Ilse Will Say

I sat down with my friend Emma Jo Boyden, a Chicago actor, stunt performer, and Call of Duty motion capture performer. We start with me staging a full hoarding intervention (she says she’s a maximalist, I say look at the wall).

From there we get into her stunt doubling for a nun while hauling a 50 pound coffin on a kids’ bike, and yes, I had to bring up my own nun era in The Exorcist. She did dance recitals in a Reno casino next to the fight ring girls. An LA manager once told her she’d be a...

I sat down with Wendy Medina Herrera, a writer, director, and the president of Paella Club, the monthly hang for Latino creatives in LA. She’s quiet, she’s sweet, and she has done a ridiculous amount for someone who calls herself unassuming.

Check out Wendy’s brand new website: Here.

And if you’re in LA, find Paella Club on Instagram @paellaclubla and get yourself invited.

We go from her middle school news class in San Diego (she hung around as a sixth grader until the older kids let her be an extra) t...

Catch Michele’s show: Always, Sometimes, Maybe has two final performances at Red Twist Theater in Edgewater, Chicago: Wednesday, October 28 and Wednesday, November 4 at 7:30 PM. Go!

I sat down with Michele Stine, the puppeteer and clown who literally played my son in Anna Karenina eight years ago. As a puppet. We catch up, get real about the cost of chasing your art, and somewhere in there I get full body chills.

Michele takes me from a tiny Illinois town shaped like a pimple (her words) to a political science degree, a co...

Oh, what an incredible time with Jake Myers! He’s doing the thing that all of us Chicago folks in the film industry want to do: he created a proof of concept that led to a feature film that’s now streaming. Incredible.

Watch Kombucha now, streaming free on Tubi.

We get into his film Kombucha and all the things that led up to it: some issues with the monster, his pinky problems and privileges, and a whole bunch of other fun stuff. I had no idea we were goin...

Barbara Howlin is on the pod, and I completely lost track of time. We cover everything from The NeverEnding Story (which I had somehow never seen) to luck dragons to whether you can Reiki a ghost, with real tears of laughter along the way.

Barbara’s new book, Can It Be That Easy?, is on the way. Sign up at thehowlinghive.org/book for book news and giveaways.

Barbara is an actor, writer, director, producer, Reiki Master, Human Design specialist, and the founder of The Ho...

Sean's one-take horror short Intruder premieres on The Longest Take YouTube channel this Halloween!

Filmmaker and fellow podcast host Sean Slimak joins me to talk about his love of one-take films, making six shorts while working a full-time day job, and why joy is his secret weapon.

Sean grew up in Lombard, Illinois, making movies on an Intel Play movie maker. He skipped film school, went into factory work, and is now an environmental health and safety specialist at a chemical facility, all while writing and directing short films. We get into how he overspent...

Tommy Martin is a Chicago based actor, filmmaker, and musician who has basically worked every job on a set at some point, and honestly it kind of exhausted me just hearing about it. We start with an unreasonable amount of hair talk (his, not mine) before getting into how a random DIY filmmaker workshop years ago quietly kicked off both our careers, his very unexpected path from a music business degree to Second City to booking his first web series, and what it's like acting in a scene while also being the AD on the same movie (he did...

This week, Ilse sits down with John David Wolfe, a DGA member and Chicago based producer whose two decade career as a location scout and manager put him behind the scenes on Spider-Man 2, High Fidelity, Proof, and Rhythm + Flow before he made the leap to producing his own work.

John talks through his path from West Des Moines, Iowa to Chicago, landing High Fidelity as his very first studio credit, and what he'd tell someone trying to break into the industry today. The conversation gets delightfully weird during Hot Cakes, including a real ghost sighting at the...

Connar Brown Sprenger is an actor, puppeteer, voice actor, and award winning filmmaker who somehow makes all four look easy. She joins Ilse to talk growing up between Tokyo, London, and Atlanta, playing all seven brothers in one production of Grimm, and the practical, gross, wonderfully weird world of her short film Grilled Cheese.

