Urban Freedom Magazine Fall2016 "The New Black Wall St" Vol1 | Page 24

Amira Shaunice

by : Michelle Reed
She is the author of fiction novel “ Silence ”, creator of the highly popular web series New York girls tv , and Founder of Amira Shaunice Films , LLC in Brooklyn , New York . Amira has a Master ' s degree in business and a Bachelors in Tv and Film . With her creative talents on the lips of so many in the black lesbian community , we thought it would be great to talk with her about her experiences , creative exploits , and what she has planned in the near future .
So Amira , what in�uences caused you to start writing ? Life in general . After viewing �lms I knew I wanted to write �ction . I ' ve been inspired by other stories and wanted to tell my own .
What would you say is your core audience ? Women . I guess that should have been Obvious . Yea . ( She laughs ).
NYGTV is extremely popular with more than 50,000 subscribers ; did you expect such success ? I didn ' t . I mean I knew it would be good , not to be cocky . But I didn ' t expect people to respond so well .
I spoke with some of the cast members and they con�rmed how funny and cool you are . What is it like on set ? On set is fun . It depends on my mood and the crunch for time . During �lming I like to be straight forward and focused but overall I want the girls to love coming to the set . In real life , are the cast members anything like their characters ? Each of them have a part of their characters which added on to stories . But no . I would say the only one who is exactly like their character is Stacey . In your line of work , does it get dif�cult to separate business and personal ? I function best when I don ' t distinguish between work and play . However , I ' ve learned in order to be respected I must keep my interaction with my cast and crew to a minimum . I can ' t party with them then expect them to be alert and on time to �lm the next day . It ' s all about �nding a balance . As far as writing I often take experiences from my personal life . It helps to make a better story .
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