The Product Agent: Hurry Up and Wait

Jodi Mancuso is the Hair Designer on SNL, but you can also catch some of her work in Portlandia, among other things. Jodi grew up in the Bronx, and as a child, she was always watching her mother do hair. Jodi’s mom’s passion for hair was validated when her childhood friend (who was one of the top hair designers on Broadway) encouraged her to pursue hair, and so in her 40s, she went to hair school. Her mother then got started in production and worked her way up from the bottom. Jodi dropped out at 16 to get her...

Lou Eyrich works for Ryan Murphy Productions, and has been the Costume Designer on American Horror Story, Pose, Nip Tuck, Glee, and more! Lee grew up in Minnesota in a creative household. Her father was a painter, photographer, and musician, and she and her 7 brothers and sisters were required to take piano lessons and play in the band. Lou grew up loving music so much that she thought she’d grow up to be a musician. Her “family art nights” were a frequent occurrence in her household and fostered an early love of creativity and art. As a teen, she fe...

Heba Thorisdottir grew up in Reykjavík, Iceland. She grew up playing with her mother’s makeup and creating characters for herself. It wasn’t just about beauty for her, it was about creating and turning herself into a character with the use of makeup. She worked her way up from the bottom from craft service until she was hired for jobs as a makeup artist. 

In Part 2 of my interview with Heba, we talk about the challenges of working on set during Suicide Squad, her makeup bag must-have products, working with brands, maintaining a good reputation in Hol...

Heba Thorisdottir grew up in Reykjavík, Iceland. She grew up playing with her mother’s makeup and creating characters for herself. It wasn’t just about beauty for her, it was about creating and turning herself into a character with the use of makeup. She worked her way up from the bottom from craft service until she was hired for jobs as a makeup artist. 

In Part 1 of my interview with Heba, we talk about how she literally worked her way up from the very bottom, the difference between Iceland and the United States...

My guest this week is Costume Designer, Mitchell Travers, who has worked on Hustlers, Late Night, In the Heights, and more!! As a child, Mitchell had an insatiable appetite for creativity. With the encouragement and support of his mother, he enrolled in as many arts programs as possible, created his own halloween costumes, and more. His mother took him to see theater performances and he would beg her to sit as close as possible so he could see all the details and soak in every aspect of the production and design. Since he wasn’t allowed to use the se...

Sherri Laurence grew up loving makeup and hair and always wanted to be in front of the camera, but she realized in college while studying film and television that she actually liked to be behind the camera. As she fell more and more in love with production, she resisted doing hair and makeup because it was something she had always done, and she wanted something different, but after trying every department in production, she realized she wanted to be a makeup artist. She has worked on Pose, Fosse Verdun, the Politician and more!

I talked so much...

Sherri Laurence grew up loving makeup and hair and always wanted to be in front of the camera, but she realized in college while studying film and television that she actually liked to be behind the camera. As she fell more and more in love with production, she resisted doing hair and makeup because it was something she had always done, and she wanted something different, but after trying every department in production, she realized she wanted to be a makeup artist. She has worked on Pose, Fosse/Verdon, the Politician and more!

I talked so much...

Regina Graves is an Oscar nominated New York-based set director whose credits include The Irishman, the Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Step Up 3D, and War of the Worlds! Growing up, Regina didn’t even know what a set decorator was. When she was working at Pier 1 in New Jersey, she made the acquaintance of a set decorator who came in to shop at the store, and that was the very first time she even heard about what it was. She was an aspiring architect and went to school for Interior Design, but she struggled with finding a job in...

Nicki Ledermann is a German-born makeup artist who has spent the last 30 years living in the United States doing makeup for television and film. She has worked on 80 projects, and her credits include Sex & the City, Vinyl, Boardwalk Empire, the Devil Wears Prada, Enchanted, the Greatest Showman, and the Joker. What a career! 

Nicki was always fascinated by film, and after watching the Exorcist as an adolescent, she became transfixed. She knew one day she would end up in New York. She went to a performing arts high school where she actually studied music. Nicki came to t...

