by the pool of finalists this year, and artists previously recognized by The One Club, so being a part of this slate of winners is just the coolest thing.

It’s such an affirmation, and tells me I’m doing something right.

In what ways does where you’re living right now inspire your creativity?

I live in Los Angeles, but I’m still trying to figure out my place in it. I’m constantly switching things up — writing in the office, in the kitchen, in a workspace, at a friend’s place, with/without music, in the morning, at night.

I worry sometimes that I spend more time cultivating the right setting than actually doing the work. The one key thing is putting my phone away. Locking it, closing it, whatever it takes to get that cursed brick away from me.

LA aside, the one place I go back to for inspiration is my childhood. Someone recently asked what advice I’d give my younger self, but as I was answering it, I realized that younger me knew much more than I do. I should be asking him for help, not the other way around.

In many ways, my ten-year-old self was more creative, fearless, limitless, brave. When I’m lost, I try to bring him back and let him take over.

Now that you’re part of the Young Guns community, are there any past winners you admire?

Mike Mills (YG1)! No movie has been more influential to my creative journey than Beginners. It has this timely, fleeting quality that makes me want to live in the past, present, and future all at the same time.

Mike Mills breathes a collage of inspirations into the film — its score, architecture, graphic design, photography, and styling compliment the story and performances in such a symbiotic way.

Other iconic winners I look up to include the Daniels (YG14) and Christoph Niemann (YG1) — artists who constantly push the boundaries of their mediums and create work that’s so original, surprising, funny, and emotional.

If you could create a new Young Guns tradition, what would it be — and why?

Maybe instead of cutting our own reels, we can edit another winner’s reel and collaborate on them.

Name a dream project you’d love to do next. Who would you want to collaborate with?

I’d love to work more with animation, stop motion, miniatures, puppets, animatronics, and pop-up books — all things I’m obsessed with. I’d love to collaborate with Kiyotaka Mizukoshi (YG19) and Catherine Prowse (YG19). I’d also love to work with BUCK and the team behind those Airbnb ads.

I’d also love to create an animatronic ride in the spirit of “Peter Pan’s Flight” or “It’s a Small World”, but with a more adult spin. If anyone from Imagineering is reading this, please hit me up!