Rising Stars: Meet BJ And Harmony Colangelo of Glendale

Today we’d like to introduce you to BJ And Harmony Colangelo.

Hi BJ and Harmony, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
In the early days of the COVID-19 quarantine, we did what just about everyone else was doing and started watching comfort movies. I (BJ) thought this would be the perfect opportunity to show Harmony some of my favorite “sleepover movies,” or the teen girl films I watched non-stop throughout my adolescence. Considering Harmony transitioned when she graduated high school in 2009, she missed out on many of the films that were seminal to my own relationship with girlhood. It was fascinating to see the films interpreted through her perspective, as there’s no nostalgia clouding her view.

I’ve been critically analyzing film at a professional level in some capacity since that same year, so I originally pitched the idea to a magazine as a column. Unfortunately, when it became clear that “a few weeks off at home” would extend much longer, the magazine no longer had the budget for the column, and the idea was returned to us. With nothing else to do, we decided to turn it into a podcast. We bought the equipment ourselves, Harmony learned how to edit the sound, and the rest is history.

Now, we’re over 5 years and nearly 300 different movies strong, have developed a vibrant community of listeners online, and expanded into a Patreon where we also cover teen boy films (our Sadie Hawkins Dance episodes, if you will), teen TV, music, and other pop culture moments that defined coming-of-age experiences across multiple generations.

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?
We’ve been very lucky that things have been relatively smooth for us, but the biggest struggle is and has always been that both of us work full-time jobs and keep weird hours independently of one another. BJ works from home as an entertainment journalist and film critic during the day, but often has to attend screenings or junkets away from home outside of her normal hours. Harmony is the lead bartender at Vidiots in Eagle Rock, which means she works during prime movie-watching hours in the evening. Getting us together in the same room at the same time, let alone with a guest, is next to impossible. Additionally, we do everything for the show’s production ourselves. Recording and editing are all tackled by Harmony. Social media, guest outreach, and communication are all handled by BJ. We are very fortunate that our producer, Brennan Klein, who hosts the podcast under his Pod People Productions banner, handles uploading the episode each week and providing us with our progress metrics each month. Otherwise, the show is shaped entirely in our living room apartment.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
BJ and Harmony Colangelo are writers and film analysts from Los Angeles by way of Cleveland, Ohio. Their work, individually and collectively, has been published in Fangoria Magazine, The AV Club, Playboy.com, Autostraddle, Vulture, Shudder, Bloody Disgusting, /Film, and The Daily Dot. They both contributed short stories to the Haunted Reels anthology series, frequently provide commentary tracks and video essays on physical media releases, and wrote the book on SLEEPAWAY CAMP. They’ve both spoken at San Diego Comic-Con, frequently host and moderate panels/talkbacks, and can be seen in the documentary Queer for Fear, Double Take on Shout! TV, and recently hosted a talkback at the Academy Museum. They also host the popular queer coming-of-age podcast, This Ends at Prom.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
BJ Colangelo: I am secure enough with myself to admit that I was an insufferable, precocious know-it-all. Imagine Tracy Flick from ELECTION as a leftist goth and a little more mouthy toward authority figures. My parents never hid any media from me, so I was watching slasher movies before I knew how to write my name in cursive, and I’m thankful every day that I grew up down the street from a Mom & Pop video rental store. I honestly can’t remember a time when I wasn’t obsessively consuming media and trying to learn everything about it. Before pivoting to film analysis full-time, I was a world champion competitive baton twirler with the Razzle Dazzles from Zion, IL, and the feature twirler for Western Illinois University, as well as a musical theater actress in Cleveland, Ohio. I’m also a pancreatic cancer survivor, so I have a really weird relationship with my own mortality.

Harmony Colangelo: I was never a Disney Channel kid, but a Cartoon Network kid who used to set tapes to record weird cartoons and anime on Adult Swim in the late hours of the night. Which is to say, I appreciate and value facets of youth, but was always looking to push things a little further. From a young age, I could drink your dad under the table with my knowledge of classic rock, martial arts film, and whatever slop was playing on Comedy Central or TNT midday, whether that’s SORORITY BOYS or John Woo’s FACE OFF. I was also a card-carrying late bloomer in every aspect, which makes me perfect for this show.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://patreon.com/thisendsatprom
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/thisendsatprom

Image Credits
For the first photo submitted with the bubbles – Rae Mystic
For the photo next to the parking sign – Bumdog Torres