Meet Crystal Boyd of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Crystal Boyd.

Crystal, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Ok, let’s start at the beginning. So I had just graduated from Tisch with my three best friends… there’s a funny moment I’ll never forget, where the day after graduation, I tried to re-enter NYU’s Bobst Library, and my NYU ID wouldn’t let me in. I tried again at the Student Center and at the cafeteria. Denied, denied, denied. I was cut off. That was my wake-up call: the cushy West Village life that I was used to living as an undergrad was no longer my reality.

My besties and I quickly transitioned to living uptown in East Harlem, right off of Marcus Garvey Park at a wild apartment building called The Miles… this was before all of the gentrification, this was the Hood with a capital H. Methadone clinics next door, drug boys, it felt like the last corner of Harlem that was left untouched since New Jack City. We should’ve known it was wild because they gave us two months free rent to move into the building (haha!) Anyway, life got real VERY quickly, and we discovered that there was no halfway house to adulthood. What we wanted from New York was Sex in the City, but what we got was The Wire.

My two besties and roommates and I are in this project building, we’re these Tisch actor graduates with very little money but luckily, we had scrappiness and cleverness for days. So we shot a webseries, “Downtown Girls” based on our real life about our crazy move uptown, although our heart belonged “downtown,” and simultaneously started connecting with folks as a writing trio under the same name, “Downtown Girls.” You can still see the videos from that period- they’re up on Youtube. That web series became.a calling card that we ended up selling as TV pilot to TBS. Over 10 years and several sold TV pilots and features later, we are still working together and selling shows in Hollywood to this day. It’s a blessing to have this incredible, loyal, hyper-talented tribe. It’s so real that “Circles Rise Together.”

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?
Anyone in this business for enough time will know that it is more of a mountain climb than a smooth road, complete with rocky paths and sometimes dirt avalanches, period. As a professional writer and creator, we can all see that in the last five years the industry (and the world) is in flux. Between the Hollywood strikes, agencies crumbling because of #MeToo, and now environmental disaster with the LA fires- being fluid and able to adapt and pivot is a necessity. For me and my writing team, we realized that the success that we found selling pilots and show ideas generated a natural buzz around us for a long time, however the industry excitement about you will definitely ebb and flow based on if you’re ‘hot’ in a particular moment. During those off seasons, it is so important to stay consistent in your work and your belief in yourself, and also to generate buzz when others are not.

You must be the engine to keep your career going- an example of a pivot that my team created is we’ve started our own podcast, Unglamorous Truths; it’s a unfiltered kiki about the raw, unglamorous industry stories that people don’t always wanna talk about. We get into IT honey. This has magnetized people we admire in the business to us, generated our own buzz, and we’ve ended up interviewing the creator of Martin and the Jamie Foxx Show just off of having a consistent, high quality creative presence online. You can check us out at youtube.com/unglamoroustruths. So much about pivoting is understanding that “when you build it, they will come.”

Another example of “when you build it, they will come,” is to keep a new visual calling card in your back pocket. What I mean by this is always have a passion project (or two or three) that you are pouring your heart and soul into- and shoot the thing. Whether that’s a one minute sizzle reel, a 2 minute scene from your next script, or a short film- these all qualify as industry-approved Proof of Concepts that will launch your career into new arenas. My newest calling card is the short film SAVAGE SEASON, which was just officially accepted into the HollyShorts Annual Film Festival in LA!

Inspired by a true story, a relationship junkie ends things with her long-term partner of seven years and finds herself alone and lost in a late-night corner store, tortured by her own thoughts. Ambushed by her friends, she is challenged to dream bigger and awaken from autopilot before her 30th birthday.

SAVAGE SEASON is a film about reclaiming your inner child, burning down everything that comes with “adult autopilot,” and reinventing yourself. It explores the intimacy that happens when you let your friends witness you as you’re falling apart.
It is a 15 minute short that pairs the grounded surrealism of “I May Destroy You” with the splashy-friendship physical comedy of “Girls Trip.” While the protagonist’s subconscious fears haunt her, her friendships will help her face the future with fun and levity.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a multi-passionate writer, actress, and TV creator repping the DC area, hardly home but always reppin. I love sinking my teeth into stories that showcase dysfunctional families, parents, children, siblings, all of it. I’m also a sucker for a female protagonist on the brink of a meltdown. I’ve sold four comedy pilots to Warner Brothers and SONY, as part of the woman-comedy trio, The Downtown Girls. We are currently developing a comedy drama, FINESSE, with Bashir Salahuddin and Diallo Riddle and Warner Brothers, about women reimagining the American dream in NYC. We are also currently developing a feature, BLACK GIRL MAGIC, with Gabrielle Union, which we formerly sold to NBC and Sony Pictures Television as a comedy pilot. Most recently, we developed an animated comedy series entitled SERVICE ANIMALS with Warner Bros. Animation and Gaspin Media, about the day to day lives of three service animals. Previously, we sold DOWNTOWN GIRLS the comedy pilot to Warner Brothers and TBS, with Elizabeth Banks attached as executive producer.

Additionally, I am the CEO of “How to Pitch TV,” a company that coaches aspiring creatives on how to successfully sell television. I actually coach how to package and pitch your project- after selling four shows, I realized it was time to share the game with others and coach them on how to ace the 15 minute verbal project pitch with execs. You can reach out me to chat TV and pitching at https://howtopitchtv.com/contact-us.

I’ve also landed organically with teaching at NYU – I created a new lane for myself the minute I decided to create “How to Pitch TV.” People started recognizing that I coach and teach too, and someone sent me a job application for NYU’s LA Campus to be a Screenwriting Professor and I got the job. I teach “Writing the Comedy Pilot” there, and I’m delighted to say that many years later, I went from that student at Tisch who was denied the day after graduation, to now teaching this craft that I love so much at my dream school. That NYU ID works again baby.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
Come to LA Premiere of my new passion project and short film, “Savage Season!” It is launching its official premiere at HollyShorts Film Festival on Saturday, August 16th at 7:30 pm. You can buy tickets here: https://www.hollyshorts.com/https://hollyshorts2025.eventive.org/schedule/6851f4bdc7cf31f50a142a7c

More info on the short film SAVAGE SEASON here: https://seedandspark.com/fund/savage-season#story

I coach with How to Pitch TV, and I offer free 15 minute consultations.
You can find me at https://howtopitchtv.com and contact me through the website.

Pricing:

• $429 Coaching Session- How to Pitch TV
• $222 for Digital Masterclass “How to Pitch” Workshop
• Further pricing at https://howtopitchtv.com/shop

Contact Info:

• Website: https://howtopitchtv.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howtopitchfortv/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crystal-boyd-creative/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@unglamoroustruths
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3180201/

Image Credits
Editorial photography by Kat Page and Sharod Duncan.