The Hollywood Chai

On this week’s episode, we give you a special preview episode of the new screenwriting podcast, The Script Doctors! It is a co-production between JAKKAWI Studios and Cooper Home Entertainment and is co-hosted, co-edited and co-created by myself and by one of my closest and best friends, Jonathan Cooper, who you may recognize from Episode 120, Coping with Screenwriting. The Script Doctors is a podcast showcasing two professional screenwriters at work as they diagnose, prescribe, and discuss solutions to common script problems found in feature film scripts and television pilots and series. Available to stream now on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio and more!

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Follow The Script Doctors on Instagram: @thescriptdoctors

Have a script you want to hear doctored on air or does your script need doctoring? Email the Dr. Jons: thejons.scriptdoctors@gmail.com

Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

Questions or Topics you want covered? Email us: thehollywoodchai@gmail.com

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation
• DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc
• The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors

On this week’s episode we have our very first Hollywood Chai Roundtable with the topic of the 2022 Austin Film Festival and Writer’s Conference that just took place a few weeks ago. Joining me on this episode are previous Chai Spillers, Melissa Graves, who you may remember from Season 1’s epic two-part Spec episodes, episode 112 and 113, and Elia Nino, from this season’s Halloween special, Episode 130 and new Chai Spiller, Pierre Joudy! All of us attended (alongside some other great friends of ours) the annual film festival and writer’s conference in Texas’s state capitol which some screenwriters and filmmakers call the Holy Pilgrimage of Screenwriters. Okay, no one calls it that but me, but still – it's such a fun time where one gets to learn so many things about writing and creating stories, watching some Oscar buzzy films, be surrounded by a plethora of talent and meet some of the best and most prolific working storytellers in the industry. Dive right into the roundtable and spill that AFF Chai!

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

Questions or Topics you want covered? Email us: thehollywoodchai@gmail.com

Official Austin Film Festival Website: https://austinfilmfestival.com/ 

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation
• DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc
• The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors

We are doing things differently this week and taking a look at the industry from an Actor's Perspective. And for that, I’ve brought on a very special friend of mine to talk about the art of acting – Isaac Ramsey! Born in Southern California, he hails from the Mojave Desert. He developed a love for writing and literature at a young age, and his love for movies fueled his love for acting. He joined the U.S. Army after high school and spent five years as an artilleryman, during which time he served two tours in Iraq, in 2009 and 2011. Afterwards, he completed his AA at his local CC, his B.A. in Theater and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley and then his M.A. in Acting at UCLA. He currently resides in Tempe, Arizona. So, as you can see, he is the perfect guest to talk about the art form of acting! So grab a notebook, a cup of chai and let us hear Isaac spill his own Hollywood chai!

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

Questions or Topics you want covered? Email us: thehollywoodchai@gmail.com

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation
• DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc
• The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors

This week, we are celebrating Halloween with a Horror-filled Chai Spill! To help us, we have my cousin, the Godfather of Cinema in our Family and horror film aficionado, Elia Nino. Elia is an Arab-American screenwriter, director and a graduate of the UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting and is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He balances his time screenwriting, directing and self-producing shorts along with his tech job as an Analytics Program Manager and every year, he embarks on a Film Viewing Adventure in the month of October where he tries to watch 31 horror movies, basically one per day average. So who better than to talk about the evolution of the horror genre then him! Let's spill some chai!

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Follow Elia on Letterboxd: @eclectic_eg; https://letterboxd.com/eclectic_eg/

Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

Questions or Topics you want covered? Email us: thehollywoodchai@gmail.com

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation
• DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc
• The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors

FAIR WARNING: This episode is another nerdy one...because we invited on, none other than cinephile and Doctor of Film and now Chemistry himself, Dr. Nicholas Akkawi, for another genre masterclass of sorts but this time about a niche in the sci-fi genre that is the Star Wars Universe. In this episode, we specifically talk about the different trilogies, the pros and cons of the series, and our thoughts on the ever-expanding stories that Lucasfilm and Disney are putting out with the many new series in development for Disney+, the streaming platform that is home to every Star Wars film, animated and live-action series, micro-series, shorts and series. So put your Millennium Falcons in Hyperdrive and go forth with the force...