Catch Grilled Cheese on the festival circuit:

TromaDance Film Festival (New York), September 4-6. Delaware Horror Film Festival, September 24-27. Massacre Horror Movie Marathon at the Pickwick Theater in Park Ridge, IL, October 10.

Connar and Ilse get into the...

Veronica Miles has spent over 25 years inside the business of film exhibition, running festivals, theaters, and now the American launch of a ticketing platform. On this episode of Ilse Will Say, she and Ilse get into film festival strategy, the reality of building a career in independent cinema, and why New Orleans might be running its own kind of energy audit on everyone who moves there.

Veronica walks through how a scholarship to a film camp in Tuscany as a teenager shaped her, and the surprisingly emotional layers underneath a trip she took back to that same...

Tony Scott-Green spent years as a corporate consultant with an entire soundtrack playing in his head before he finally let it out of the speakers. This episode is about what happens when you actually listen to the thing that makes you different.

Tony walks Ilse through his path from a bedroom guitarist in Scotland too anxious to play live, through decades in tech consulting, to composing scores for feature films and building sonic branding for major companies out of his Chicago and LA studio. He gets into the exercise that changed everything, a literal hour by hour...

Chicago based comedian, writer, actor, and filmmaker Miguel Lepe Jr joins Ilse for a conversation that starts with a defunct pandemic podcast and somehow ends up covering pick-me culture, immigrant parent one liners, a haunted house, and the correct way to sleep in a marriage.

Miguel opens up about learning improv at Second City almost by accident, building his sketch duo Supremo with Rich Alfonso, and starting his own production company, Leafcutter Productions, named after a bee species (despite popular belief, it has nothing to do with lawn care). He gets into his real, lifelong fear of...

Juan Luis Garcia has designed key art for Netflix, HBO, and A24, and was the art director and photographer behind Narcos: Mexico. He also built a sports media company that hit 300 million YouTube views before walking away to go back to making posters, because apparently one impressive career wasn't enough for him.

In this episode, Juan and Ilse get into:

Sofie Khan is an actor, writer, producer, and director born and raised in Chicago, with a chapter of her childhood spent in Brownsville, Texas. She's the creator of the sold out, award winning one woman show MexiStani: Growing Up Mexican and Pakistani in America, wrote and directed the short film Ground Nuts, and won $25,000 through the CBS Pipeline program for her screenplay Ochoch, money she donated straight to an LA immigration legal services nonprofit.

In this episode, Sofie and Ilse get into:

Kyle walks us through his path from a rejected Catholic school film submission to editing two of his friend's short films at Tribeca, taking his own 48 Hour Film Project entry all the way to Cannes, and turning that same project into an award winning web series shot partly inside Paris's city hall. He's now a Chicago storycreator turned festival programmer, and he brings that same unfiltered honesty to Hot Cakes, where things go from best Chicago bars straight into simulation theory.

If you've ever wondered what happens when a filmmaker refuses to slow down, follow the excitement...

Before he was orchestrating for Andrea Bocelli and Renée Fleming, Tim Corpus was fixing Segways and running walking tours around downtown Chicago. On this episode, we get the full story, including the day one of his tour Segways rolled straight off a cliff into Lake Michigan.

Tim is a Filipino American composer and arts manager whose music has filled Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Bolshoi Theatre, and who somehow runs three arts organizations as Executive Director while still finding time to compose. We talk about his pandemic album MMXX, the mathematically brutal composition behind h...

Vishaal Desai is a writer, director, and editor with over fifteen years of experience and a career that has taken him from Mumbai to London to Chicago. He's been a producer on the Asian Academy Award-winning series Bhak, directed the acclaimed documentary Uniting Through Yoga (crowdsourced from 500 strangers around the world with no script — yes, really), and is currently finishing post-production on his short film Clothes on Our Backs while also prepping his first stage production, Condemned to a Life, at The Second City in Chicago and Solo Fest in New York.

