Ask an Assistant: John Brahan (Unscripted Assistant at Hello Sunshine)

John Brahan,

Unscripted Assistant, Hello Sunshine

Hi John! Thanks for taking the time to sit with me. Hello Sunshine, Reese Witherspoon’s media company, aims to empower women. Tell me what initially attracted you to the company and your favorite part of the job.

Making the Cut. I started with the Hello Sunshine Unscripted team as an Executive Assistant on Making the Cut, Amazon Prime’s design competition show. After working on season three, I joined Hello Sunshine. Back in 2005, my step mom recorded episodes of Project Runway on our TiVo. We used to watch them together, and Tim Gunn’s catchphrase was frequently quoted around the house:“Make it work.” My step mom even taught me how to use her sewing machine. I made a pillow case—the beginning and end of my career as a fashion designer. So when I got the opportunity to work on Making the Cut, I was pumped. Watching Heidi and Tim work with the designers in real time was a full circle moment.Now, my favorite part of the job is working for a company with such a distinct mission. While still aiming to entertain, our guiding principle is telling stories that authentically put women at the center. I feel a distinct sense of purpose in everything that we do at Hello Sunshine. In my general experience working in entertainment, that feeling can be hard to come by.

You’ve had a unique path to get here. Long before Hello Sunshine, you studied Public Policy and Acting at the University of Mississippi, once intending to work in politics. Then, you tried your hand at acting for a few years before transitioning to Unscripted Development. How have these experiences shaped you? What advice would you give to readers who may have myriad interests and are deciding between multiple paths?

I learned valuable life lessons pursuing each path. I learned what I like and don’t like, and that a 'like' can easily become a 'dislike' and vice versa. The time I spent focusing on politics taught me the importance of having values in your work and how detrimental not having them can be. Working as an actor taught me patience and that what you think you want is not always what is best for you. Ultimately, you can’t really know if something works for you until you try it. Growing up in Mississippi, I had no clue that working in Unscripted Development was a thing, but my choices brought me here. And right now, I really enjoy where I am sitting.

It takes courage to step back and say, “Hey, I’m glad I did this, but maybe it’s time for me to try something else.” For readers considering a career transition, either to, from, or within entertainment, can you talk about finding that courage?

I am terrible at sports. In elementary school, I played in a church league and thought I was pretty good. I wasn’t. So, in seventh grade, when I spent the whole season on the bench, I knew that playing basketball was an absolute waste of my time. I found the courage to “move on” by being bad at a lot of things as a kid. As an adult, I try to do a temp check every few months in all areas of my life. “Am I having fun? Do I enjoy this process? Am I excelling here? Is this working? Why not?” Whenever I feel like I am back on the bench, I reevaluate.

Although you may not use your Public Policy degree on the regular, do you feel that holding two degrees has served as an asset? To our younger subscribers, would you recommend pursuing academics outside of Film?

I highly recommend pursuing academics outside of Film because different paths offer transferable skills and context to make you a more well-rounded professional. I pursued a dual degree path and earned a B.A. in Public Policy and a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts. During the school day, I would hop from a stage combat class to an education policy lecture, constantly working both my left and right brain. For my undergraduate thesis, I combined both my disciplines and wrote a play revolving around Title IX. I conducted comparative policy analysis of sexual misconduct policies on SEC campuses and used the research to determine the policy that governed the fictional campus in the play and to depict how the policy choices affected the characters’ experience.

Now that I am working, I don’t think any course of study could have prepared me more for working in Production and Development than Policy and Theatre. Studying policy taught me how to analyze, research, and regurgitate information, and theatre taught me the art of storytelling. I use the skills gained from both disciplines every day. 

Between your amazing drumming and your former days as an actor, you maintain a rich creative life. How do you balance these pursuits with work? 

Hello Sunshine encourages everyone to have a Unicorn Space, a pursuit or passion separate from your job or family. Eve Rodsky, author of the Reese’s Book Club pick-turned-documentary, Fair Play, coined the term in her book ,"Find Your Unicorn Space." When researching for Fair Play, Eve found that women, bogged down by their responsibilities from work and family, felt they could not invest in their own lives. So, the Unicorn Space aims to fix that feeling, and during my first month at Hello Sunshine, Eve conducted a workshop helping us determine our individual Unicorn Spaces. By the end, my peers had chosen activities like painting, cooking, or fitness, and I selected music. After Eve’s workshop, I started prioritizing going to shows and playing music again. I play drums for different groups and artists—Lemondrop, Julianna Joy, Jalen Friday, and Blondonna—and love to use my nights and weekends for gigging. I am so grateful to work at a company that encourages us to have passions outside of our jobs. I am able to balance work and music because Hello Sunshine’s values allow me to make both a priority.

With the writer’s strike, more and more folks are looking into work within Unscripted. What draws you to the genre? 

When a lot of projects in LA have stopped completely, I am grateful to still be working and hope a resolution can be reached ultimately benefiting the writers and actors. Unscripted is a great place to be right now, and I’m drawn to the genre because of the authenticity. The stakes are already there. In our most recent docuseries, Surf Girls Hawai’i, we followed five surfers as they navigated the world of professional surfing. We didn’t have to write their obstacles, their motives, or their reactions. The ups and downs already existed. They grappled with honoring their culture, fulfilling their family legacies, gaining sponsors, and defending their reputations. We just had to film them competing and living their lives to capture the compelling story. 

Outside of work, how do you foster your career development?

I read the trades, watch a lot of TV, and grab drinks, but I feel like those are the basics. Career development is something I am still trying to crack. And right now, the fastest way I can develop my career is by learning as much as possible and asking as many questions as I am able to. I like to look at the careers of the people ahead of me. I’ll ask VPs, Supervising Producers, or Showrunners what their first jobs were in the industry and why they took the steps that they did.

I also love podcasts. They get me through my commute. I recently listened toSpectacle: An Unscripted History of Reality TV. It's a great podcast that outlines the origins and growth of the genre. Basically, I try to use my downtime to soak up as much information as possible and in turn my career will develop. At least I hope it will!

Looking back on your journey, is there anything you would have done differently?

I should have studied abroad. It's so difficult to travel when you have a job. One day, I hope to spend a couple of months in a different country.

Ditto on that. Any other final words of advice for your fellow Hollywood assistants and other industry hopefuls?

Figure out how the entertainment industry works for you, and be open to a path you may not have anticipated. The business is too big to let your expectations pigeonhole you.