If you need to catch up with the various Star Wars Films and Series, the following projects are currently streaming on Disney+:

- The Skywalker Saga (Episodes I - IX)

- Star Wars Anthology Films (Rogue One, Solo)

- The Mandalorian (Season 1-2)

- The Book of Boba Fett (Season 1)

- Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Seasons 1-7)

- Star Wars: Rebels (Seasons 1-4)

- Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Season 1)

- Star Wars: Visions (Season 1)

- Much more!

With more becoming available in the coming months.

The next Star Wars project, OBI-WAN KENOBI, hits Disney+ on May 27th, 2022 with weekly episodes released every Friday through June 22.

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

Questions or Topics you want covered? Email us: thehollywoodchai@gmail.com

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation
• DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc
• The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors

It's a GREATEST HITS Episode!!! We've had such amazing guests on that we wanted to curate some of the advice and tips that they've given us and package them for you in a mini-episode! Enjoy!

1:49 - Tara Abboud: A Conversation with "Amira" Star (Ep 117)

2:46 - Rana Sobh: An Arab-American Girl, UN-INterrupted (Ep 123)

5:14 - Amanda Dieli: The Art of Self-Producing (Ep 126)

19:14 - Jonathan Cooper: Coping with Screenwriting (Ep 120)

24:00 - Diana Abousaleh: Screenwriting& The "T-Word" (Ep 125)

26:04 - Sabine Kahwaji: What Hollywood Dreams Are Made Of (Ep 124)

30:02 - Stephenie Cooper: How to Succeed in Hollywood By Being Independent (Ep 122)

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs
• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation
• DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc
• The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors

I am joined this week by a special friend of mine, the Queen herself, Amanda Dieli. Amanda is an award-winning Brooklyn-based actor, writer, and comedian. She holds a BFA in Acting from the University of Southern California, and a Graduate Certification in Television Writing from the University of California, Los Angeles and has studied screenwriting at Columbia University. She has trained professionally with The School at Steppenwolf in Chicago, Upright Citizens Brigade, and LABryinth in NYC, and at NYU in their Florence, Italy campus. She is a veteran sketch and improve performer of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. And most notably, in 2012, she had a scene with Sigourney Weaver in a pilot. She’s a proud member of SAG-AFTRA. I’m excited to have her on today and talk about her experiences as master of all trades artist from tv writing, sketch comedy and improv, acting and, notably, how to produce your own work – from the pros and cons to the hardships and joys of it.

Fun fact: she is avid lover of Halloween novelty music. She created, wrote and produced her first short series, 18 Grand: A Personal Space Odyssey, which had its world premiere at NYC Web Fest in 2018 where it took the top prize of Best web Series, later appearing in several other festivals in 2019. You can check out the webseries at the link below. She also performed in Under the Radar in 2015 at The Orpheus Variations, a piece she also co-wrote with The Deconstructive Theatre Project. Amanda and I met at UCLA and trained professionally together in our time and oversaw the development of several spec scripts and TV pilots together. Besides being a Reference Queen, she is one of the most caring and excellent advice-giving people I have ever met and we are excited for her to spill her Hollywood Chai. 

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

Check out Amanda Dieli on her official website: http://www.amanda-dieli.com/

Amanda's Award-Winning Webseries can be seen here: https://www.footprint.tv/series/18-grand-206154

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs 
• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation
• DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc
• The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors

I am joined this week by a special friend of mine, the iconic Diana Abousaleh. Diana is a Syrian-Venezuelan independent writer/filmmaker, mental health advocate, and educator based in Texas. She insists that writing is a journey, and not a destination. That being said, she loves to encourage writers to aim for progress, not perfection, something I try and practice in my everyday writing thanks to her. She is passionate about amplifying unique SWANA voices and experiences through her monthly newsletter titled Screenwriting&, a newsletter that I religiously follow and read and was featured as Artist of the Month in the 2021 August edition. Diana loves writing grounded sci-drama as well as stories that highlight themes of multiculturalism. She has provided script consulting experience to several festivals and production companies including Eclectic Pictures, Televisa USA, BlueCat Competition, International Screenwriters Association and most recently, the Emmy-nominated indie web series “WASHED.” She has a Bachelor’s in Radio/TV/and Film and a Master’s in Entertainment Business. 