We get into what five ye...

Ever wonder what actually goes into editing a film? Like the real version, not the glamorous one? This week I sat down with Marco Rosas, a Mexican-American editor based in Los Angeles who has spent over a decade cutting everything from high-end commercials to HBO's Winning Time to Sender, a psychological thriller produced by Jamie Lee Curtis that premiered at SXSW 2026 and had critics calling out his editing by name. By name. In print.

We talk about how he went from a post house in Chicago to freelancing in LA to breaking into the union to cutting...

Nick Cartwright is a filmmaker, DP, Meisner acting teacher, and co-founder of two Chicago production companies: Cosmic Egg Productions and Film in a Bag. He started his filmmaking journey in 2023 when he and his wife turned their honeymoon into a short film production of HP Lovecraft's "The Picture in the House." Since then he has directed two more shorts, crewed on 25 others, and is currently directing three films as part of Film in a Bag's 12 for 12 project.

In this episode:

• How a stained glass artist grandfather, a love of photography, and a COVID incubation period le...

Derry Shillitto is a writer, director, and producer from Nottingham, England — the rebel city, as he'll tell you, birthplace of Robin Hood, D.H. Lawrence, Lord Byron, and the Luddite movement. He's the founder of Foyle River Films and the director of The Correction Unit, a dystopian sci-fi thriller about young offenders in a prison run by AI, featuring Bella Ramsey as the disembodied AI voice. Vision Films picked it up. It's on Amazon Prime right now. He did not go to film school. He did go to Cannes. He did get fired from Pizza Express. All of this is...

This one's a little different.

No guest this week - just me and my producer Jacob Cagle, flipping the mic and doing a proper debrief on the last six months. We're talking Sundance, South by Southwest, and Cannes. What worked, what didn't, and what I'd tell anyone who's scared to walk into a room full of people who seem like they belong there more than you do.

We also get into something I don't talk about enough — the real reason I started going to film festivals in the first place, what jealousy actually taught me ab...

Laurena Lourenço has been backed by Film Independent, Series Fest, and the Orchid Project. She's directed festival-winning shorts, an MTV music video for Anitta, and she's currently developing her first feature, Whatever Happened to Rosa Elena? — a queer horror comedy set in Palm Springs. She's also, somehow, terrified of horror films.

We met at Sundance, had lunch, and I immediately understood why people find me intimidating. In this episode, we get into endometriosis (the real version, not the "heavy period" version), why Lorena started writing comedy, her hot take on where Sundance is heading, the small fes...

This week on Ilse Will Say, Ilse sits down with actor, musician, wine guy, and casual full-calendar haver Jake Ferree. You’ve seen Jake on The Baxters, True Detective, and more, but this episode gets into the stuff that does not fit neatly on an IMDb page: touring with his Irish punk band Hounds of Belfast, turning pandemic drinking into actual wine knowledge, why grocery store wine might be personally attacking you, and what happens when Jude Law gently asks to pass by you on Broadway.

They also get into the weirdness of being a working actor wh...

This week on Ilse Will Say, Ilse is joined by sisters Sonya and Wendy Madrigal, two Chicago artists who somehow make multi-hyphenating look genetic. Sonya is an actor, director, choreographer, and educator, while Wendy is a multidisciplinary artist, producer, puppeteer, and voiceover agent, which is exactly the kind of résumé that makes you ask, “Wait, so what exactly do you do?” in the best way.

They get into growing up as the Madrigal sisters before Disney caught up, ugly crying during Coco and Encanto, folklórico as a family love language, community college theater magic, saying yes to...

