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Mar 13th, 2015

A Conversation with “Downtown Girls” Creator Emebeit Beyene

by in Interviews
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Interviewed by: Aida Bee
It is no secret that YouTube has become the modern day television set for today's generation. Some of the greatest new content is being streamed on the video-sharing platform, and actress Emebeit Beyene has tapped into the trend as creator, director, and actress in the web series Downtown Girls. A comedy inspired by the real post-grad struggles shared by Emebeit and her three former NYU classmates, Downtown Girls is an unapologetic story of female empowerment and pursuing your dreams no matter how crazy they may sound. Emebeit sits down with HabeshaLA and shares her story on using her struggles as a platform for success. 

HabeshaLA: Tell us a little bit about your background, where you went to school, and where you’re originally from.
Emebeit Beyene: I was born and raised in Philadelphia. I’m a first-generation American. I’m literally the first person in my family to be born in America. My two older siblings were both born in Ethiopia. Then there’s me and my youngest sister. I went to college at NYU. I studied acting and Africana studies. I did experimental theater and then switched to film and TV.

I stayed there for two years and that’s where I developed [Downtown Girls] with my group of friends. It’s embellishing art with our lives. You could see the stardom in our eyes, because we have this highly decorated degree.

We were like, ‘Okay, so what can we do? How can we get the ball going for us?’ How can we be in work that we want to see, because it’s so limited, especially in theater. I’d get to auditions and get to call-backs and literally it will boil down to, ‘She’s not Caribbean, she’s not African-American, so this story does not work for her. She’s talented, but this is not her kind of story’.

We are of the modern age, we are millennials, we need to tell that story and Downtown Girls was birthed out of that. We kickstarted for the first season, mostly had family and friends donate and we raised over $7,000 to shoot the first season. That was pennies and nickels to the budget that it actually takes to make anything. We had, it was really one man, one cameraman, shooting guerrilla-style. We had these really intricate ideas but very limited resources to translate them.

As you can see from the first season… the quality is just, to be honest, shit. It’s the best you can do when you’re trying to create something for yourself. But, the stories were great. The comedy was there, but it was just a struggle to watch. But, that was the bullet that we chose to bite, because it’s like, do something or do nothing. From there, we were able to get an investor that believed in the project that loved us, and our story, and funded our complete second season. We tripled the budget.

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HLA: That’s amazing!
EB: We come from an artistic community, so we’re grateful in the sense that we know how to assess our failures and our shortcomings. It’s not a testament to our talent or skills. We went to school as pure actors, and four or five years later transitioned into actors, producers, directors and creators. That was all trial and error. Eight episodes of season one came after many, many failed attempts. We just like to be honest. That’s money out of our own pockets, just graduating out of college, you know 21, 22, waitressing, every little bit. You’re paying your rent, you’re paying company dues, structuring a full on production company, like, ‘You know guys, we’re going to put in like $100 each every month to the fund.’

Now we have a full-fledged production company where we produce our work in. That took time. Now with our investor, money isn’t that much of an issue. It’s like, okay great, now we can just focus on the art of it. Focus on what kind of story we want to tell. It’s four girls hustling to make it in New York City – that’s our story. That is who we are at the core, straight up New York hustlers.

HLA:  What made you want to go into acting? When did you first discover your love for theater?
EB: I’m going to be honest, in 6th grade I was watching the Oscars and that was the year that The Sixth Sense was nominated. Haley Joel Osment was walking down the carpet and I’m 12, he’s 12. I’m like, if he can do it, so can I. I don’t tell this story. I have never said this to anyone – especially on tape. I turned to my dad and said, “Daddy this is what I want to do.” He’s like, “Go for it.” My parents are surprisingly very, very supportive for Ethiopian parents. They’re very supportive and open-minded. I was like, “Daddy, I’m going to NYU and I’m going to be like this kid. Flash to college, first day of college, freshman year of my acting class, he’s in my class, Haley Joel Osment.

HLA: Are you serious?
EB: I’m dead serious.

HLA: That’s God speaking to you.
EB: I called my dad, I said, “Dad, guess who’s in my class?” He remembered the day, and I told him he’s in my class and he’s like, “No one can get in your way, we have to support you.”

HLA:  That’s so wonderful.
EB: I never, never told him and he still doesn’t know. It makes me sound like a creepy groupie.

HLA: What do you think would be the most important lesson that you learned from your time at NYU as an actor?
EB: Probably going to be the same answer I gave when they asked me at graduation. They ask you when you first start, and then they ask you the same question at the end. What do you think is the most important lesson? When I first started, I said, ‘Acting is all about being different people and that’s what I like. I like understanding different cultures and walks of life and changing things up’.

