Devon Mahoney

Q: Where do you work/for whom?

A: I work in Current Programming at Lionsgate TV.

Q: What is your role/position there?

A: I’m an assistant.

Q: How long have you been working in the industry?

A: I’ve been in the industry for 4 years.

Q: What jobs, if any, preceded this? How did you make your way to the position you hold now?

A: I worked very briefly as an assistant to a reality TV showrunner, then I moved over to an entertainment law firm as an account manager. My last job was an assistant to two TV Lit Agents at the Gersh agency. One of my bosses at Gersh knew my current boss and asked her to do an informational interview with me, which turned into a job interview.

Q: What was the most important advice you have for a filmmaker starting out?  

A: Ask yourself “What is my creative brand?” Figure out what makes you different/unique, and a good add to a project. There are so many film school grads coming to LA or New York every year – what separates you from them? Don’t try to be a generic “I’ll do anything and I want anything” person. How is anyone supposed to help you get where you want if your goal is “anything”? Let people know who you are and what you want – and know yourself what those are. 

I always tell people “Know your story.” Stories have beginnings, middles, and ends. What have you come from, and what are you doing now? What do you want to do and what are you doing today to try to get there?  

Q: How did you use your time outside of work (both currently and during your time in college)?

A: In college, I worked 20 hours a week in retail, 20 hours a week in class, 20 hours in the TV studios (EIV/Emerson Channel/ National Broadcasting Society), and spent the rest of the time eating, sleeping, socializing, and doing homework. I was very busy.

Now, I work from 9 AM to 7 PM every day with 45 minutes of traffic each way. This doesn’t leave much time after work, so I mostly catch up on TV (gotta stay current for work!). I do have weekends free to travel.

Q: What is something you think would make the film industry better?

A: I can think of so many things; less sexism and “boys club” culture, more diversity and inclusiveness, better pay for assistants and lower level employees, and more honesty, to name a few. 

Q: Do filmmakers have any responsibility to culture? Do you feel that being a creative person requires that you give back or tell a particular story or not do something else? Why or why not?  

A: It depends on your own philosophy. Some people make films to change the world and some people make films to make money; hopefully, you can do both. Everyone has their own creative path/vision. A good piece of material will have universal themes that people can connect to, and trying to force a “message” into media never works. Just try to tell the best story you can. A great story has to be about something that is meaningful in some way. 

At the end of the day, the onus is really on audiences to support media that speaks to them. This industry is a business; if media about a certain story/concept/group/etc makes money and is well received, you’ll get more of it. If it doesn’t make money, it won’t. 

Q: We would like to explore some of the more difficult times that people have had getting into the industry to better understand how to navigate those situations. With that in mind, and especially as someone who worked multiple jobs before getting to your dream, what failures (of your own) have you been able to learn from? How did they change you and your process?

A: Originally I thought I wanted to work in production as a producer or line producer. I had worked on set and in the TV studio a lot at Emerson and always had a great time. When I worked my first professional production job in LA, I hated it. The hours were long, there was a lot of standing around, and most importantly, the people I was working with weren’t my friends. I quickly realized that I loved working on passion projects with friends, but doing it as a job was not what I wanted for my life. 

I took an office job at an entertainment law firm out of desperation and ended up really liking it. I liked the order and stability, coming to work and leaving at the same time every day. I liked working with my co-workers long enough to become friends. It was just a better fit for me personality wise.  I also learned a ton about how the business and legal side of the industry works, which gave me a huge leg up on a lot of my peers. I eventually left because I wanted something more creative and had come to the realization that I wanted to be a TV Executive. 

Unfortunately, all the jobs I was looking at required agency experience, so I went after and secured a position at an agency. Since I had already been an assistant at a law firm, I was able to bypass the mailroom/floater requirements and go straight to a desk. Taking a sidebar for a year or two and figuring out what I really wanted (while also getting valuable experience) ended up being a really great move for me, though at the time it was terrifying and I had no idea what I was doing with my life.

Q: Before you had reorganized your goals and we’re still working that legal assistant job out of pure necessity, how did you handle not knowing your next step? Did you try to sort of concoct a plan going forward while you were there or did your new plan occur to you as you got further into the experience?