One of her favorite things about storytelling is the ability to make interior life visible, and also show that exterior life can be worth a second look. I mean her work has been selected to participate in New York’s Cinephilia Productions which is a Film Development workroom for African & Middle Eastern filmmakers and in Stowe Story Labs. This summer, she will also be participating in the Mosalsalat Screenwriters Lab of the Royal Film Commission of Jordan. And if that doesn’t convince you how much of a genius she is – take it from me, she is an ICON and I learn so much from her. I’m excited to finally have her on the pod and talk about her experiences and works. 

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

Check out Diana Abousaleh on Instagram: @darolina & her official website: https://www.dianaabousaleh.com/

The Screenwriting& on Instagram: @screenwritingand & the official blog website: https://www.dianaabousaleh.com/blog

Diana's Upcoming Short film "Plug It Up" on Instagram: @plugitupfilm

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs
• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation
• DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc
• The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors

I am joined this week by a special friend of mine, the iconic Sabine Kahwaji. Sabine is a Lebanese Canadian director, writer and music videographer. Her narrative-focused directorial style has led her to work actively in the music industry with prominent labels and artists with a combined total of over 1.4 million views across her projects. As a proud Lebanese woman with a passion for storytelling, Sabine strives to eradicate cultural stereotypes through her work, ensuring that marginalized groups have a voice. She is dedicated to using her expertise to continuously raise awareness for causes such as Epilepsy and MS, as well as amplifying the female-identifying perspective on and off-screen. Her work has been featured on ETALK Canada, The Vancouver Sun & Province, Diafanis Argentina, iHeart Radio, among others. Most recently, as a strong storyteller her work has transitioned into directing and writing for television, commercial and film all while continuing her work in the music industry. You may recognize her as the special guest on our first two episodes (Episode 101 & 102) ever – a conversation that we did in March 2021 over Instagram Live that we both thought was important to share. I’m excited to finally have her on the pod in an actual capacity and talk about her experiences and works! Enjoy!

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

Check out Sabine Kahwaji on Instagram: @sabinekfilm & her official website: sabinekahwaji.com

"Mind vs. Body" Short Film: https://vimeo.com/682172932

Tess Anderson's "Don't Believe In" Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8gbIhp3DnM 

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs
• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation
• DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc
• The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors

This week we have another very special and unique guest. I am joined this week by a special friend of mine, the iconic Rana Sobh. Rana is an Arab American actress and model. Her passion for storytelling, interest in psychology and understanding emotion and motivation is heavily influenced by the film “Girl, Interrupted.” She speaks Arabic fluently and has a Bachelors degree in psychology from Oakland University. Syrian actress Amal Arafa, Nadine Njeim and Jim Carrey are her idols and she often imitates their characters. Aside from being on camera, she also works in film/TV production such as HBO Max’s “No Sudden Move” starring an all-star talented cast led by Don Cheadle and Benicio del Toro, and the Starz original crime drama series BMF, starring Russell Hornsby as well as in entertainment public relations.

We sat down for a fun conversation about the psyche of acting, the psychology behind storytelling, what motivates us both as well as Rana's work behind the camera as production crew for several projects that shoot around her area. Enjoy!

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

Check out Rana Sobh on Instagram: @vivalaranasobh & on TikTok: @vivalarana1

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs
• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation
• DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc
• The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors

We have another very special and unique guest this week that harkens back to our mission statement of having special guests on that are trying to break their own way into the industry. I am joined this week by an icon of a woman, and soon-to-be momager, the amazing Stephenie Cooper. Stephenie has been in the entertainment industry for over 20 years and wears a LOT of hats! She has directed, produced, and put amazing casts together on the stage and in film. In 2021 she started Cooper Home Entertainment with her family to help bring exciting, clean media to the world that you don’t have to stop, skip, or mute! Since then, Cooper Home Entertainment has gathered over 10,000 followers on TikTok and 1.4 thousand followers on YouTube with more than 6,000 hours of watch time. She believes that we are all here to make a difference in the world. All it takes is hard work, and diligence. I had the blessing to meet her eldest son, the incomparable Jonathan Cooper (who is featured on Episode 120) and well, the rest is history!

