Creative Control

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How Kerry Washington’s Simpson Street Thrives Through Disruption

June 09, 2026

Over the past decade, Hollywood has been upended by streaming wars, labor strikes, AI anxiety, and a rapidly shifting business model. Amid the turbulence, Kerry Washington and Pilar Savone have built Simpson Street, a production company with projects that have been both commercially successful and culturally resonant. In this episode of Creative Control, Washington and Savone explain what it takes to make a project undeniable in today's market and how they’re redefining what creative control ...

Aleshea Harris on the Power of Creating Your Own Worlds

May 12, 2026

Playwright and director Aleshea Harris knew early on she wouldn’t be satisfied playing a role in someone else’s story—she wanted to create her own. Harris initially set out to be an actor, but quickly realized the limits of waiting for permission to tell more expansive stories centered on the Black experience. So began her career as one of the most fearless playwrights in contemporary theater, with works including What to Send Up When It Goes Down, On Sugarland, and Is God Is, the latter of w...

Spill's CEO on becoming more than 'Black Twitter'

April 14, 2026

In 2022, Alphonzo “Phonz” Terrell was the global head of social and editorial at Twitter until he was part of the mass layoffs following Elon Musk's acquisition of the company. Terrell and his fellow Twitter alum DeVaris Brown immediately pivoted to create their own social media platform, Spill. After years of seeing how harmful and exploitative social media apps can be to Black and queer folks in particular, they were determined to design a space to serve and safeguard the communities that a...