Meet Desirée Levingston

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Desirée Levingston. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Desirée below.

Desirée, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

It can be quite daunting pursuing a career in a creative field. Perfectionism and questions of worthiness can loom in the back of my mind, but the thing that I’ve noticed when studying successful individuals is that the only ones who don’t make it are the ones who stop trying. I find that it’s easy to compete with the timeline of others, especially in the age of social media, but not everyone is going to find what they’re looking for in their first season of life. The right timing matters, and if success comes later, there will be more opportunities to perfect and expand your craft. This keeps me resilient in my journey as I know that good things can’t be rushed.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am a writer and producer from Ohio, currently based out of Los Angeles, CA. As an alumna of The Ohio State University, I began my journey in the world of freelance filmmaking across the independent, commercial, and unscripted landscape of the Ohio film industry. These experiences led me into opportunities to travel the country, meet new people, and learn the varied roles that make up video and photographic work. This culminated in a job offer as the assistant to the showrunner for a Hulu original series. With my dream job on the horizon, I packed up my things and moved to Los Angeles.

The transition was daunting as I had never been to California before and wouldn’t be able to see my new home in person prior to moving. This quickly became one of the most transformative decisions of my life as it helped empower me to create my own web series titled, Hardly Working. Loosely inspired by my time on the west coast, the comedic series follows two Black women trying to survive in Los Angeles through side hustles, friendship, and failure. Production for the first two episodes will begin in Summer of 2025 while my team continues fundraising to complete the first season. Our journey will be documented across various social media platforms, but most notably, Instagram @hardlyworkingtheseries.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

In the film industry, some qualities that helped propel me forward in my journey included willingness to learn, a good attitude, and charisma.

The ultimate goal when trying to get your foot in the door is to be helpful. If you are viewed as helpful, people will want to keep bringing you back into their orbit when new projects arise. I learned early on that the best way for me to be helpful on set is to understand what everyone was doing in the roles, this way I could anticipate their needs and jump in when necessary. This attribute was also necessary from a producing standpoint as I am able to assess risks within various scenarios (and ideally avoid them!).

It sounds cheesy to say that a good attitude is a helpful quality but filming can be stressful due to unforeseen obstacles and delays. A crew with good morale will generally last longer as a unit and give each other the momentum to keep going. Working days are typically 12 hours, after all.

Lastly, charisma can go a long way. As I mentioned, filming days can be 12 hours on average and people don’t want to feel like they are at work. This is why production companies bring the same crew (typically comprised of friends) with them to every project. This doesn’t mean fake a likable personality. Be yourself and you’ll find your tribe. A great way to practice this is by volunteering on low budget projects and filmmaking Facebook groups are constantly in need of additional hands on set. You never know who you could meet.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

It’s easy to become overwhelmed these days. Between internal pressure to succeed and a seemingly dwindling industry, efforts to push forward can seem futile. When these feelings bubble up and become too much to ignore, I prioritize rest and recovery. This can look like finding time in my day to see my friends, go on a hike, or even, set aside time to do literally nothing. When I take this time, I savor it and allow myself to be as present as I possibly can. I remember that those things that I cherish that have nothing to do with my stressors are what make life worth living.

During Covid lockdown, I was extremely overwhelmed (like most people), and made it a point to keep a running list in my notes app of anything that made me feel less depressed, hopeful, or joyful. Anything that was a escape, even momentarily, would go in my notes app. When things would become too much, I’d refer back to the list as often as I needed to. I’d step out of my head and into my body. I found that sensory focused items and activities were the most helpful.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @lookingfordesiree
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/desirée-levingston-988969156
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@HardlyWorkingSeries

Image Credits

Reilly Schrock, Liam Woods, Loose Films