Then when I graduated I was like, you know what, everything I said, was a lie. It has nothing to do with different things and exploring different anything. It’s all about understanding you. The biggest lesson is really getting to know who you are at the core and being that authentically. That honesty translates on stage, and on the screen.

Even, when you’re watching movies. Even, if you’re not in the industry. My mom, she understands probably like two thirds of the English language, but watching films she still understands the dynamics of the relationship. It’s not always about what you’re saying and the language that you use.

HLA: When was your first dose of reality when you graduated from college?
EB: The day after graduation.

HLA: It was that quick?
EB: Yes. It’s like, okay, I have this really highly prestigious degree. What do I do with it? All of my other friends from different departments and schools, they all had internships that turned into jobs – the typical ladder of career building.

I’ve had a few internships, okay cool, but I’m going into a profession where I don’t work for anybody. I’m just thrown into auditioning. Thankfully, I did some showcases while I was in school, and I got a manager. She was sending me on professional auditions.

But, as far as how to pay my rent, I had no idea. I was not prepared for that whatsoever. I don’t even think college is the place to prepare you for that. I really feel like they should have classes specifically for life, how to do certain life shit, because I had no clue. I moved into the cheapest apartment I could find in New York City.

HLA: Which was where?
EB: It was a renovated project [housing].

HLA: Are you serious?
EB: We had no idea it was a renovated project. They sold it to us as this high rise building in Harlem that’s coming up, and for sure it’s coming up, but we were at the year one of the come up.

So, it was a year after graduating just being in the real world, auditioning, landing some projects, not landing most of them, and I was like, ‘Was this the life that we’re setting ourselves up for forever?’ You know, just the waiting game. In college, people always told us, “You guys have such a great dynamic, you guys should have a show.” Yeah, that’s funny. I was like, “No, guys, we really should. We should capitalize on what we do best – our friendship and our natural energies together.” And they’re just like, ‘Okay, well, that’d be great. We have that down, what can we talk about? What’s our premise? What are we good at?’

Hustling. All of us, individually struggling to make it in the US, and all of the problems that come with it. Well, that’s a great story, that is a millennial story. We are at the forefront of this movement of web series.

I was like, okay let’s do that. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and we’ll be able to get our stories out there. So, we got a Kickstarter to fund it and raised over $11,000 from family and friends. We used Facebook, personal emails, etc. $7,000 was like I said, pennies and nickels. So what it really cost, essentially, was a $1,000 an episode, and we didn’t pay anything. That was just on equipment, food, location, props, wasting money because we didn’t know how to do proper budgets.

It was a trial and error period. And like the biggest lesson from that time really is, if you don’t know how to do something, you find someone who does it very well. You know, it’s all about building a team. You don’t want to be one man with one show. I’d much rather own 50% or something, than 100% of nothing.

HLA: How did you guys transition from shooting the first season and what kind of reception did you receive?
EB: Friends and family, loved it. So many emails, and Facebook messages, like ‘Congratulations, in general, it’s such a great feat to put yourself out there, do something and actually accomplish it.’ You know, some people spend a good portion of their life just dreaming, just saying, “This is what I want to do.”And then having a slew of excuses as to why they can’t do it.

So just accomplishing it, in it of itself, was just an incredible feat. And then, accomplishing something with such credibility and beautiful art was another feat. We got fans that were not associated with us, that found us online. We had gotten some blog placement, and YouTube comments like, ‘I love this, I wish it were longer.’ And we’re like, ‘Wait. What?’ We were still kind of figuring out the digital media world, so we thought, you know, short and quick, in and out. And they were like, “No, I’d really like to see these characters grow.” So many people actually want a narrative. We thought they just wanted to see one video, laugh and keep going.

It was like, okay. More length and more narrative.We submitted it [Downtown Girls] to the LA Comedy Festival, and we won Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series. We got an award for being the Best Friends on Camera. And we made Finalist in ABFF, for Best Web Series in the category with Black and Sexy TV.

And now with season two, which you know, I just got so much pride and joy in my heart, that shit was good. I have like no humility. It’s beautiful, and we worked hard to make sure we were able to apply our team to do that for us. You know, high quality cameras and really organized shoots. We really didn’t have the funds.

This summer, I was like, great, we can have an AP who was just focusing on the schedule, and the actors, and the day-to-day. We have a DP and a Gaffer. These people took all of the weights off of our shoulders.

HLA: Right. You’re not doing it all yourself.
EB: Well, I’m still on top of it. I’m still the creator, I’m still the producer, I’m still the director, with this whole team. I still have to worry about all of that. So it was a great burden off of our shoulders. And now with the second season, even before we released it, we got into JFL, Just For Laughs Comedy Festival, which is the biggest Northern American festival for comedy, and it was my first real experience of Hollywood. There were stars everywhere. It’s just like, ‘Oh my God, we’re here for the same thing!’