My guest this week is the amazing Ellen Mirojnick! Ellen is a costume designer whose credits include Bridgerton, Fatal Attraction, Wall Street, the Greatest Showman, Maleficent 2, and so so so much more! Ellen’s resume truly blows me away. She’s even worked on the pilot of How to Get Away with Murder, Speed, and Showgirl!

Ellen never actually studied costume design and found her way in the industry by complete accident. She studied art and found out that she loved designing clothing and had a penchant for it. She was a fashion designer for...

Keri Lederman is a NYC-based set decorator whose credits include The Undoing, Marry Me, The Night Of,  Sneaky Pete and The Looming Tower. Her mother was an antique dealer, so Keri grew up in her mother’s store seeing decorators and collectors come in. She ended up majoring in English and through a few internships, she found herself on low-budget film sets and working as a PA in production offices. She then became a prop person before she transitioned to set decorator.

What is a set decorator? The set decorator is the person who fills in and dec...

Meghan Kasperlik’s credits include Watchmen, 99 Homes, Fahrenheit 451, Noah, and many more, but she didn’t always want to be in production. In fact, she originally wanted to go into the medical field, but when she was in high school, she started to broaden her horizons and develop an interest in fashion. A retail job developed into a fashion magazine internship, which then led to a job offer in the fashion PR field. After that, she worked under Patty Field as a PA and worked her way up, and the rest is history. Meghan’s background in PR has given...

Pam Chilton has been the costume designer for the last 6 seasons of Modern Family, but she did not always want to be a costume designer. Originally from the small town of Galveston, Texas, she struggled when she was in college as a film major with finding her niche and knowing who she was. While she was taking a semester off from school to figure herself out,  a movie film crew came into town, and she volunteered to intern in the costume department. They liked her so much, they invited her to stay on, and 30 or so jobs later, Pam b...

My guest this week is Julia Caston, who has been a costume designer for movies and television for almost 25 years. Her credits include Bad Moms, the Middle, Celeste & Jesse Forever, and Great News.

Julia’s career started when she studied theater, and learned costume design as part of her theater study. Costume design was never really her intended path until she realized that she had an aptitude for it. She began as a PA for another designer who gave her a lot of challenging and thankless tasks, but she worked her way up to a...

Karen Patch’s illustrious career as a costume designer includes the Royal Tenenbaums, Team America: World Police, School of Rock, and many, many more classic works. 

When Karen moved to Malibu with her family, she quickly realized that all her new neighbors worked in the film industry. With her background as an art student and family members who hand made clothes, modeled, and knew the fashion industry, Karen naturally gravitated toward fashion and art. Now living in Malibu, the film & television industry seemed like a perfect fit. Despite not knowing much about the industry, she had an int...

My guest is costume designer Meredith Markworth-Pollack. Meredith’s credits include Dynasty, Reign, and Hart of Dixie.

Meredith didn’t even know what costume design was until she was studying film at UC Santa Barbara, and had a revelation about how characters in television and film are dressed. Even though she was passionate about fashion, it wasn’t something she wanted to have a career in necessarily, but costume design was a way she could incorporate her passions for both fashion and film, so she packed up and moved to New York City and worked her way up, st...

My guest this week is the wonderful Diana Oh, Department Head of Makeup at the Late Late Show with James Corden. Diana has been with the show since day 1, and is now in the fifth season.

Diana was inspired to do makeup after visiting a makeup counter at Macy’s to have her makeup done for her homecoming dance in high school. From then on, she knew she wanted to do makeup. While in makeup school, she was able to work on AFI student films and that’s where she learned set etiquette, and wher...

My guest this week is Eugenia Weston, celebrity makeup artist, and founder & creative director of Senna Cosmetics. Her clients include Bette Midler and Paula Abdul. Eugenia was raised in a family of creatives and artists. She soon developed an obsession with faces and studying them, and she started doing makeup at age 11. In those days, there weren’t any classes or makeup schools, so she taught herself everything. As she got older and developed into a bona fide makeup artist, there weren’t many makeup artists in LA so she never had a shortage of work. Eugenia started her make...