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

Check out Cooper Home Entertainment on Instagram & TikTok: @cooperhomeentertainment and on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CopingWithNormal

Check out Imagination Required Studios (the production sector of CHE): http://imaginationrequiredstudios.com/

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs
• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation
• DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc
• The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors

We’ve been busy with some professional projects and some personal matters that have forced to take a mini-hiatus at the start of this season, but we promise we’ll be back very soon with feature-length episodes and amazing special guests. But for now, we bring you our very first mini episode! This mini cup of chai is actually an interview that, I the host of The Hollywood Chai, Jon Akkawi, did for The Catalyst: A Creative Industries Podcast, the official podcast of Chapman University, a prestigious film, TV and media school down in the Southern California area. We talked about several things but mostly about the cultural landscape of the entertainment industry. And in fact, you might recognize the interviewer…it’s none other than Perla Nino! Our special guest on Episode 109 – “A Dummies Guide to Film School”. The interviewee becomes the interviewer and vice versa

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

Check out the official podcast by Chapman University - "Catalyst: The Creative Industries Podcast": https://www.chapman.edu/wilkinson/cci/catalyst-podcast.aspx

Check out Episode 109 of The Hollywood Chai with Perla Nino!

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs 
• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/ 
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation 
• DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc

Going back to our mission statement of having special guests on that are trying to break their own way into the industry, we have a very special and unique guest who is forging his own path that we are lucky to be apart of. I am joined this week by a very good friend of mine, my co-worker and boss (more on that in the episode) and fellow writer, the talented Jon Cooper. Jon Cooper is a self-made screenwriter and co-founder of Cooper Home Entertainment. As showrunner for CHE, he has helped create and produce over 10 hours of serialized content for shows like "Coping with Normal," "Once Upon a Mermaid," and "Shadows of Doubt" on YouTube. Together with Cooper Home Entertainment, Jon strives to bring wholesome but exciting content to the world that you don't have to pause, skip, or mute. Graduating from the UCLA Professional Screenwriting Program in 2020, Jon has gone on to work with companies such as Avatar Studios, Viacom CBS, SEGA, and Imagination Required Studios to produce various forms of written content. Our host, Jon Akkawi, met him at UCLA while they were both students in the same cohort and have grown to be great friends with a writing relationship and we thought what better guest to talk about screenwriting outside of specs for the first than him before we introduce a new subseries on the chai! Enjoy!

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

Check out Cooper Home Entertainment on Instagram: @cooperhomeentertainment

Check out Imagination Required Studios (the production sector of CHE): http://imaginationrequiredstudios.com/

Stream S1 and S2 of "Coping with Normal" and tune in Wednesday's for weekly episode drops of S3: https://www.youtube.com/c/CopingWithNormal/featured

Follow The Script Doctors and prepare for the premiere on Instagram: @thescriptdoctors

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs
• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation
• DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc

FAIR WARNING: This episode is probably as nerdy as it will get...because we invited on, none other than cinephile and Doctor of film himself, Dr. Nicholas Akkawi, for another genre masterclass of sorts but this time about a niche in the superhero genre that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In this episode, we specifically talk about the idea of superhero movie fatigue, a new form of franchise screenwriting and the pros and cons of Year One/Part One of Marvel's MCU Phase 4 that features 4 feature-length film and 5 original TV programs. Just to warn you now...there are PLENTY of spoilers! So get your gauntlets and stones ready...

If you need to catch up with MCU Phase 4 the following projects are currently streaming on Disney+:

- Black Widow

- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

- WandaVision

- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

- Loki (Season 1)

- What If... (Season 1)

- Hawkeye

With more becoming available once we enter the new year. 

