Today we’d like to introduce you to Michele Palermo.
Hi Michele, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Like scads of fellow midwesterners, I moved to L.A. in the late 80s to become a famous actor (after training in London and working extensively in theater on the East Coast). Although I never became famous and I no longer pursue acting professionally, I am an award-winning writer, director, and producer as well as a visiting professor at Columbia University in New York. I write a bit of everything, at the moment I am working on a play, but television is my big love. I’ve developed shows with David E. Kelley and Peter Horton and, for Lifetime, THE MANSION, a dramatic comedy about life in a southern Governor’s mansion. (Because when I’m not writing I have myriad other insanely cool jobs, and one in the early 2000s was serving as Chief of Staff to the First Lady of Virginia). But the thing I am proudest of in terms of my career is MIDDLEHOOD, a new female-driven television comedy-drama series that I wrote, directed, and executive produced, starring Elena Wohl and Mark Damon Espinoza and a slew of amazing Los Angeles-based actors. We made the first 8-episode season independently, i.e., without the backing of a network, streamer or studio; it is currently out for sale and hopefully will soon be available on a streamer or network.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
MIDDLEHOOD has definitely been the zenith of my career, my greatest joy in terms of making it. It took every skill I had and then some, but I had a terrific team, all of whom were incredibly dedicated to making the show independently – even to the point of jumping in to help raise the bridge money we needed to start production on Kickstarter! Actors, crew, the design team, the production team – everyone worked so hard and gave their all to make it happen. You would think making an entire season of network-quality television would be the hard part. But as it turns out, the greatest challenge is getting acquisitions folks to screen it! We have a great sales rep, who is getting it out there, but without a bonafide “star” on either side of the camera, the hardest part seems to be landing eight great episodes of a first season of amazing television on the air! We have a growing Instagram following in the thousands now, and everyone’s asking: “Where can we watch? “This looks amazing; when can we see it”? It’s frustrating for sure. But we’ll get there.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I love what I do – all of it! Writing allows me to take in and process the world and my experience of it – not just what has happened to me, but observations, imaginings, inspirations – and weave it into meaningful tales that hopefully inspire others. Directing is a totally different beast – working with the actors, that’s my favorite part – helping them get to where they need to be to do their best work – and it’s different for every actor. We had 51 actors on MIDDLEHOOD, from stars to day players, and each one of them has a different way of working. I had to tune into that. And working with Mike Testin, my DP, is a joy – he is such an incredible talent and has taught me so much about the technical/camera angles aspects of directing. I was a little intimidated by that part when I first started, and it’s a never-ending learning curve, but I love a challenge. And I love editing as well, taking what happened on set and in a way “rewriting” my original script with the shot scenes. Being the “executive producer” is probably my least favorite part because it’s all responsibility, financially and work-wise. If it’s not done, I have to find someone to do it or do it myself. If it needs to be paid for, I need to find a way to pay for it. Often out of my own pocket, which is stressful. But I wouldn’t trade the freedom of expression it offers me for anything.
What’s next?
I am currently finishing my first play in 25 years and am planning a public reading in February. In short, it’s a reflection on “womanhood” through selected visits to gynecologists’ offices, And with the new year, I will be writing my first feature script in almost a decade, as well as taking my first stab at a novel. At the end of April I head to NY to teach my television writing seminar at Columbia, and then I head to Paris to teach a class called “The Art of Storytelling” to producing students at the famed LaFemis film school in Montmartre. And of course, very soon I hope to be celebrating the sale of MIDDLEHOOD – maybe even a green light for a second season!
Contact Info:
- Website: middlehood.com
- Instagram: www.instagam.com/middlehoodtvshow/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/middlehoodtvshow
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michele-palermo/
- Twitter: middle_show
taken by Brie Tilton (7464)
taken by Lolly Howe
Image Credits
Bianca Catbagan Lolly Howe Brie Tilton
