Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Askew.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’m originally from Staten Island, New York: the forgotten borough with a lot of unforgettable people. My whole life, I was surrounded by what my grandmother would lovingly describe as “real characters.” In my family, you had to have a sense of humor and preferably a loud voice. My love for storytelling and comedy started at the dinner table with my family, laughing and joking about everything and everyone, and continued every time I stepped foot outside my door. I had an overactive imagination and always loved to write and perform. I subjected my younger cousins to many unsanctioned backyard plays, but it wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I realized screenwriting was a real job. (My family’s still not sure)
Despite never thinking I’d leave the literal island I loved, I went 3000 miles away to the University of Southern California to study screenwriting (breaking my grandmother’s and my own heart). Studying at USC was a dream. I was in film school culture shock considering my favorite movie was My Cousin Vinny (a masterpiece) but I not only learned how to write television and films, but more so discover what I wanted to say.
In my junior year of college, during a feature writing class, I wrote a comedy coming-of-age script called HOT GIRL SUMMER. Coined EIGHTH GRADE meets GOODFELLAS, it’s a love letter to my hometown and younger self. A combination of all the “real characters” I’ve known in my life, it follows an awkward 13-year-old girl, Beatrice on a journey to become a popular kid…by accidentally becoming a drug mule. As we can all literally and totally relate to being a drug mule, I more importantly wanted to capture the feeling right before high school, the moment in time when you are desperately trying to find out who you are in a world where everyone is telling you who to be. HOT GIRL SUMMER went on to win the LaunchPad Feature Competition and subsequently made the 2021 Blacklist, leading to almost every other writing opportunity I’ve had thus far.
It is an incredibly full circle that the script that has granted me the most success is the one I wrote for my younger self and all the bold naivety she encompassed. Talking about the beginning of your story always feels so much easier than talking about the present. It’s more lived-in, easier to find the rhythm in your own voice. Every day I’m still discovering and rediscovering what it is I want to say. I am currently a feature and television writer, a poet, and director, but most importantly, I’m still telling stories at my dinner table every night with the people I love most.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There are always challenges in getting anything you want badly, especially if that thing you want is stability and success in the entertainment industry. Personally, the biggest challenge in the past, currently, and probably for the rest of my life is dealing with rejection. In a career that is so subjective, there is always going to be more no’s than yes. No one is going to feel as passionately about your writing as you are, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t worth your level of passion. I constantly have to remind myself of this. It is very easy to conflate the success of your work with your self-worth, especially when you’re writing about things that are personal to you. It is hard, almost impossible, not to take rejection personally. Especially when that rejection influences paying your rent that month.
Every painful no can lead to a spiral of “why am I doing this? I’m not good enough” thinking, and then one yes makes you forget anyone had ever said no before. Then you want to do it all over again. Remembering my “why” in the “why do I keep doing this?” has been crucial to getting me through.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a writer, director, and actor. I mostly work in the feature screenwriting space and tend to write dark comedies about what it means to be a woman today (because if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.) My feature script HOT GIRL SUMMER is currently in development with the incredible director, Alexis Ostrander attached. I recently directed my first short film GAY-ISH, which I also wrote and starred in. I’m really proud of this project because it was my first time directing and acting (and at once!) and it was something I have always wanted to do and a story I always wanted to tell. I couldn’t have done it without our truly one-of-a-kind, mostly all female-identifying crew which made the set such a fun, special time and I’m so proud of the story we were able to tell. I’m excited to eventually make a feature, hopefully soon.
I recently directed Madeleine Hamilton in her one-woman show PIPING HOT which will play Edinburgh Fringe this August, which was an awesome experience. She’s such a comedy powerhouse and being able to tell her stories of love and lust (and tears) on stage was such a gift. For me, it’s most special when I’m collaborating with other female storytellers and am able to find the common thread. There is a universality to specificity, and whenever I’m able to make something with someone and find that moment that cuts deep, that moment you feel so profoundly even if you never lived it, that makes you laugh or cry or at best both, that’s the beauty of storytelling, and of connection. I try to bring that to everything I write and create.
Contact Info:
- Website: michelleaskew.com/website
Image Credits
First Photo (headshot, sitting in director chair) Laura Piedrahita