The last MCU project, Spider-Man: No Way Home, hits theaters on December 17th, 2021. 

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs
• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation
• DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc

Going back to our mission statement of amplifying the many talented artists and voices of MENA/SWANA/Arab descent, we are so excited to have today’s special guest on the podcast, the wonderfully talented and amazing emerging actress, Tara Abboud. Tara has been acting ever since she was young and has done a fair share of graduate student and short films in her teenage years before graduating to a major supporting role on the 2019 Ramadan series Oboor, and now on to her first lead role in a feature-length film, playing the titular role of AMIRA which premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival and just debuted in North America at the 29th Annual Arab Film Festival in San Francisco. We were lucky and honored that she was able to fit us into her busy schedule as a working actress, a medical student, and an amazing individual just trying to enjoy her life, to sit down and talk with us and share her own journey to the screen, her festival run-ins and give some advice to other Arab/MENA/SWANA artists on how to break through in the industry.

Keep checking our social media pages to stay up-to-date on any release date information for Amira or where you can view it soon! 

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Follow Tara on Instagram: @taraabbouddd

Check out the Trailer for AMIRA (all rights owned by MAD Distributions): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DYfzn6qGmg

AMIRA Official Website: http://mad-distribution.film/movies/movie1115322.php

Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs
• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation
• DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc

Do you hear that? Oh shoot, we just got placed in game one of SQUID GAME! Good luck! Oh, phew, we're glad to hear you survived the Red Light, Green Light game and so sad to see half the audience die. Okay, so clearly, we cannot emulate the thrill ride that has become Netflix’s biggest hit in its streaming history but what we can do is bring to you an analysis about the story, themes and success of the iconic South Korean thriller that has taken the world by storm. 

Today, we are so lucky to have invited on cinephile and TVphile and good friend of the show, the iconic Liane Young. In fact, she’s so iconic that her and our host, Jon, are sharing their network television debuts in a few weeks alongside Academy Award winner Helen Mirren…more to come on that in a future episode. We invited Liane, an Asian-American genius engineer who loves nothing more than immersing herself in stories whether they be written in books or visually told on the screen or presented live on a stage, to discuss the rise of Asian dramas and their potential impact on the future. In fact, Liane is the one that got us to start Squid Game and we thought, why not bring others into our conversation...

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs
• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation
• DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc

It's the spookiest time of year! And The Hollywood Chai is coming to you with a special Halloween episode! If you're any sort of cinephile or TVphile, then you know that Hollywood does not mess around when it comes to Halloween and Spooky season. We have a whole genre dedicated to spooky season aka Horror! We have a whole film franchise named after the holiday. We even have yearly themed TV episodes about Halloween. 

But in order to talk about Halloween, that meant that we had to invite the Spookiest guest to feature on this episode and talk about her favorite time of year. Joining us on this episode is the amazing and iconic spooky Halloween Queen herself, Andriana Malhi! Andriana Malhi is a Bay Area based psychologist-in-training who is fascinated with the psyche of not just people, but film characters! Particularly ones that are in the horror genres. Her favorite time of year is fall and most specifically spooky season and she is probably the biggest horror/thriller movie lover that I know. She and I actually attend the same church in the Bay Area (shout out to Resurrection and the king of cinephiles, Father Niko) and we have come to know each other well as you’ll hear in this episode…ready to be scared?

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

Follow Andriana on Instagram: @spookythekla

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs
• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation
• DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc

One of the greatest mysteries and elements of Hollywood Writers is the Mythology of Specs. Yes, you read that right...mythology! Some people have different ideas on the significance of TV spec writing while others are creatively against it. But to us, it's one of the most important types of writing as it teaches you the basics of TV structure, capturing another show's tone and genre as well as teaching you to adapt to another showrunner's style - all crucial elements in how to work in Television. Many script competitions around the world offer categories dedicated to specs while many showrunners around Hollywood and the Entertainment Industry continue to hire writers for their TV Show Writing Rooms based on spec... so it's very important! We at The Hollywood Chai decided to go in depth about all things TV Specs but we needed some help...