This week on Ilse Will Say, Ilse sits down with Giselle De La Rosa, associate director at Cine Las Americas and a SXSW film festival screener, for a behind-the-scenes conversation about film festival programming, short film submissions, festival curation, and what makes a film stand out fast. Giselle shares what it’s like to watch hundreds of documentary shorts, why the first 30 seconds of a short film can reveal so much, and how screeners balance instinct, taste, community, and the brutal math of limited festival slots.

Ilse and Giselle also get into Latine storytelling, Latin American cinema, In...

You know when a scene just hits and you can’t explain why? That’s editing.

Ilse sits down with editor and assistant editor Alexander Gonzalez to talk about the invisible craft that shapes everything we feel on screen.

From working on Sender with Jamie Lee Curtis and Britt Lower to navigating SXSW like a pro, Alex breaks down how pacing, instinct, and collaboration turn raw footage into something unforgettable.

They get into improv as accidental life training, networking without the weird pressure, and why being honest about where you’re at is actual...

When your friends don’t just talk about making something… they actually do it—and then keep going? Yeah, that’s the vibe.

This week, Ilse sits down with Teresa Martinez Moore and Adam Rebora, the duo behind Film in a Bag and the kind of creative partnership that makes you rethink your group chat. From improv team beginnings (bug bites and backyard shows included) to building a full-on film collective, these two get into what it really looks like to grow something over time. We’re talking ten years of collaboration, learning the Chicago indie scene, and figuri...

When someone can make you laugh, hit a note, and quietly diagnose why your last post flopped… you listen.

This week, Ilse sits down with multi-hyphenate menace (compliment) Paige Galdieri — a performer who moves between comedy, music, and acting like it’s nothing, while also helping other artists figure out their digital voice behind the scenes. We get into her musical theater origin story (yes, it involves jazz hands at birth), the very real fear that keeps creatives stuck, and what it actually means to find your way back to joy when performing starts to feel like pressu...

You know when a film title sounds absolutely ridiculous… and then somehow ends up hitting you right in the chest? Yeah. That’s this episode.

Ilse sits down with director Jerry S. Gonzalez, the brain behind The Spaghetti Man, Intergalactic Pizza Boy, and Hamster in My Head—aka films that sound like a joke and then sneak in real human emotion when you’re not looking. They get into where ideas actually come from (hint: not your laptop), why some of the best concepts start off sounding a little dumb, and how to make genre-bending work without losing t...

Juan Francisco Villa is one of those artists who makes you want to raise your standards a little. In this episode, Ilse and Juan get into what real leadership looks like on set and in life, from Tom Hanks introducing himself to crew members to Mariska Hargitay knowing exactly how to make guest stars feel seen. 

They talk about vulnerability, protecting your energy without closing your heart, and the difference between confidence and just finally deciding to stop shrinking yourself. 

There’s also a perfect little detour into aliens, zombie dreams, sleep paralysis, Hot Cakes, and...

This episode starts with princess birthday parties and immediately swerves into a staircase ghost and an army of redheaded porcelain dolls living in Raven Whisnant’s basement. So yes, we are thriving.

Raven is an actor-writer-director-editor-producer (casual) and the co-founder of New 32 Productions, a woman and queer-owned indie film company that actually cares about set culture and treats people like humans. We talk Sundance buzz, vintage sci-fi, why bad sci-fi can be perfect, and how she accidentally became a horror girl after getting emotionally scarred by The Ring on a middle-school double date.

Then we ge...

Eddie Mujica is the kind of person who makes you want to take a deep breath and also… open fifteen tabs. He’s a Cuban-American actor, writer, director, and Emmy-winning producer who somehow lives in three lanes at once: stepping into the newest Second City Mainstage show with basically one rehearsal (I’m tired for him), premiering his short film LOCO at the San Diego Latino Film Festival, and still finding time to talk mental health, masculinity, identity, and what it means to keep showing up when the countdown gets delayed.

We get into the “best timeline” theory, co...

Chloe Mikala is the kind of person who can destroy a stand-up set, headline a comedy variety show, play an EMT on Chicago P.D., co-captain a travel flag football team, and still insist she’s “just sending emails.”

