Rishi Rajani on Breaking In, Protest Art, and The Hollywood Mailroom

Before the age of 30, Rishi Rajani rose to become president of Lena Waithe's Hillman Grad Productions, the company that brought you Queen & Slim and BET's Boomerang and Twenties, among other projects.In this episode, he talks about how Hillman Grad wants to help other people break into Hollywood—especially underrepresented creators who want to make protest art. He also talks about how he worked his way up from the mailroom, and why, in 2020, the mailroom still matters.Because Rajani climbed the rungs himself, he knows how hard it is—and he has a bold idea for how to end the problem of rich kids getting all the best Hollywood internships and other opportunities.Look for our full profile of Ranjani in the upcoming issue of MovieMaker Magazine, which also profiles LuckyChap Entertainment, the company founded by Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, Sophia Kerr and Josey McNamara.Here are highlights from our interview with Rishi Rajani, with timestamps:1:50: Rishi Rajani interview begins. 2:00: We talk about The 40-Year-Old Version, Radha Blank's debut film, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.3:45: Rishi Rajani talks about his job interview with Lena Waithe.4:00: "Bringing other people up... has really been the core mandate of everything we do." 5:40: How an unsuccessful collaboration ultimately got Rajani his job.9:30: "If you're truly going to be supporting younger voices, you have to get their stuff made."11:30: His Malawi-born father's love of American Westerns.15:50: Let's talk about overcoming nepotism.19:00: The rich-intern problem, and how Hillman Grad wants to fix it.21:00: How high you have to score on The Black List to draw Hillman Grad's attention.31:30: Let's talk about Queen & Slim. 34:00: His advice for people who want to produce movies.36:35: Why working your way up from the mailroom is no joke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.