Credit: Linda Ye (2021)
In 2017...
Inspired by the confusing casting decisions I saw onscreen, I launched the podcast Minefield: Secret Lives of Brown Artists to give voice to the frustrations, the joys, and the complications that Southwest Asian/Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian (SWA/MENASA) actors, writers, and creatives face in their careers. Minefield came to be because casting is complicated and standards of representation and authenticity are always changing - and will continue to change. This show came to be in an era when Hollywood producers were just learning that Gods of Egypt was a mistake, and people are still processing what it meant for a British Indian actress to be cast as Princess Jasmine when the call specified "These characters are Middle Eastern."
I met my first interviewees at a reading of Nothing Left to Burn by Adi Hanash and Patrick Vassel, and from there I've been honored to meet so many incredible game changers in the industry. We get to know each other as people, to keep the focus on the human and center how we're not just here to crack the code to success - we're here to blow it up so we can build a better world in its wake. Some of those chats were phone conversations or walks around New York City, some solo and some with my cohost Mackenzie Gannon (and some hosted solo by her!), and some have made it onto the podcast, like this discussion of autonomy and complexity in story-telling with filmmaker Geeta Malik in her pre-Abbott Elementary days.Â
Minefield is currently on hiatus, but you can catch past episodes wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe on social media for updates. Sometimes we host events, like our 2022 Oscars After-Party, where we talked through representation in the industry at large with social scientist Al-Baab Khan, filmmaker Terrie Samundra, and actor Fajer Al-Kaisi, with a special performance by Tasneem Nanji.