Today's special guest is a dear friend of mine and fellow writer, Melissa Graves. She is an emerging screenwriter, playwright, novelist, actress, and theatrical director. After attaining a B.A. in Theatre and English, Melissa studied acting, comedy, writing, and improv in NYC for a decade before moving to Olympia, Washington. In Olympia, Melissa founded the innovative Children's theatre program, Youth Acting Studio which focused on creatively derived theatre (i.e., generated by student ideas), allowing students to develop their writing and creating muscles as they learned the fundamentals of acting. Melissa continues to be passionate about connecting children to the performing arts as the VP of Programming & Media for Olympia Junior Programs, which brings high quality theatre to nearly 40,0000 children in the South Puget Sound area. So see, she is the perfect person to talk specs with me. We had so much to talk about and teach that we decided to split up the talk about specs into two special episodes.  Happy Chai spilling!

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

Follow Melissa on Twitter: @msgraves

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/ 
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation

The first step in pursuing a career in the Entertainment Industry is to move to LA...right? Well, listen up, because on today's episode, I invited a guest that moved down to LA to pursue his dreams of being an actor to talk about his time and his discoveries on the classic tale of "LA Dream Chasers." The thing is with the emergence of new projects that shoot outside of Hollywood and even the US, the demand for people in LA has decreased, opening the door to more and more artists being able to achieve their dreams and goals from anywhere, especially amidst this pandemic. We sat down to craft a mini Declassified LA Survival Guide from the perspective of two different people: someone who moved to LA, and someone who is scared to move to LA. S

Today's special guest is one of my best friends and fellow artist, the one and only Ryan Day. He's a Bay Area realtor, podcast host (check out "The Curious Realtor" on anywhere you listen to podcasts on), and actor in training. He has trained under the Meisner Technique in Los Angeles as well as in the Bay Area. Ryan plans to continue acting locally after the pandemic and looks forward to pursuing his TV and Film career…hopefully by my side! We sat down together and discussed life in LA and about both of experiences in and out of Hollywood. Happy Chai spilling!

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

Follow Ryan on instagram: @ryanday8 and for your realtor needs @ryandayre

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/ 
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation

Genres are one of the most important elements of storytelling! A film genre is defined as the stylistic or thematic category for motion pictures based on similarities either in the narrative elements, aesthetic approach, or the emotional response to the film. Screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams identifies eleven super-genres in his screenwriters’ taxonomy, claiming that all feature length narrative films can be classified as action, crime, fantasy, horror, romance, science fiction, slice of life, sports, thriller, war and Western.

For today’s podcast, I will be starting a new series called “Genre Masterclasses” and I will be enlisting the help of the one and only, future Dr. Nicholas Akkawi. He’s a PhD student at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, specializing in medicinal chemistry and working on different experiments and projects researching cures for things I cannot mention. Anyways, our bond for film has always kept us together no matter the fights we’ve gotten into, and I’m delighted he accepted to join me out of his busy schedule to participate in this special subseries. So, here is part one of the series…a genre masterclass in the psychological thriller realm. Thriller films are typically hybridized with other super-genres like horror, action or sci-fi. But in this case, we analyze the phenomena of the thriller on its own as a psychological subgenre.

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/ 
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation

Ah the time old question of, should I go to film school? Or should I not waste my money? If you're a junior or senior in High School who loves film or acting, I know you've asked yourself that question. And with the emergence of many filmmakers and artists that don't necessarily study film in college that are making it, it's breaking the boundaries of film academia that people thought you needed to make it big! But being the child of immigrants, many of us come at college and academia from a different angle than others. So on this episode, we talk about film schools, experiences and create a guide for dummies on film school. 

Today's special guest is one of my cousins, the one and only Perla Nino. She's a Film Studies student at Chapman University in Southern California where she is currently focusing on publishing, film editing and sound design. And let me tell you is she freaking talented! She loves working with women in film, no matter their role, and is constantly inspired by representation and inclusivity in the industry as she herself fights for more and better representation and inclusivity for women in film. We sat down together and discussed our experiences in film school, our goals and ambitions and why we think it is important to pursue an education in film even when many tell you not to go. Happy Chai spilling! 

