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Rae Benjamin

A Leap Of Faith Propelled Rae Benjamin Into The Entertainment Industry Now She’s Helping Others Do The Same

Your entrance into the industry just got a bit more realistic thanks to In The Cut (ITC), an education and networking company prepping Black creatives and other people of color for careers in entertainment. At the helm of this mission is Rae Benjamin, an LA-native who set out to launch a career in screenwriting with no screenwriting experience or formal screenwriting education. The decision to make the switch from a career in graphic design to screenwriting left the Los Angeles native with frustrations about the lack of transparency and authenticity about what it takes to land a role in the industry.

From unlisted jobs to training that simply does not exist, Benjamin knew that something needed to be done to help budding creatives who looked like her with the extra push needed to jumpstart careers in entertainment.  This led her to create ITC, a hub that provides users with a direct, hands-on experience in screenwriting as well as access to a network that has traditionally been closed to outsiders. With ITC, Rae aims to help writers improve their value proposition, increase their earning potential, and demonstrate the value of community as one is building a screenwriting career. 

Benjamin is currently a Staff Writer on Season 3 of Netflix’s “The Witcher,” working on an animated feature for the streaming giant, and is also the co-creator of the animated web series, “Julisa Who,” which is now in development with Topic Studios and available to watch on Instagram and YouTube. 

Despite her extremely busy writing career, she firmly believes in lifting as she climbs, which is why ITC is so near and dear to her heart. After ITC’s first live event sold out within hours at the top of 2020, there was no looking back. Today, the company is home to over 8,000 artists and filmmakers across the globe. 

Benjamin talks us through her journey, the day in her life as a writer in the film and television space, and more.

Tech It Anywhere: Tell us how you got into screenwriting 

Rae: I’m someone who did not go to film school, even though I’ve written my whole life, I even went to an arts high school for creative writing but I didn’t really think about screenwriting as a career until pretty recently, I was actually a graphic designer for a long time. 

In 2018 I decided to quit working as a designer and to really focus on screenwriting. Before, I was sort of writing scripts as a hobby, but I wasn’t taking it very seriously and honestly didn’t really know much information on how to get started. But after I quit my job that summer, a few months later I was able to get a job, my first job as a writer’s assistant on season one of Bridgerton on Netflix. Since then, I’ve been able to have consistent jobs in the industry.

TIA: Wow, talk about impressive! It usually takes people long to even get their foot in the door. Can you tell me how that came about? Did you already know people or did you just start grinding on social media?

Rae: I think it’s essential for anyone that wants a job in the industry to network. In general, in the entertainment industry, there’s a lot of jobs that are shared publicly, but for writers’ jobs, specifically, even assistant jobs in the writers’ room, 99.9% of the time, they are never shared publicly.

TIA: All that working and word of mouth is how you find out about these jobs. 

Rae: So, actually let me give you a clear timeline. In January 2018, I decided that I wanted to have a job in the industry by the end of the year. I didn’t know anyone who was in the industry and I didn’t have any connections, but I put the intention out there and tried to make things happen and so it actually happened. 

I follow Lena Waithe on Instagram and I saw someone had commented on her Instagram, like, ‘hey, I saw you say you like to mentor people, how can I be mentored by you?’ She responded to that person telling her to message my assistant and so I followed suit too and messaged her assistant. She told me about the mentorship program that Lena had and the rest is history.

TIA: Can you tell us what that work was like as a writer’s assistant?

Rae: Absolutely! Your job is to take notes for the writers, or writers room which is functioning like some sort of long meeting each day for brainstorming. All the writers on the show are pitching ideas for what could happen in the show. 

They’re sort of refining the structure of the episode, making sure each character has an arc shirt that fits the season arc or whatever they’re talking about.  It’s just your job as a writer’s assistant to capture that in the note, and for me, it was really important to make very organized notes so that they can. It’s helpful because a lot of times we are in the room for anywhere from like five, sometimes ten or twelve hours a day, depending on the day. So that’s a lot of talking. 

You’re summarizing things in a helpful way so that someone when it’s time to write their episode, it might be, you know weeks later when it’s time to write their episode, it might be, you know, weeks later, and they can refer back to your notes and remember what they need to include.

TIA: And let’s get into the money part of it, what’s that like?

Rae: Well, I am a writer and I make a lot of money, to be honest. You can go on the WTA websites and see how much writers make. When you’re a professional writer, working on a TV show, there’s no way you’re going to struggle unless you’re just really bad at money. 

But I will say the job of being a writer is like being a freelancer, so it’s like they make a lot of money, and then you may not get a job for a while so you have to be cognizant of that. 

I save a lot, so I can take breaks in between jobs. I will say that being a writer’s assistant and being a writer are not the same at all. So as a writer’s assistant, I was not making much money at all, but for me, I still will encourage people to get started as an assistant. 

