The Envelope
The Envelope podcast pulls back the curtain to reveal intimates stories from this award season’s top contenders. A-list actors, directors and showrunners join Los Angeles Times entertainment reporters Yvonne Villarreal and Mark Olsen for conversations about their personal lives and creative processes — and how it all fuels their art. I produced interviews featuring Jennifer Coolidge, Halle Berry, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Beanie Feldstein, Daniel Dae Kim, and others.
It was also awarded Finalist: Best Arts or Entertainment Podcast at the L.A. Press Club’s 15th National A&E Journalism Awards.
Here’s a selection of some of my favorite interviews:
Jennifer Coolidge opens up about shifting from drama to comedy (and back again), overcoming cocaine addiction in her 20s and channeling the death of her mother to play the grieving Tanya McQuoid in ‘White Lotus.’
This interview was awarded 2nd Place: One-on-One Interview, TV Personalities, by the L.A. Press Club’s 15th National A&E Journalism Awards. It was also featured as one of Spotify’s best podcast episodes of December 2021.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson on how sifting through 40 hours of archival footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival — where legends like Nina Simone and Stevie Wonder performed in the same summer as Woodstock — led to his debut documentary, ‘"Summer of Soul.” Plus, how the parallel protests of 2020 and 1969, as well as a focus on Black joy, helped to shape the film, and why he still considers "The Tonight Show" with Jimmy Fallon his creative epicenter.
Halle Berry details how she channeled her childhood trauma in her directorial debut, “Bruised”; why she has “great compassion” for people struggling to get it right; and how she had to fight for roles even after becoming the first Black woman to win an Academy Award for best actress nearly 20 years ago.
Beanie Feldstein takes us behind the scenes of her performance on “Impeachment: American Crime Story” and shares why playing Monica Lewinsky forced her to 'disassociate' from herself. Plus, she opens up about the sudden death of her brother, Jordan, and gushes over the Jewish women (Bette and Barbra) who paved the way for her role as Fanny Brice in the upcoming Broadway revival of “Funny Girl.”
