THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 74 NOVEMBER 6, 2019
PREVIOUS SPREAD: SET DESIGN BY JUST FRY. ONSET STYLING BY MADELEINE KENNEDY, SIMONA SACCHITELLA, AND LISA TERLIKOSKY. ONSET GROOMING BY APRIL BAUTISTA, CHECHEL JOSON, ROSA MENDENEZ, AND LORENA ACEVEDO AT DEWBEAUTY AGENCY. ON RAMOS: MCQ ALEXANDER MCQUEEN HOODIE, LEVI JEANS, JORDAN OFF-WHITE SHOES BAILEY: JESSE GRANT/GETTY IMAGES. BALINSKA: CHARLEY GALLAY/GETTY IMAGES. HARRISON: J. COUNTESS/GETTY IMAGES.push the envelope, surprise people
and have a sweetness to them.”
CHILDHOOD TV SERIES I WANT ON
STREAMING “It would be wonderful
to come home after a hard day at
work, cue up an episode of Mighty
Morphin Power Rangers and prepare
some Kraft macaroni and cheese
with cut-up hot dog slices in it.”JONATHAN GONDA // 32
VP Production, Paramount
While a co-ed at Vassar, the L.A.
native would perform stand-up,
opening for the likes of John
Mulaney. It was then that he consid-
ered a career behind the scenes in
entertainment. “I saw managers in
the back of the clubs and thought,
‘Maybe I could do that,’ ” he says.
After a stint at 3Arts he landed
at Warner Bros., working on Lego
Batman Movie and The Accountant,
then led production on Crazy Richwith Lulu Wang’s breakout drama
The Farewell. And while every indie
producer was chasing Wang for her
follow-up project, Children of the
New World, the director stipulated
in her contract that Melia be a
producer. Up next for the New York
native (her mom is actress turned
soap opera writer Judy Tate), Melia
is developing a film about advice
gurus Ann Landers and Abigail Van
Buren that Natalie Portman will star
in and direct. When she’s not in the
trenches on set, Melia can be found
in her Venice home planning her
nuptials (fiance Keith Levine runs
David Goyer’s Phantom Four Films).
“Planning a wedding is like trying to
produce a movie,” she jokes.
WEIRDEST WAY I’VE MET A CLIENT/
COLLABORATOR “Attending a political
rally in Washington, D.C.”JAMES MYERS / 35
Senior VP Production and
Development, Lionsgate
Myers’ path to Hollywood may
have started out in Pasadena, but it
made an unusual turn when he tooka break from Brown at 19 to travel
to Uganda, where he worked in an
orphanage and a rehab clinic for
child soldiers. After a semester, he
went back to Brown and then Loyola
Marymount University for business
school and, during an internship at
Summit, found that he could marry
his business sense with the cre-
ative as a studio exec. The married
father of two has worked on some of
Lionsgate’s biggest films, includ-
ing Hacksaw Ridge, Stronger, The
Glass Castle, Wonder and winner
of six Oscars La La Land. Up next,
he’s overseeing Naruto, the stu-
dio’s live-action manga adaptation;
David Ayer’s World War II thriller
El-Alamein; and the Ulysses S. Grant
epic that has Steven Spielberg and
Leonardo DiCaprio attached.
FOOD/DRINK I LOVE BUT WOULD NEVER
ORDER AT A BUSINESS MEAL “I had a
breakfast once where I cut into a
poached egg and it slow-motion
exploded its liquid yolk onto the
jacket of the important author we
were having breakfast with.”SHARY SHIRAZI // 32
VP Creative Production,
TriStar Pictures
Growing up in the O.C. in a
Persian-speaking household,
Shirazi dreamed of being the
next Christiane Amanpour. It
was only when she saw a post-
ing for an internship at Paul Schiff
Productions while attending UCLA
that she considered a career in film.
After Schiff, she was an assistant to
Kathleen Kennedy as the Lucasfilm
president was relaunching Star
Wars with The Force Awakens.
