The visceral reaction was almost instant. In 2008, Jon M. Chu was working on his big directorial feature debut Step Up 2: The Streets, when his choreographer Luis Salgado invited him to New York to watch a Broadway musical he was in called In the Heights. "I'd never heard of Lin- Manuel Miranda, but when I saw it, my…

Kick-starting a new horror franchise is tough enough. But when producer Peter Chernin reached out to indie director Leigh Janiak with the idea of adapting author R.L. Stine's popular Fear Street books, the end result was not one, but three consecutive movies. Set in the cursed town of Shadyside, Ohio, they feature a…

When Cobra Kai was first announced as a new series based on the iconic The Karate Kid films, fans were immediately skeptical if the iteration would match up to the legendary status of the original. But creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg made the smart move by not only bringing back the…

With more than two decades as an outstanding performer on TV and stage, Renée Elise Goldsberry has found success as a go-to character actor, elevating everything she's worked on from One Life to Live to The Good Wife. But after starring in Broadway's Hamilton, the Tony-winning actress has earned the opportunity to…

In Rebel, creator Krista Vernoff has finally found a winning combination of a compelling central character, loosely inspired by activist Erin Brockovich, and lead actress Katey Sagal, who seems like she was born to play the role of Annie "Rebel" Bello. At times overbearing but always with the plight of the underdog at…

It was less than a week into filming The United States vs. Billie Holiday when Andra Day found herself on set singing "Strange Fruit" in front of an audience filled with extras. They were playing police waiting to arrest the singer for uttering even a word of her politically charged and, at the time, banned song. "I…

George C. Wolfe has been celebrated for his groundbreaking work on stage as a playwright and director for decades. It was very much a natural shift when he made his way behind the camera on projects like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Lackawanna Blues. But in his latest directorial endeavor Ma Rainey's Black…

With the world coming to a total standstill in the pandemic, Andy Samberg's quirky time-loop rom-com genre mashup Palm Springs became a representation of everyone's emotional isolation, and a blueprint for us to find our redemptive souls in the process. "All of a sudden, it morphed from this movie that blended genres…

Michelle Pfeiffer has played an array of iconic characters—from a heartbroken Madame de Tourvel in Dangerous Liaisons to the beehived, conniving antics of Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray—but none of her previous work forewarned us of the wonderfully aloof eccentricity she displays as newly-impoverished socialite widow…

With over two decades of work under her belt, Wanda Sykes has found that being a multi-hyphenate artist certainly allows for a diverse and successful career. Starting off as an award-winning writer for The Chris Rock Show, she quickly found popularity with her stand-up specials, leading to roles in Monster-in-Law and T…

When The Morning Show kicked off the release of original content featured on the Apple TV+ streaming platform, much conversation was about its detailed #MeToo breakdown of a sexual harassment incident, affecting everyone who worked on the fictional news program. Trying to rein everyone in, executive producer Chip…

In the musical dramedy fantasy Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, lead actress Jane Levy took on the principal role of Zoey, a young computer programmer who discovers she not only has the ability to hear people's innermost thoughts, but that, even more surprisingly, they come to her through the medium of song and dance…