And we were in this pitch program. We were one of five series to get selected to pitch to Fox and Yahoo! So it was a big deal. It was a room full of heavy executives, and we were pitching it as if they were going to buy it to really put it on TV.

And from there we were able to get, TV connects, so that we can convert it into a show. That’s our goal right now. To sell this as a half-hour network comedy, if we can.

HLA: So, are you guys trying to work on pitching “Downtown Girls” as a show?
EB: Yeah, I mean, we shot the second season while we were still here [NYC]. Like all of our pre-production happens in LA, all of our meetings happen in LA. New York is just where we shoot.

HLA: Can we look forward to season three anytime soon?
EB: Not so soon, but definitely, because we’re still on the tails of this season. We have a slew of festivals that we just did. Festival season is among us, so that’s what we’re working on right now. Also, we’re working on sketch comedy videos. We have this deal with an undisclosed comedy network, an online comedy network, and we’ve been contacted to basically create a bunch of sketch videos.

HLA: Are there any other lessons or pieces of advice you can give other content-creators?
EB: I’d say probably, the true form of greatness reveals itself after many trials. And artists should not be discouraged when they create crap, because it is a blow to your ego, and to your confidence. When you look up to so much greatness and you think like that, it just comes naturally.

I know for myself, I think all the artists that I admire, it’s just effortless for them. No, you create, you churn out a bunch of crap, and it’s really about getting that muscle going, and keep practicing. Musicians have to practice their instrument, dancers have to practice their instrument, their body, and actors and filmmakers have to practice their instrument as well. And even when we haven’t worked in a while, we’re kind of getting back into things; we spend hours just shooting ideas.

The big chunk of hours worth of work is garbage, it’s just we’ll never use it. I really refer to the sketch videos that we’re doing now, we had a production meeting where we spent the majority of it on something, by the end of it, we’ll never use it. It was a great warm-up. You just have to keep pushing yourself.

HLA: How do you stay motivated when you face rejection over and over again? And also, how did you and your friends keep your relationships so strong while working in business together?
EB: I don’t think that we necessarily have a plan on how to deal with that. I think it’s a true testament to our personality and luck. We’re very non-confrontational, so even in our personal lives if we have little issues like, you know, ‘I always buy toothpaste, and you never do.’It would never pan out to be a huge fight.

In business, we made sure to create a supportive background for ourselves. If you don’t agree with something, state why and also suggest what can be changed. Don’t sit in a meeting, and be like, ‘I think that sucks.’ Okay, well what can you offer to make it better?

HLA: What do you want people to take away from “Downtown Girls?”
EB: Definitely, the story of four girls who are driven by passion more than social norms. Being millennials, we don’t feel pressured by the societal rules of a picket fence with a dog, and a wife, and husband, like baby-boomer mentality. And we came up in this generation where people create their own opportunities, with lovers, and techies, and artists, and this is that story. This is that millennial story. A group of people who are not afraid to follow their hearts, instead of following their mind with a routine.

HLA: I think the timing of the show couldn’t be more perfect, because I think a lot of people are in that state where they’re trying to find their passion, the economy is so hard, you just end up taking a job that you hate to pay the bills, but you really want to pursue X-Y-and-Z.
EB: Absolutely, and I hear so many stories of people that have gone the safe route. But, for one, it’s too strenuous, two, they hated it to begin with, and three, they have other passions.

HLA: I think that people hearing your story, it’s definitely uplifting, because it’s like, ‘Oh okay, I’m not the only one that failed.’
EB: Yeah, and you’re also not the only one that didn’t have a clear path. You have this idea of what you wanted for yourself, but you didn’t know how to achieve it. That’s really the set up for the whole show.

HLA: Where do you see yourself personally, or would like to see yourself five years from now?
EB: Five years from now, I definitely want to be on a comedy TV show. For sure. And I want that to help me launch a film career. So, film is probably the medium where I see myself. Surprisingly enough, my passion lies in drama. I love drama. That was my initial focus in college, and you know, coming out, creating this show, I’m like, ‘Well, the easy easiest job is comedy.; And I am a naturally kooky, ridiculously silly person. And so I was like, ‘Okay, well let me exercise that.’It’s something that I never really planned. I was just goofy. People would be tell me, ‘Oh, you should go into stand up.’ And I’m like, ‘No, I’m like a situational funny, I’m not a strategized kind of jokes type of funny.’ But, I can see how this can translate into the beginning of my career.

******.

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  • Jared Surnamer

    Congratulations on making it this far Emebeit! You’re already a great success for all of the reasons you’ve outlined in this nice interview and more. I’d say keep on going but it’s clear you’re going and going! I’m happy for you. I hope you’re ecstatic and wish you the best in life. Hope to see you on that tv comedy soon!

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