Today we’d like to introduce you to Paula Dixon.
Hi Paula, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
When I was 16, on a solo college trip to upstate NY, I approached a friendly-looking young stranger on a long, late-night train ride. This recent Harvard grad, who would go on to be CNN anchor John Berman, set me up with an internship in Robert DeNiro’s office at Tribeca Film for that summer.
From there, I followed a mensch of an executive assistant to Fox 2000, a division of 20th Century Fox, first interning in their office in the NewsCorp building in NYC and the Fox lot in LA before moving on to the role of executive assistant at Fox 2000, Sony, and Digital Domain. I also worked as personal assistant to Tobey Maguire.
When I decided I wanted to focus on comedy writing, I quit working in development and started writing for comedy genius Robert Smigel; my first credits were on his TV Funhouse cartoons on Saturday Night Live. My second credits were on the Showbiz Show with David Spade.
It was around 2008 that my ongoing medical issues came to a head when I shredded my calf muscle and tore my Achilles, doing absolutely nothing. This would eventually lead me to a diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (and its myriad comorbidities) in 2010.
Once my medical issues made it too difficult to work in a TV writers’ room, I used my background and connections in comedy – having graduated (at 20) from USC film school and done the entire programs at the Groundlings and UCB – to support myself with coaching and writing for stand-ups, feature script doctoring, and TV ghostwriting. I am currently working on several romcom feature scripts.
As my health got worse, I also became more and more involved in photography, specifically self-portraits. It was these that got me into the graduate photography program at Spéos Institute in Paris in 2011. I have kept up my photography career as my health has allowed, as giving people great, true photos of themselves is one of my greatest joys.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The one great struggle of my life, and it has been my whole life, is my battle with a number of medical conditions. Among other things, I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, bipolar 1, narcolepsy, osteoarthritis, and gastroparesis. My type of EDS is one that causes me to tear ligaments, tendons, and muscles, in addition to the more common joint dislocations and insane pain. I have spent a decent amount of time over the last 16 years on crutches or in a wheelchair and refunding food on a near-daily basis. Now I wear braces on my legs every day and low-dose cannabis for my stomach, and for now, I’m getting around OK.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar with what you do, what can you tell them about what you do?
In writing, I specialize in dark and raunchy comedy, from roast jokes to R-rated romcoms. What I’m most proud of are actually 3 scripts I’m writing right now, which I have grand hopes for.
In photography, my specialty is undoctored portraits. I pride myself, as my subjects can, on the fact that I never use Photoshop or spot-correct my work. Yet time and time again, my subjects tell me I shot one of, if not the, best photos ever taken of them. I am also quite proud of my 35mm work shot with my dented, ancient Pentax K1000.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
All I wanted to do was act. I idolized Jodie Foster. I was like the kids you see on the Disney Channel – obnoxiously and constantly performing for anyone who would pay attention. In high school, the Myers-Briggs test placed me at the most extreme end of the extrovert scale.
But in my first two weeks at USC, I was SA’d by gynecologist George Tyndall and raped by an upperclassman who pretended to be my friend and then roophied me. From then on, I was never the same. I developed severe social and performance anxiety; I truly folded in on myself. Other than a lot of silly comedy classes and nerve-rattling shows, I would never act again.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/peoplepaula
- Instagram: peoplepaula
- Other: Threads: @peoplepaula Bluesky: @peoplepaula.bsky.social
Image Credits
S.S. Rex
Mikael Tarkela
