Meet Rebecca Shapiro of Listening for Love in West Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rebecca Shapiro.

Rebecca, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?

I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. I’ve never been the type of person who had one passion and just pursued that one. Growing up, I played all kinds of sports, danced, took art classes, acted in plays, sang in choirs and so much more.

When I got to college, I struggled to figure out what I wanted to study (because I wanted to do it all!) but I landed on a major that offered a wide variety of classes. I graduated from Tufts University in 2018 with a BA in Child Development and Human Development with a focus on Developmental Science. When it came time to look for a job my senior spring, I decided to take a risk and tap into my creative interests that have always been there. I called my parents one afternoon and told them I wanted to move to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the entertainment industry.

After over a month of babysitting and PA gigs, I landed my first position in Hollywood as Director’s Assistant and Executive Assistant to Director/Producer Ondi Timoner. It was a huge learning experience and an amazing introduction to the documentary space. During this time, I even had the opportunity to associate produce, WeTalk, a traveling talk show for and about the women shaping our culture. In addition to curating panels, I was fortunate enough to travel with the WeTalk team to physically produce shows at Miami’s Art Basel, Sundance Film Festival, and SXSW Film Festival.

In pursuit of learning more about the scripted side of entertainment, I assumed my current position as Executive Assistant at Escape Artists, a film and television production company located on the Sony Pictures studio lot. I support both business and legal affairs as well as creative endeavors. I attended Sundance Film Festival 2020 in order to scout projects and provide recommendations on talent for the company.

Outside of my day job, I still have as many passions and projects as I did when I was growing up. I am a member of a small writers group as I am working on completing my first TV pilot, I produce short music videos and docs with friends, and most recently, I started producing and hosting my first podcast called Listening for Love.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has not always been a smooth road but I really wouldn’t change the path I took for anything. It was really difficult moving out to LA just over two years ago. Growing up in Baltimore, I didn’t know anyone who had moved out West or worked in entertainment in LA. It was completely uncharted territory. When I first arrived in the city, I didn’t know anyone so I had to rely on friends of friends and reach out to complete strangers to make friends. I am so grateful to have a supportive family and incredible friends who supported me throughout the whole transition. Over the past two years, I’ve met some great people who have made LA start to feel like home.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Listening for Love – tell our readers more about how it came to be.
The idea for this podcast came to me in bits and pieces over the course of the past nine months. After seeing a TV show where contestants went on a bunch of blind dates, I was curious what might happen if the listeners couldn’t see the contestants or potential matches which – ding ding ding – a TV show without visuals is a podcast! I floated the idea around with friends but I was super busy and I didn’t really feel like I had a good grasp of what the show would look like. When COVID hit, I woke up the first weekend of Quarantine with this idea that I wanted to just start setting up all my friends with each other. I’ve always loved love and I’m a huge people person and connector. Living in LA and working in entertainment, it’s all about meeting new people and I’d say my network has gotten pretty big in the past two years but a lot of my friends still don’t know each other. So, I started something called Quaratinder!

I basically posted my friends’ pictures on my Instagram stories with little bios about them and my other friends would like them and if there was a mutual interest, I would connect them. A bunch of matches actually came out of it and it was a great source of entertainment and distraction for folks during those early days of the pandemic. We even did a couple of zoom happy hours and I am happy to say that a few matches are still talking and looking forward to going out when the pandemic is over. As the world started to open up, Quarantinder slowed down but I had some friends asking me what was next… and that’s when it hit me. That idea from earlier in the year? I’ll just set my friends up on a podcast! Why wait for others to think it is a good idea and make it? I’ll just make it myself. So, that’s how we got here. I now produce and host a podcast where I set up my friends (and friends of friends) on blind dates and we get to follow along as they listen – cameras off – for love. At the end, I ask them if they are interested in being connected and if there’s a mutual interest, I connect them and hope they go on a Facetime or social distant date. If not, no harm and hopefully, it was a fun experience for all.

I am so lucky to work on the show with an incredible team. It has been a blast working with such talented people (who also happen to be great friends). I encourage everyone to check out their individual work – you can find links to their websites and socials in our show’s description.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I am looking forward to making more episodes of Listening for Love. At the moment, I am working on promoting the show and growing our audience. My hope is to be able to expand the show and start setting up folks in other cities!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://anchor.fm/listeningforlove
• Email: rebecca@rebecca-shapiro.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/listeningforlove/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Listening4Love
• Other: https://www.rebecca-shapiro.com/

Image Credit:
Jessie Lamworth, Louisa Phillips

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