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation

Our favorite time of year is here! Television Awards Season! With the 73rd Annual Primetime Emmys just around the corner (September 19th), Jon takes it upon himself to watch EVERY nominated show no matter the category it's nominated in...whether a Primetime Category (like Acting, Directing, Writing or Programming) to the Creative Categories (Cinematography, Casting, Makeup, Music, etc.). Over 60 shows have been nominated across over 14 networks and 110 different awards, the Emmys present the most awards presented to a visual media in Hollywood. We have taken on the mission of watching every nominee to bring to you our predictions of who should win and who will win each Emmy in the major categories. But we need some help!

Today's special guest hails from Brazil, the iconic Lexie Albuquerque, a Brazilian writer, actress and developer. We first met in our graduate program for Television Comedy Writing at UCLA and have been spilling Hollywood chai and complaining about the changes we want to make to TV since Day One. So what better person to dissect the nominees than her! In part two of this two part special, we talk about and dissect the following Emmy categories: Outstanding Directing and Writing (Comedy, Drama, Limited Series/TV Movie/Special) as well as Outstanding Supporting Performances in the same genre categories while guessing who will win each category and who should win each category. Make sure to check out Part One, from the week prior!

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

Follow Lexie on Twitter: @littlebitlexie

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation

Our favorite time of year is here! Television Awards Season! With the 73rd Annual Primetime Emmys just around the corner (September 19th), Jon takes it upon himself to watch EVERY nominated show no matter the category it's nominated in...whether a Primetime Category (like Acting, Directing, Writing or Programming) to the Creative Categories (Cinematography, Casting, Makeup, Music, etc.). Over 60 shows have been nominated across over 14 networks and 110 different awards, the Emmys present the most awards presented to a visual media in Hollywood. We have taken on the mission of watching every nominee to bring to you our predictions of who should win and who will win each Emmy in the major categories. But we need some help!

Today's special guest hails from Brazil, the iconic Lexie Albuquerque, a Brazilian writer, actress and developer. We first met in our graduate program for Television Comedy Writing at UCLA and have been spilling Hollywood chai and complaining about the changes we want to make to TV since Day One. So what better person to dissect the nominees than her! In part one of this two part special, we talk about and dissect the following Emmy categories: Outstanding Programs (Comedy, Drama, Limited Series/TV Movie/Special) as well as Outstanding Leading Performances in the same genre categories while guessing who will win each category and who should win each category. Make sure to check out Part Two, next week!

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

Follow Lexie on Twitter: @littlebitlexie

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/  
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation

Diversity is an issue that Hollywood still doesn't seem to have a handle on. Every year, more and more stories and films and television programs get made with more diverse stories yet they are helmed or created by people that are not representative of those diverse stories. With each passing day, many BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women (all underrepresented groups in Hollywood) fight to share and tell their own stories. 

On September 8, 2020, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), also known as the Academy, announced a set of new eligibility guidelines for movies that want to compete for Best Picture. This would hopefully set a new standard (aside from inclusion riders) in Hollywood, one in which more and more diverse stories are written, produced and told through the lens of those respective artists (cast and crew). In this episode, I breakdown these standards and go in depth on all four categories of inclusion standards and how they hopefully are a step in the right direction. 

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

https://www.oscars.org/news/academy-establishes-representation-and-inclusion-standards-oscarsr-eligibility 

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/  
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation

There are three prominent elements of Hollywood that happen to begin with the letter F. The first is FILM...I mean that is Hollywood's backbone and main export besides movie stars. The second is FEMINISM...in the 21st century and the emergence of the #MeToo and #TimesUp Movements, studios, casts and crews must advocate for the advances of the careers of women working in Hollywood - to achieve parity and transform the culture. The third is FESTIVAL...a cultural and industry format of premiering and showcasing voices that acts as a gatekeeping strategy that needs to be changed and altered.