TIA: Lastly, tell us your plans for 2022

Rae: I hope to focus more on comedy writing because that’s my passion. I’m very appreciative to be working on The Witcher and I love my boss and every writer on season three of the show, but I also would like to focus on writing on more comedic things and getting experience with that.

For In The Cut, we’ve grown immensely since it was first started and I really didn’t expect it to grow this fast. To have started in 2020 and the first event was just a 50 person event, now we have thousands of followers across the whole world like Australia, the UK, South Africa, and all of these places so I just hope to keep offering new classes. 

I’m doing our first writer’s retreat this summer and that has already sold out in not even two days so I’m really excited.

Also, I’m launching an initiative called the Show Support Initiative to help get Black writers and other people of color into assistant jobs in the writers’ room because being an assistant, like I said, was so pivotal for me to learn as a writer and just networking. 

The vast majority of people I know that have gotten staffed as writers all started out as assistants so I think funneling people into these jobs and creating video training courses that people can watch to learn about these jobs and once they finish, they can create a profile in our jobs database which is then shared with employers, like showrunners, network executives, producers, other assistants, other writers, to help get people jobs.

 

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Kyle Woumn, VP of Product and Engineering, Overflow

Kyle Woumn: Unlocking Generosity

Overflow is a California-based startup with a mission to “re-invent modern philanthropy” by enabling non-profit organizations to easily accept donations of publicly-traded stocks. At the helm of their engineering department is Kyle Woumn, a former Twilio software engineer and a finalist in Forbes 30 Under 30 for 2022.

Kyle’s passion for technology was sparked at an early age. He earned a computer science degree from Georgia Tech and began his career at Twilio soon after. But since May 2020, he’s directed his talents to a matter near and dear to his heart: generosity. As the Vice President of Product and Engineering at Overflow, he’s committed to making giving as easy as possible.

“We’re essentially the Pay Pal for stock,” Woumn explained to Tech It Anywhere, “A lot of people, their wealth is in stock, whereas 10% is in cash. So, we’re trying to unlock most of that,” he elaborated. According to Woumn, enabling stock donations has been critical to allowing non-profits to maximize their fundraising, as the value of stock donations is often higher than cash donations.

“The average value [of donations] through our platform is $8,000,” Kyle explains.

Overflow also partners with The Giving Block to allow cryptocurrency donations on the platform.

Highlights

2021 was a big year for Overflow. In addition to launching “Overflow for Corporations” to provide corporate employees better options for their personal philanthropy, the company raised $10M in a Series A round.

“Overflow for Corporations is going to be my primary focus [in 2022],” Woumn explained. “[Overflow for Corporations] allows employees to make equity donations to nonprofits,” he adds.

2022 Plans

Kyle has had a long and fulfilling journey in tech but, in his current role, he feels that he’s truly found his calling.

“I realized how important team is right and how important it is for your team to be aligned,” he explains, “Vance, he’s a great leader and someone that has vision and, a big vision at that too. [He’s] someone that can execute and make things happen,” Kyle elaborates about Overflow’s CEO Vance Roush and finding a home with the Overflow team.

To support their big visions, Overflow has increased its staff by approximately sixfold over the past year.

On being named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2022, “It feels like a dream. A list doesn’t define who I am. But it is good to be recognized,” he adds.

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Nathalie Walton, CEO and Co-founder of Expectful

Nathalie Walton: A CEO Fighting For Maternal Health

As the co-founder and CEO of Expectful, Nathalie Walton began 2021 by raising $4.2M to further to company’s ambitious mission: to become a holistic health and wellness platform for expectant mothers. But that was probably the least impressive she accomplished that year. Since then, Walton has transformed the company into a powerhouse of resources for maternal health. In addition to fertility-focused meditations, the app now offers parents access to lactation consultants, sleep coaching, nutritionists, bereavement specialists, fertility coaches, and live events.

“Really, the biggest thing that we did was this pivot into this vision of this holistic wellness platform for fertility, pregnancy, and parenthood,” Walton explained to Tech It Anywhere, “It’s really hard to find all the pieces that you need when you’re trying to conceive when you’re pregnant as a new mom, and so like, that’s our pivot into being that one-stop-shop for everyone in that space,” she added.

To support this larger-than-life vision, she’s also expanded the company, pulling in talent from all across the country and growing the platform’s network of service providers.

“A lot of people think that the hard work is the fundraising, and fundraising is hard, but the real work begins after that,” Walton elaborated.

The Why

Walton, who got an MBA at Stanford’s GSB and has worked at big names like Airbnb and Google, has a very personal connection to Expectful’s mission. Her own high-risk pregnancy and birthing experience prompted her to seek help coping with the emotional and physical toll they had taken on her. In a Medium article, she discussed the moment the doctor told her she was at risk for preterm delivery and that her baby might not survive.  On top of all of that, she had just started a challenging new role at a large tech company.

At this point, she turned her entire focus toward taking the best care of herself so she could complete a full-term pregnancy. And she did it. She stayed pregnant for 262 days, surpassing her goal of 259 days. Then, everything came crashing down.