A: I’m not gonna lie, it caused me a lot of anxiety! But, looking back, I should have had more faith in myself and trusted the process. My legal job was still in entertainment, so even though I wasn’t in the exact job I wanted, I was still working in the industry. I tried to focus on learning new skills and being the best at my job that I could so that when I left I would have good references. The firm appreciated my efforts and I was able to do cool stuff with them, like go to the Sundance Film Festival and the American Film Market. While I definitely could have stayed at that company and continued to grow there, they worked mostly in small indie films and I had always wanted to work in TV. After two years, I realized that I needed to move on.

I went online and started targeting any and all jobs in TV that seemed interesting that my experience applied to. One of the jobs I applied to led me to a recruiting firm that worked with Netflix. After interviewing with the recruiters, they put me up for a position there that they thought I would be perfect for, but we were disappointed to hear that Netflix wouldn’t look at my resume because I didn’t have  talent agency experience. So, I decided to try to get in at an agency because it seemed like a gateway to a lot of the jobs I was looking at. Luckily, around this time Emerson Career Services posted on Facebook that they could help get your resume in to agencies, so I hit them up and the rest was history. 

Q: To your point about how the industry can be better with more diversity and inclusion, do you think this is something only someone in a hiring position can contribute to? Is there anything we can do at beginner levels to help promote and contribute to diverse working spaces and stories?

A: Not necessarily. People in hiring positions have a lot of power, but they also rely heavily on their assistants for recommendations. My boss regularly asks me if I know people who would be good for assistant jobs for her friends, or recommendations for writers on our shows. If I know diverse people, I can put them up for jobs and give them a shot.  It’s up to me to make sure that I’m reading and meeting people from all different walks of life. This can be hard at times, since Emerson is not the most diverse community (not the worst, but could be a hell of a lot better). If I have diverse people in mind, I can put them in front of my boss and give them a chance. 

The issue of diversity in Hollywood is also heavily tied to the issue of racial economic disparity. Assistant and PA jobs pay CRIMINALLY low. A lot of people get financial assistance from their parents, which helps them make the move to LA and support them through getting settled in. It’s nearly impossible to get a job before moving to LA, and can take another 6-18 weeks to find a job, sometimes more! This means you need to have money to move out here and support yourself for 1-3 months without work, as well as get by in an incredibly expensive city on basically minimum wage. Who can do that? Rich people.  In order to make a real dent in Hollywood’s diversity problem, we need to eliminate the economic barrier of entry. If people can’t even get in the door, how are they supposed to rise up and become showrunners one day?

Q: What do you see as your biggest professional asset (hard or soft skill)? What is a skill you wish you had?

A: I’m great at working my ass off. Seriously, I can work harder and longer and better than anyone, and I can do it with a smile. Nothing is beneath me. I’ll stay as long as it takes to finish a project, and I’ll pick up the slack from someone else and still get my shit done, even if it means staying all night. 

I wish I was able to be more charming. I’m friendly and personable, but I’ve never been able to get stuff handed to me because of my charm. It’s why I’m such a hard worker; someone can always be smarter, or prettier, or more charming than you. You can’t control those things, but you can control how hard you work. People notice who’s the last one in and the first one out, who does the grunt work and who sucks up to try to get out of it. 

Q: Do you love what you do? Why or why not? If not, what else motivates you to keep moving forward through the long hours and long commute?

A: I love what I do! I’m making television happen, which has always been my dream. TV had a big effect on me growing up. It really helped me to see people like me, living their lives episode after episode and making it through. Their lives weren’t perfect and not everything got tied up perfectly like in a movie. Being a TV exec is my dream and I’m working towards that. 

Q: Ideally, what do the next three years look like for your? What changes, what stays the same?

A: In a perfect world, I move off my desk (meaning not working as an assistant anymore) and start working as a coordinator, getting more involved in our projects as a whole and not just helping out my boss in the day to day. Then, when I’m so amazing at that and I get promoted to being a manager and start working on my own projects! On the exec path, the higher up you move, the the more decisions you get to make on your own. You also get greater relationships with your creators as you’re their first point of contact at the studio/network.