Inspirational Women In Hollywood: How Christin Baker of DIVABoxOffice tv & A Baker Production Is Helping To Shake Up The Entertainment Industry
An Interview With Ming Zhao
When you think something is too hard, that’s when you should do it. I directed a day on the set of Cowgirl Up. I was working with fantastic actors and was scared that they would think I was dumb or gave bad direction. It ended up being one of the most fun days and working with those actors gave me the confidence to pursue directing.
As a part of our series about Inspirational Women In Hollywood, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Christin Baker — CEO of DIVABoxOffice.tv & A Baker Production.
An award-winning director and Emmy-nominated producer, Christin Baker is passionate about telling relevant and meaningful stories. Most recently, Christin partnered with DIVA Media Group for the Dec. 1, 2022, relaunch of the LGBTQ+ streaming network DIVABoxOffice.tv. As CEO of the company, she will also premiere her fourth queer holiday romcom, Merry & Gay, from her company, A Baker Production.
Since the age of 13, when her family purchased their first VHS camcorder, Christin has been playing with storytelling, directing music videos and SNL parodies with neighborhood kids. In 2009, she launched her own production and digital distribution company, Tello Films, and the first streaming channel to make movies and other programming for the queer female community. TelloFilms.com was the first lesbian network to receive an Emmy nomination in 2017 for the series Secs & EXECS. In 2019, the series Riley Parra, which she produced and directed, was nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards.
Under Christin’s guidance Tello Films was the leader in creating original queer content as well as creating a platform for monetizing niche entertainment. Passionate about directing, Christin was awarded Best Director for her work on Maybelle at the 2016 London Raindance Film Festival.
She is a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Television Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and has had the pleasure to work with such film icons such as Lindsay Wagner (The Bionic Woman), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troy, Star Trek), Amanda Righetti (The Mentalist), Archie Kao (CSI, Chicago Med, the Blue Power Ranger) and Janina Gavankar (Big Sky, The Morning Show).
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I was very lucky to have had a great childhood. My parents were always very supportive of whatever activities I wanted to try. I did everything from sports to speech and debate to school musicals. I have a large extended family, so I grew up with friends and family visiting frequently and staying at our house. It was a very welcoming environment. I loved sports, especially soccer and played them all growing up. I also loved playing with our family’s VHS recorder. My friends and I would make music videos and SNL parodies for fun and I learned how to edit and make small home movies. Very rudimentary but I thought it was big time! Most of my childhood, we lived in Nashville, Tennessee, so I am fortunate to have grown up in a very musically artistic city, where I continue to live today. I am happy that I am still very close to my family.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
I have two stories, the first is that when I was 12, I directed my first play. It was my family’s Christmas play and I chose a Christmas Carol. I have a lot of cousins, aunts and uncles who I enlisted as the cast. My uncle Kenny was my main star as he was up for anything and was funny so he played Scrooge, but he would never come to rehearsal, so it was an early education on improv! The cousins were the ghosts and Bob Cratchit and then I had audience participating for the small roles. We have it on a VHS tape and still laugh when we watch it. My stage was the living room space in front of the TV and the family squeezed in to watch the show. I think that’s when I became addicted to directing.
But I realized I wanted to make movies when I was an extra on the set of a movie called Major Payne. I was a freshman in college and only been on campus for a week. I had never been on a movie set before and it was the coolest thing. I knew then that being on a set was a magical place and I wanted to do that.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I was filming a workplace comedy and the first day we were doing exteriors, so we didn’t need be inside on the office set. We were scheduled to film inside for the next five days or so but discovered that the location person had not secured our office building location and they were already booked. So, we were naturally freaking. This was prior to location sites that make things easier today. We found offices on a local studio lot and the owners were kind enough to let us use them for a small fee.
We had to make a major pivot and change the shooting schedule and my poor production designer had to rework all her plans. It was crazy, but we made it work and Mindy Sterling received an Emmy nomination for that project but it was VERY stressful. I continue to be amazed that it all worked out. After that, I realized that I had a Production Goddess who is always there to help me out. Somehow, things always seem to work out in the best way. At the time you’re not sure that it will, but if you trust yourself, know that it will be okay in the end.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I dated one of the actors I directed early in my career and that was a big mistake. Keep it professional!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
There are so many people who came in to support me in my career and helped me learn and stretch. I would say that early in my career, Nancylee Myatt, who is a writer and show runner, put her faith in me and collaborated. Kitty Swink, who is a producer and actress, has appeared in my projects and produced with me. These two women really believed in me and worked with me when most people saw me as a young, green producer. On the set of Cowgirl Up, Nancylee showed me how to be a producer and, really, how to set the tone on set … To have fun and to be so grateful for the work we are doing. Kitty helped make my work better, not only with her performance as an actor but by also being there to help coach the actors and run lines with them. She is a wonderful and supportive person.
Another collaborator who I partnered with early in my career, who trusted me with her work, is Bridget McManus, a wickedly talented writer, actress and comedian. She always pushes a project to be better and is willing to do anything to make that happen. She challenged me to be better than I thought I could be. Bridget wrote and starred in the award-winning web series Maybelle and she did everything possible to make the project the best with no ego about anything. Even if it meant we cut her lines or a scene, she didn’t care. It was always about the project.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
Keep going and know you are going to fail but the failure is what is going to make you a better artist. They say you learn more from your failures than your success and that is so true. So I’d say get out there and do your best to fail so you get it out of your system and realize that you will still be okay and the world won’t end.