“The delivery doctor described my birth as an ’emergency of all emergencies’; my placenta had abrupted and my son, Everett, and I were fortunate to make it out alive. Had I not been in one [of] the country’s top hospitals, and had I not had access to every possible wellness resource that one can encounter, my story may not have had the same outcome,” she wrote in her Medium article.

This knowledge – that many women, especially Black women,  suffer through high-risk pregnancies and deliveries without access to the resources she had – fueled her to find a way to help.

“The sad reality is that many families don’t survive. Black mothers are 3–4 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications (and are more likely to have pregnancy complications) than White women. Frankly, it wouldn’t have mattered if I were Beyoncé or Serena Williams; as Black women, they too faced life-threatening situations during their motherhood journey. Regardless of education, socio-economic status, or physical ability, to be pregnant as a Black woman in the United States is an existential risk,” she explained in her Medium post.

Plans

In 2021 Expectful launched Black Mamas Meditate, a free meditation collection designed by and for Black women to address the unique challenges Black mothers face in their fertility journeys. Additionally, Expectful remains committed to accessibility through its long-standing partnership with Johnson and Johnson to offer free subscriptions to anyone who needs them.

Walton’s plans for Expectful in 2022 are even more ambitious than for 2021.

“We built the foundation for this holistic wellness platform. And now I think it’s it’s doing the hard work of just making sure that this is the product that users want and love,” Walton told Tech It Anywhere.

That includes expanding their network of service providers even more and making Expectful as visible and accessible as possible.

“It’s exciting that people can see what we’re doing and in hopes of helping them. That’s what is most exciting to me,” Walton gushed about the platform’s growth, “I get DMs from people I don’t even know, and they’re like, just I want you to know how much your product helped me,” she elaborated.

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Shennel Fuller

Shennel Fuller: Founder and CEO of Miles and Milan

2021 was a big year for Shennel Fuller, the founder and CEO of Miles and Milan – a luxury children’s clothing brand. Miles and Milan’s public profile exploded in 2021, with shoutouts in Oprah’s Favorite Things 2021, The Today Show, and Who What Wear. But, as Fuller will tell you, the real work started long before the media attention rolled in. Fuller – a former retail buyer for Converse, 7 For All Mankind, and Levi Strauss and Co., – launched Miles and Milan five years ago out of personal frustration with the baby clothes options available to her at the time.

“Children’s clothes, for as long as they’ve been created, have always been gendered identified. Either it’s ballerinas for little girls and pink tutus or firetrucks and baseballs for boys. My goal was really to kind of disrupt that and say that, you know, children and parenting is a complete blank canvas, and you kind of learn as you go. So, why not start with a great foundation that can allow you to build up your children’s wardrobe?” Fuller explained to Tech It Anywhere about the company’s beginnings.

With that goal in mind, she got to work building a brand that could connect with parents who shared her personal aesthetics. But, unlike many startup founders spend a lot of time developing complex product offerings and pitching investors, Fuller took a more pragmatic approach.

“My true background is, I’ve been a buyer for corporate retail for over 10, 15 years. I’ve worked with some very large name brands with Converse and 7 For All Mankind and Levi’s and did a little bit of consulting on the side. So, you know, it’s, there is a straight way to do it, where it’s like you either hire showroom and you go to shows and things like that, but I didn’t do that right away.”  she explained.

Instead, she bootstrapped the company in the early days, focusing heavily on making a small line of high-quality items. In fact, Fuller spent a year designing only two products: a onesie for a girl and a onesie for a boy. These products resonated deeply with parents and quickly established her reputation in the boutique baby clothes market.

“It became a cult following. I didn’t really spend very heavily in marketing at all, and it just got picked up by real-life moms,” Fuller said.

Over the years, Miles and Milan built a quiet and loyal following through word of mouth. So, even Fuller was surprised by the boom in mainstream press coverage the brand received in 2021.

“I would present myself, I would give my elevator pitch, and before I know it, people would start to write articles about me. And then it just continued to snowball. I was putting myself out of my comfort zone but at the same time the product was speaking for itself, ” she added.

2022 Plans

In 2022, Fuller has her sights set on a new challenge: amplifying her brand’s recognition beyond the coastal cities. With all the media attention, the company has seen increased sales and inquiries from the Mid West and Fuller is hoping to strengthen her brand’s relationship with moms from all parts of the country. Right now, Miles and Milan is sold in Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue. The company has also partnered with popular subscription services Stitch Fix and The Dopple, as well as the online retailer Maisonette.

As to how the brand will be tackling 2022, Fuller explains:

“Definitely developing and trying to figure out the next brand partnerships that are coming our way. Because a lot of people are knocking on our doors. So, finding out how do we continue to build new partnerships with wholesale brands, and continue to work with the ones that we have, but make sure that they’re complementary,” she elaborates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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