My guest this week is Tinisha Meeks, Department Head of Hair on Grownish. Tinisha’s credits also include Scandal and Blackish.

As a kid, Tinisha had Cabbage Patch dolls, and she used to braid their hair. In fact, a local doll maker even paid her to braid doll hair! From then on, Tinisha decided that she wanted to do hair. She went to cosmetology school while going to high school, and she graduated from both at the same time! She trained at a couple popular salons before transitioning to film & television. 

In this episode, Tinisha and...

My guest this week is Emmy Award-Winning Costume Designer, Christina Mongini. Christina mainly works in comedy shows, and her credits include Silicon Valley, Drunk History, and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Christina grew up in northern California, but always felt like a city girl trapped in the country. Her mom used to watch old movies, and Christina fell in love with the costumes, the film, and the glamour of Old Hollywood. She studied Visual Merchandise & Presentation at FIDM. Once she did her first internship on a movie, she was totally hooked. She started out costuming, and has done every...

Get ready for the longest episode in Hurry Up & Wait history! I’m here with my good friend Jared Scardina, prop master on Silicon Valley, 9-1-1, and more!

Jared moved to LA in 1990 at the age of 19, and he lived next door to an actress whose boyfriend was an art director. One day, that neighbor’s boyfriend asked Jared to come work for him.

Jared’s first gig was a McDonalds commercial. It was hard work, but he was young and strong, and he enjoyed having direction and the physical labor of set dressing, effect...

The Hurry Up & Wait Podcast is back with more fashion and style from costume designer, Trayce Gigi Field! Trayce’s credits include Dead to Me, AJ & the Queen, and the upcoming film Barb & Star, coming to theaters this summer.

Trayce always wanted to know where actors got their clothes, so she studied at FIDM. When she was working a retail job at Contempo Casuals, she would ask anyone shopping for a show how they got started. Months of asking questions to anyone who would listen paid off, when she got an interview to be a costume PA fo...

My guest this week is Dina Cerchione! Dina is a costume designer and boasts a resume that includes America’s Got Talent, Press Your Luck, Deal or No Deal, and Beat Shazam. Dina also serves as Howie Mandel’s personal stylist. 

Dina always knew she wanted to work with clothes, but being a stylist never occurred to her. In fact, it wasn’t even on her radar, since she was never exposed to careers in production. She started working in the marketing/PR field and dreamed of moving to California. Once she did, she got a big break o...

My guest this week is the wonderful Araxi Lindsey! Araxi is a Motion Picture Hair Stylist, and she has been the Department Head of Hair for ABC’s Blackish for the last six years.

Araxi explored several different career choices (counseling, fashion, and culinary arts to name a few) before finally settling on cosmetology. But it wasn’t until the one and only Jada Pinkett Smith walked through her salon door that Araxi even knew what motion picture hair styling was. Jada took Araxi under her wing and opened up a new world to her, and the rest...

In this episode I interview costume designer, Ann Foley, whose work can be seen on Netflix’s Altered Carbon, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, and the 2018 film Skyscraper. Ann and I talk about her career as a costume designer, the intricacies of costume designing, social media, how “hurry up and wait” pertains to filmmaking, and Justin’s Peanut Butter Cups. 

Tune in to learn more about:

+ The role and importance of costumes in storytelling and character building

+ The collaborative process of costume designing

+ “One is...

In this episode I interview Wendi San George, celebrity hair and makeup designer, and we talk about Wendi’s journey to makeup department head, and life behind-the-scenes as a makeup artist to the stars. 

Tune in to learn more about:

+ The role of makeup in production

+ The importance of products and brands behind-the-scenes

+ Fostering important relationships 

+ Wendi’s advice to anyone wanting to work in production

To see more of Wendi’s backstage adventures, follow her on instagram: @makeuptv...