stephanie allain is a film producer and writer and the newly elected co—president of the producers guildica — the first woman of colour to hold the position. stephanie served nine years as vice president in women in film. she runs her own company, homegrown pictures, which focuses on creating content by and about women and people of colour. keri and stephanie, welcome to you both. happy to be here. now, keri, you were set on a career in theatre, but there was a plot twist when hollywood came calling. tell us about what happened. well, that was a very early plot twist in my career. i was coming out of college and i was going to go work at a theatre, and i had a a friend who was working at hbo, which at that time was a very start—up network, a long time ago — pretty start—up network — and she said, "well, you are going to go work "in the theatre but there is some guy coming who's "going to be making plays for television on hbo. "you could maybe be his assistant," and so, i got that job as a secretary at the very bottom, starting out a long time ago. they don't say secretary any more. they