This is episode is part two of that conversation with special guest, Miss Lebanon herself, Desirae Bitar, a recent Cognitive psychology graduate from UC Riverside that is on her way to law school but first and foremost...she is the biggest cinephile to grace this Earth. I mean when she was just a child, she'd say her favorite film was "The Godfather." She's here to give us her insight and discuss what we call the 3 F's of Hollywood: Film, Feminism and Festivals. We spoke about our views on the transforming culture with hiring women to helm and lead films as well as some of our favorite films and discussed the gatekeeping pillars that exist in festivals. We had so much to talk about that we split up our conversation into two different episodes (103 and 104)!

Check out the Women in Film organization: www.womeninfilm.org

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creations/

There are three prominent elements of Hollywood that happen to begin with the letter F. The first is FILM...I mean that is Hollywood's backbone and main export besides movie stars. The second is FEMINISM...in the 21st century and the emergence of the #MeToo and #TimesUp Movements, studios, casts and crews must advocate for the advances of the careers of women working in Hollywood - to achieve parity and transform the culture. The third is FESTIVAL...a cultural and industry format of premiering and showcasing voices that acts as a gatekeeping strategy that needs to be changed and altered. 

Today's special guest is Miss Lebanon herself, Desirae Bitar, a recent Cognitive psychology graduate from UC Riverside that is on her way to law school but first and foremost...she is the biggest cinephile to grace this Earth. I mean when she was just a child, she'd say her favorite film was "The Godfather." She's here to give us her insight and discuss what we call the 3 F's of Hollywood: Film, Feminism and Festivals. We spoke about our views on the transforming culture with hiring women to helm and lead films as well as some of our favorite films and discussed the gatekeeping pillars that exist in festivals. We had so much to talk about that we split up our conversation into two different episodes (103 and 104)! Stay tuned for more!

Check out the Women in Film organization: www.womeninfilm.org

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

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This episode is sponsored by:

Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/  

ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creations/

Join up-and-coming artist, Jon Akkawi, who has worked on various projects over the course of his burgeoning entertainment career from feature length scripts to TV pilots and episodic web series and TV Bible consulting and all the work in between in making sure that Arabs, Middle Easterners and North Africans break Hollywood, as he attempts to spill all the chai on Hollywood and expose the many difficulties and problems that face emerging artists alongside special guests each week and their own adventures through the Entertainment Industry.

Today's we continue Part Two of our Arabs Break Hollywood conversation with special guest, the iconic Sabine Kahwaji, an Arab-Canadian filmmaker, music videographer, screenwriter and documentarian. The powers of social media brought us together and we quickly became friends and #ArabsBreakHollywood partners-in-crime. We sat down and talked about our work and our ideas on how Hollywood can better promote diversity and create a more inclusive environment for all sorts of stories to be told and what we're doing for our mission statement of Arabs Breaking Hollywood.

Check out her website and work: https://www.sabinekahwaji.com/

Follow Sabine on Instagram!: @sabinekfilm AND @skfilmsmediahouse

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Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/ 
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creations/

Welcome to The Hollywood Chai! Join up-and-coming artist, Jon Akkawi, who has worked on various projects over the course of his burgeoning entertainment career from feature length scripts to TV pilots and episodic web series and TV Bible consulting and all the work in between in making sure that Arabs, Middle Easterners and North Africans break Hollywood, as he attempts to spill all the chai on Hollywood and expose the many difficulties and problems that face emerging artists alongside special guests each week and their own adventures through the Entertainment Industry. 

Today's special guest is the iconic Sabine Kahwaji, an Arab-Canadian filmmaker, music videographer, screenwriter and documentarian. The powers of social media brought us together and we quickly became friends and #ArabsBreakHollywood partners-in-crime. We sat down and talked about our work and our ideas on how Hollywood can better promote diversity and create a more inclusive environment for all sorts of stories to be told and what we're doing for our mission statement of Arabs Breaking Hollywood. We had so much to talk about that we split up our conversation into two different episodes! Stay tuned for more!

Check out her website and work: https://www.sabinekahwaji.com/ 

Follow her on Instagram!: @sabinekfilm AND @skfilmsmediahouse

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Support us at https://anchor.fm/the-hollywood-chai/support

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This episode is sponsored by:

• Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/
• ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creations/