Every industry iterates and seeks improvement. What changes would you like to see in the industry going forward?
This may seem oddly specific but I’m going to focus on the holiday romcom genre. I’d like it if there could be more than one film for marginalized communities each season.
Platforms seem to think having just one film shows diversity when really it would be great if we could have two or three per platform each year with LGBTQ+ storylines.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
I have so many awesome projects that are waiting for a home or funding to get made! I am excited about my Scare BnB thriller franchise. These have been so much fun to make and I really have enjoyed working in the genre. I will be making the third installment this February. I see this franchise continuing, producing three projects each year.
I also have a historical fiction period drama called Storyville, which is based on the true story of the New Orleans redlight district in the early 1900s. We have some powerhouse women who were part of the Star Trek franchise attached. The story is powerful, as are these women.
And finally, my next holiday movie, which is not a romcom but rather a family holiday comedy, called Redneck Christmas, which is based on true stories of me bringing my girlfriends and friends home to my very large Southern family. I want to make more projects and grow my streaming platform DIVABoxOffice.tv to a point where we can fund additional projects for the lesbian/queer community.
We are very interested in looking at diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture and our youth growing up today?
I always feel like I get dramatic when this question is asked but I believe this with all my heart — Diverse stories save lives! To see yourself in media and entertainment validates your existence. If you don’t see yourself, you can feel alone and that can lead to being bullied and possibly suicide, rates are still too high in our community.
Empathy comes from meeting someone and finding their humanity, but the same cause/effect may happen when you watch their stories. You find something in common, like heart break, loss, feeling like an outcast. This kind of empathy can help save lives.
I truly believe that the most important thing we can do for young people is show them they are not alone. Trans youth, women of color and the lesbian/queer community all need to see themselves represented. We have come so far since I was young and coming out, but we still have a ways to go. That is why I started my platform Tello Films and why I’m so excited to relaunch another lesbian/queer streaming platform DIVABoxOffice.tv, so that people know they can come see their story.
What are “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
- When you think something is too hard, that’s when you should do it. I directed a day on the set of Cowgirl Up. I was working with fantastic actors and was scared that they would think I was dumb or gave bad direction. It ended up being one of the most fun days and working with those actors gave me the confidence to pursue directing.
- You will want to give up, make sure you have someone to call who will listen. We all have doubts and get down and frustrated, so it’s always helpful to have a few people you can call who will listen and empathize. Some people want to solve your problems, but you don’t always need that … just someone who will say “that sucks” or “that sounds hard.”
- You have a greater power out there who wants you to succeed. It took me a while to realize that there is something greater that is guiding me, because I believe that working to solve problems feels less daunting. Or when things don’t go the way I want them to go, it’s less frustrating. I have dozens of small stories about how my production goddess ended up helping me. In fact, the story I told about losing the office location earlier ended up helping me save budget money. I had to rearrange the schedule for actors and I was able to streamline the schedule and save money.
- Don’t give up more than 51% of your company. I have been too generous in the past and I gave up more than 51% of my company and I should have kept the majority. I was so excited to partner with others to feel supported and part of a team. But we ended up having conflicts. I didn’t have any power to make choices and ended up losing control of my company. I won’t do that again.
- Creative collaborators will come and go in your life that that’s okay. You don’t have to work or get along with everyone. I have been very lucky to have worked with some amazing people. You are meant to creatively collaborate with people but that doesn’t mean you work with them forever. Your styles might change or where you film might change and that will cause people to come or go in your life. Don’t take it personally, just know you’re not meant to be with them in this next version of your life.
Can you share with our readers any self-care routines, practices or treatments that you do to help your body, mind or heart to thrive? Please share a story for each one if you can.
Oh yes! I am a huge believer in meditation. I meditate every day and I journal my gratitude. Even if you just sit still for two minutes and count to clear your mind, I think that is so helpful. I also love to journal about things that I’m grateful for in the present and in the future.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Leap and the net will appear. I had no idea how I was going to create TelloFilms.com but I felt very compelled to start a streaming platform before it was cool and everyone was doing it! I didn’t know how to code or what the needs would be. I just knew this was something I was supposed to do in 2009. I took the leap and found people — People who could code, people who would give angel investor money and people who wanted to make movies. I have leapt in making movies too. When you get that feeling you just start saying, “I’m going to make this project,” and you keep saying it and believe until you take the leap and then the net appears.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I would like to inspire a movement of empathy and non-judgement. When we see people as “other” that’s when people feel they can cause harm. When we can empathize with others, it helps with judgements we place on others. I think that would have the most impact because it cuts across politics, ethnicities and religions.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
Oh wow, I love this! So that means it needs to be someone who is on social media … I would love to have lunch with Charlize Theron. She has made fantastic choices as an actor and she once tweeted that she would be into doing a lesbian Die Hard, so I’d love to pitch her on that with me directing!
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
Twitter and IG: @ChristinTello
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DIVAboxofficeTV
Twitter: @DIVAboxofficeTV
IG: @DIVAboxoffice
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
