We were lucky to catch up with Niya Butler recently and have shared our conversation below.
Niya, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I am an only child to a single mother from Southern Louisiana. My whole life, I’ve seen nothing, but resilience from my mother. Without my mother’s resilience while raising me, I may not have even began this career.
Watching my mother face adversity, stress, and the daily trials of life, and win every time, instilled in me, the belief that I can do anything. Every time I’ve found myself face-to-face with a situation that feels as though it could break me, I remember everything that my mother has done – not only for me, but for herself too.
Along with my mother, I learned from watching my grandmother as well. She lived many lives and made sure to keep her head above water despite everything that life threw her way.
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?
Hi guys! My name is Niya Butler. I’m an indie film director and screenwriter – born and raised in Baker, Louisiana, but currently based out of Los Angeles, California. I spend majority of my days working 9 – 5 at NBCUniversal as a Production Coordinator at Bravo TV where I am responsible for operational and project management support across Bravo creative marketing campaigns. Before joining Bravo TV, I’d previously worked with Focus Features, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Discovery, the Producers Guild of America, Paramount, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
When not on the NBCUniversal lot, I bide my time by tapping into my creativity and writing. A few years ago, I found myself falling in love with the horror genre and have been sailing on that ship ever since. When writing new scripts, I tend to focus on the interpersonal relationships between people of varying backgrounds, while incorporating that thrill and edge that comes from horror.
For the past two years, I’ve been working developing and shopping around a script that I wrote called <i>The Paradoxical Green Cherry Blossom</i>. It’s a feature length story about a very wacky hotel. It bends the horror genre by introducing untraditional elements that create an illusionary experience for the viewer. My production team and I are super excited this project and can only hope to be able to share it with the world in the future.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Though I am still very early on in my career, I’ve been able to identify and grow a few qualities that have impacted me the most throughout this journey.
The first quality being humility – I’ve always been a firm believer that there is always more to learn, in every single facet of life. No matter what I think I know, there will always someone who more than likely knows more than me, and I can learn from them.
The second quality that has impacted me the most in my journey is not judging or being quick to shy away from different experiences. This ties into humility, but is its own quality within itself. I’ve always been open to anything that is offered to me or is available to me. This has given me a lot of incredible opportunities in my career where I’ve been able to not only gain more skills, but also identify what maybe doesn’t work for me.
The third quality being passion. No matter how hard the journey may get, no matter how many times someone may doubt me, no matter how many times I’m rejected from a job, I remain passionate about what I do and want to do. That passionate gives me the drive and confidence to continue to pursue my dreams. If I wasn’t passionate, I do not believe I wouldn’t made it as far as I have today.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I am always looking for people to partner and/or collaborate with! As of now, I’m looking for anyone interested in aiding to produce my feature project, <i>The Paradoxical Green Cherry Blossom</i>. My team is small, but mighty and always looking for any other producers who may be interested and a good fit.
As we get closer to another shoot date, we will be looking for crew and would love to meet anyone interested! Production Design and Hair & Make-up will be out biggest priority along with VFX.
On the writing front, I’m always open to writing with someone! If you want to write a script together or just write side-by-side, let me know.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.niyabutler.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/niyajanea/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niya-butler/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@niyajanea
- Other: Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/byniya/
Serializd: https://www.serializd.com/user/byniya/profile
Substack: https://substack.com/@byniya?utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page