As an exec at TriStar, she gets
to champion female filmmakers,
along with buying projects that she
sees as “positive and inspiring, but
those things can live in all sorts of
genres,” she says. It doesn’t get
more positive than Tom Hanks as
Mr. Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the
Neighborhood, which she brought
in and oversaw (it opens Nov. 22).
Next, she’ll go into production on
Happiest Season, a same-sex rom-
com starring Kristen Stewart and
Mackenzie Davis in early 2020.
BIGGEST CHANGE I’VE WITNESSED
IN HOLLYWOOD “I remember doing
coverage saying, ‘This is too TV,
it’s not elevated.’ I’m now com-
peting with TV because they are
so elevated.”Asians, the $238 million global
phenom. After joining Paramount
in fall 2017, he contributed to three
very different projects — Mission:
Impossible — Fallout, Diane Keaton-
starrer Book Club and Elton John
biopic Rocketman. Looking ahead,
the amateur chef, who has a labra-
doodle rescue named Roxy, will work
on the studio’s franchises with the
next Mission: Impossible and Book
Club installments.
THE PERSON I’D SWITCH JOBS WITH
FOR A DAY “My identical twin brother,
who leads communications for
McDonald’s. He swears his job
is harder.”DANI MELIA / 34
Creative Producer, Big Beach
When Melia was studying film at
NYU, she contacted New York-based
financier-production company Big
Beach on a whim. “I saw Little Miss
Sunshine and was like, ‘I want to do
that,’ ” she recalls. She got an intern-
ship, and it’s the only industry job
she’s ever had. Now, in her 12th year
with the company, she hit her strideElla Balinska / 23
Growing up in London, Ella Balinska
was a competitive school ath-
lete, excelling in javelin and track
and field. But it was the role of
Enobarbus in a school produc-
tion of Shakespeare’s Antony and
Cleopatra that sold Balinska on
performing. “It gave me a chance
to explore a character not very
well known,” she says. “I’d love to
play Tom Buchanan in a different
version of The Great Gatsby.” While
Balinska’s breakout came with the
Sky One series The Athena, on
Nov. 15 she’ll burst onto the big
screen alongside Kristen Stewart
and Naomi Scott in Elizabeth Banks’
Charlie’s Angels reboot.
MY GO-TO KARAOKE SONG “Creep”
by Radiohead.Halle Bailey / 19
Nabbing the role of a Disney princess
is a springboard for additional studio
fare — look no further than the
careers of Cinderella star Lily James
and the reigning Jasmine, Naomi
Scott. So, while Bailey’s only acting
credit to date is as a recurring char-
acter on Freeform series Grown-ish,
after her turn as Ariel in 2021’s The
Little Mermaid remake from director
Rob Marshall, more offers are sure
to follow. But the live-action feature
won’t be the young star’s first brush
with royalty. As teens, Bailey and
her sister Chloe were taken under
the wing of queen Beyoncé, who
signed the Georgian R&B duo to her
Parkwood Entertainment manage-
ment, later releasing their debut
studio album, The Kids Are Alright.Kelvin Harrison Jr. / 25
Harrison, whose parents are trained
musicians, always thought he was
predestined for the music business.
But then he met Viola Davis when
he scored a one-line role in 2013’s
Ender’s Game. Her advice to him?
Take acting classes. Turns out she
was on to something: This year alone
Harrison has starred in The Wolf
Hour, Luce, Gully, Bolden and awards
contender Waves, not to mention Epix
series Godfather of Harlem. “My jour-
ney has been so natural,” he says. “It
all felt like it was meant to be.” Next
up for the New Orleans native: Covers,
alongside Dakota Johnson, and Aaron
Sorkin’s The Trials of the Chicago 7.
ONSCREEN CHARACTER I
MOST IDENTIFIED WITH AS A KID
Sailor MoonTAALL EENNT