Stories Behind Love & Hip Hop

Mona Scott-Young sat down with The Creative Coalition CEO Robin Bronk in the latest episode of “At Home With The Creative Coalition,” a podcast featuring unplugged and uncensored conversations with today’s biggest stars. In the newest episode, Scott-Young talks about the story behind her massively popular reality show, “Love & Hip Hop”; the exciting, unannounced projects coming from her production company, Monami; and more. Highlights below.

“At Home With The Creative Coalition” is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, SoundCloud, and more.

Listen now at:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/producing-her-road-to-success-with-guest-mona-scott-young/id1521900273?i=1000536854372

For planned coverage, please link to:
http://thecreativecoalition.org/podcast

Highlights from “At Home With The Creative Coalition” featuring Mona Scott-Young —

On the story behind “Love & Hip Hop”:
“One of my protégés, she started out as my intern, came into Monami and brought with her a client that she had, Jim Jones. And they had done a deal with VH1… for a show around Jim Jones. They had spent a couple years developing the show and trying to figure out the right point of entry… And Jim, who I had met in my travels said, ‘I’d love to see if you’d come on board and try to figure this show out.’ What I realized very quickly was that although Jim Jones was an amazingly charismatic personality, he was a reluctant participant. He didn’t want to do reality so it’s that funny cross-section of ‘why are you doing this if you don’t want to do this?’ Because there’s no gun to your head to do this. But he had a super dynamic girlfriend and his mom was a hoot. And there was kind of this rash of an ensemble female cast popping up, ‘The [Real] Housewives of Atlanta,’ some other ones that were just beginning to appear. And I knew from experience as a manager that if you have a group of super dynamic women who are living unbelievable lives that us normal folks would gag, as the kids say, to see, I’ve got a world for you… It really just became about pulling the curtain back on a world that I knew was fascinating, that had aspirational elements, and if I could tap into the glitz and glamor that hip hop represented — the red carpets, and the music scene, and the parties, and the awards — then we would be giving a voyeuristic view to the people at home who wonder what it’s like.”

On exciting new projects coming from her production company, Monami:
“The next sights in view for me has been scripted. We are developing heavily in the scripted space. I’m very excited about the progress that we’ve made and the partnerships that we have in place on a lot of the projects that I’m working on. Series television is another area that we’re making strides in scripted series… We have several shows that we’ve already sold at network…  If I dare talk about some of the stuff. I’ve got the rights to ‘Shaka Zulu’… We’re all familiar with Aaron Hernandez and what happened in his life, but I’ve been fascinated by [Hernandez’s fiancé] Shayanna’s story. What was it like for her? This is her high school sweetheart, and she watched him change before her eyes. And he became this person that the world has deemed a monster. But this is the father of her children and the person that she loved for many years, so telling her story. That’s a project that I’m incredibly excited and passionate about. That’s a movie project.”

On what she would say to her 15-year-old self:
“Be fearless. Be fearless, especially when you’re young enough to scrape your knee, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and do it over again. Every day that we breathe air is an opportunity to course correct, to tackle it all over again, applying all the lessons that we learned the day before.”

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More about “At Home With The Creative Coalition”
Hosted by The Creative Coalition CEO Robin Bronk, “At Home With The Creative Coalition” brings listeners intimate portraits, key moments of discovery, and “art and soul” conversations with iconic entertainment industry personalities from the big screen to the boardroom, from L.A. to D.C. Listen now at http://thecreativecoalition.org/podcast.

Upcoming guests include Mädchen Amick (“Riverdale”), Shiri Appleby (“UnREAL”), Justin Bartha (“The Hangover,” “National Treasure”), Nicholas Gonzalez (“La Brea,” “The Good Doctor”), Tony Hale (“The Mysterious Benedict Society,” “Arrested Development”), Patricia Heaton (“Carol’s Second Act,” “The Middle”), New York Times Bestselling Author Susan Isaacs (“Compromising Positions”), Aasif Mandvi (“Evil”), Rachel Mason (“Circus of Books”), International Bestselling Author Patrick McGinnis (“The 10% Entrepreneur,” “Fear of Missing Out”), Yolonda Ross (“The Chi”), Reid Scott (“Echo”), Krista Vernoff (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “Station 19”), and Matt Walsh (“Veep”).

Previous guests include Jason Alexander (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”), David Alan Basche (“The Exes”), Asante Blackk (“This Is Us”), Carly Chaikin (“Mr. Robot”), Wilson Cruz (“Star Trek: Discovery”), Alan Cumming (“Briarpatch”), Ethan Cutkosky (“Shameless”), The Creative Coalition President and actor Tim Daly (“Madam Secretary”), Lea DeLaria (“Orange Is the New Black”), Griffin Dunne (“This Is Us”), Michael Fishman (“Roseanne,” “The Conners”), Jim Gaffigan (“The Jim Gaffigan Show”), Judy Gold (“The Other F Word”), Clark Gregg (“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”), Jon Huertas (“This Is Us,” “Castle”), Jason Isaacs (“Star Trek: Discovery”), Richard Kind (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”), Chad Lowe (“Supergirl”), Marlee Matlin (“CODA,” “The West Wing”), AnnaLynne McCord (“Let’s Get Physical”), Eric McCormack (“Will and Grace”), Wendi McLendon-Covey (“The Goldbergs”), Katherine McNamara (“Shadowhunters”), Marta Milans (“Shazam!”), Rob Morrow (“Billions”), Kathy Najimy (“Duncanville”), Haley Joel Osment (“Future Man,” “Entourage”), Bill Prady (“The Big Bang Theory”), Jessica Queller (“Supergirl”), Anthony Rapp (“Rent”), Julie Taymor (“The Lion King”), Alfre Woodard (“Clemency,” “Luke Cage”), Constance Zimmer (“Good Trouble”), and David Zucker (“Airplane!,” “Scary Movie”). 

More about The Creative Coalition
The Creative Coalition is the premier nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) social and public advocacy organization of the arts and entertainment community. Founded in 1989 by prominent members of the creative community, The Creative Coalition is dedicated to educating, mobilizing, and activating its members on issues of public importance. Actor Tim Daly serves as the organization’s President. The Creative Coalition also creates award-winning public service campaigns including #RightToBearArts to promote the efficacy of the arts. For more information, visit https://thecreativecoalition.org.

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