We talk about what it actually means to be Type A without being unbearable, why doing your “basic” well already puts you ahead of most people, and how to hustle without losing your mind.

Naturally, we also cover astrology charts, Gemini slander, why she refuses to swim in shark territory, how to calmly coexist with black bears, and...

A Walgreens parking lot. A father and son. A whole lot of stuff they never say out loud. That’s the kind of quiet, devastating power George Ellzey Jr. brings to filmmaking, and this conversation made my cheeks hurt from laughing and my brain do the full “wait… that’s real” pause.

George is a South Side Chicago native and DePaul-trained director whose short film Cottage Grove started as a thesis project and turned into a full-on moment, with a festival run, awards, AMC+’s Future of Film Series, and an Emmy nomination that still feels surreal.

We talk...

This episode starts messy, stays honest, and lands somewhere unexpectedly grounding.

Ilse sits down with Erick Juarez, a Guatemala-born, Chicago-raised filmmaker who studied at NIU, trained at the Moscow Art Theatre, spent years in LA, and came back with one clear realization: stop asking for permission and start making the work.

They talk about acting vulnerability, learning how to warm down after heavy roles, reggaeton as a nervous system reset, and why everyday life does not need to live at performance-level stakes. Erick breaks down building Deep Focus Entertainment, his rule of always keeping something...

If you’ve ever finished a film and immediately whispered “cool… but what now?” this one is for you.

Ilse sits down with Elizabeth Butler Austin, VP of Sales and Licensing at Echelon Studios, for a real-world look at how movies actually find an audience once the creative part is over.

Elizabeth breaks down what distributors are thinking the second they watch a screener, why metadata and deliverables can make or break a deal, and the biggest misconceptions filmmakers have about streaming, FAST channels, and whether advances are even a thing anymore.

She also get...

Ilse sits down with comedian, writer, filmmaker, and professional vocabulary flexer Mishu Hilmy for a conversation that starts in comedy craft and somehow ends in ghosts, dreams, and the psychology of “enough.”

They talk about why timing and silence are the secret sauce of a joke, why making art in 2026 can feel like chasing relevance across seventeen streaming platforms, and how strategy can turn into a very convincing form of procrastination.

Mishu breaks down the economics of film success in a way that’s both mildly terrifying and weirdly freeing, then gets into the themes that k...

Ilse sits down with filmmaker (and beloved casting powerhouse) Brittani Ward for a conversation that feels like a warm pep talk… with teeth.

They get into the weird in-between space between “I’m still learning” and “I’m ready,” how casting can sweep you up even when writing and directing was always the dream, and the mind game of feeling like you’re emailing into the void while someone on the other side knows your work by heart.

Brittani talks about making Single Car Crashes out of real grief, pandemic languishing, and the kind of timing you can’t...

This one feels like a late-December exhale. Cozy, funny, a little tender, and unexpectedly grounding.

Ilse sits down with filmmaker, editor, and all-around creative Swiss Army knife Jacob Cagle for a holiday episode that drifts from Santa Claus lore to sibling dynamics to the quiet weight of showing up for your life and your work. Jacob opens up about belief, doubt, gratitude, and what it means to keep creating even when you’re tired, unsure, or very aware of time passing. They talk Christmas memories, favorite gifts, soft boy energy, therapy, community, and the strange beauty of ge...

Ilse sits down with actor, writer, and director Jessie Komitor, whose debut film Chasing the Party premiered at Tribeca and somehow manages to be nostalgic, stylish, and devastating all at once. They dig into the strange magic of saying your dreams out loud, the moment Jessie finally allowed herself to claim the title of “director,” and the way girlhood imagination still sneaks into her work. Jessie talks about building her own DIY film school, choreographing ambitious dance sequences, and making art that captures the ache of growing up before you know you’re doing it. They also get into best f...