FAIR WARNING: This episode is another nerdy one...because we invited on, none other than cinephile and Doctor of Film and now Chemistry himself, Dr. Nicholas Akkawi, for another genre masterclass of sorts but this time about a niche in the sci-fi genre that is the Star Wars Universe. In this episode, we specifically talk about the different trilogies, the pros and cons of the series, and our thoughts on the ever-expanding stories that Lucasfilm and Disney are putting out with the many new series in development for Disney+, the streaming platform that is home to every Star Wars film, animated and live-action series, micro-series, shorts and series. So put your Millennium Falcons in Hyperdrive and go forth with the force... If you need to catch up with the various Star Wars Films and Series, the following projects are currently streaming on Disney+: - The Skywalker Saga (Episodes I - IX) - Star Wars Anthology Films (Rogue One, Solo) - The Mandalorian (Season 1-2) - The Book of Boba Fett (Season 1) - Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Seasons 1-7) - Star Wars: Rebels (Seasons 1-4) - Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Season 1) - Star Wars: Visions (Season 1) - Much more! With more becoming available in the coming months. The next Star Wars project, OBI-WAN KENOBI, hits Disney+ on May 27th, 2022 with weekly episodes released every Friday through June 22. --- Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood Questions or Topics you want covered? Email us: [email protected] --- This episode is sponsored by: Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/ ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-hollywood-chai/support

It's a GREATEST HITS Episode!!! We've had such amazing guests on that we wanted to curate some of the advice and tips that they've given us and package them for you in a mini-episode! Enjoy! 1:49 - Tara Abboud: A Conversation with "Amira" Star (Ep 117) 2:46 - Rana Sobh: An Arab-American Girl, UN-INterrupted (Ep 123) 5:14 - Amanda Dieli: The Art of Self-Producing (Ep 126) 19:14 - Jonathan Cooper: Coping with Screenwriting (Ep 120) 24:00 - Diana Abousaleh: Screenwriting& The "T-Word" (Ep 125) 26:04 - Sabine Kahwaji: What Hollywood Dreams Are Made Of (Ep 124) 30:02 - Stephenie Cooper: How to Succeed in Hollywood By Being Independent (Ep 122) --- Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood --- This episode is sponsored by: Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/ ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-hollywood-chai/support

I am joined this week by a special friend of mine, the Queen herself, Amanda Dieli. Amanda is an award-winning Brooklyn-based actor, writer, and comedian. She holds a BFA in Acting from the University of Southern California, and a Graduate Certification in Television Writing from the University of California, Los Angeles and has studied screenwriting at Columbia University. She has trained professionally with The School at Steppenwolf in Chicago, Upright Citizens Brigade, and LABryinth in NYC, and at NYU in their Florence, Italy campus. She is a veteran sketch and improve performer of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. And most notably, in 2012, she had a scene with Sigourney Weaver in a pilot. She’s a proud member of SAG-AFTRA. I’m excited to have her on today and talk about her experiences as master of all trades artist from tv writing, sketch comedy and improv, acting and, notably, how to produce your own work – from the pros and cons to the hardships and joys of it. Fun fact: she is avid lover of Halloween novelty music. She created, wrote and produced her first short series, 18 Grand: A Personal Space Odyssey, which had its world premiere at NYC Web Fest in 2018 where it took the top prize of Best web Series, later appearing in several other festivals in 2019. You can check out the webseries at the link below. She also performed in Under the Radar in 2015 at The Orpheus Variations, a piece she also co-wrote with The Deconstructive Theatre Project. Amanda and I met at UCLA and trained professionally together in our time and oversaw the development of several spec scripts and TV pilots together. Besides being a Reference Queen, she is one of the most caring and excellent advice-giving people I have ever met and we are excited for her to spill her Hollywood Chai.  --- Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood Check out Amanda Dieli on her official website: http://www.amanda-dieli.com/ Amanda's Award-Winning Webseries can be seen here: https://www.footprint.tv/series/18-grand-206154 --- This episode is sponsored by: Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs  Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/ ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-hollywood-chai/support

I am joined this week by a special friend of mine, the iconic Diana Abousaleh. Diana is a Syrian-Venezuelan independent writer/filmmaker, mental health advocate, and educator based in Texas. She insists that writing is a journey, and not a destination. That being said, she loves to encourage writers to aim for progress, not perfection, something I try and practice in my everyday writing thanks to her. She is passionate about amplifying unique SWANA voices and experiences through her monthly newsletter titled Screenwriting&, a newsletter that I religiously follow and read and was featured as Artist of the Month in the 2021 August edition. Diana loves writing grounded sci-drama as well as stories that highlight themes of multiculturalism. She has provided script consulting experience to several festivals and production companies including Eclectic Pictures, Televisa USA, BlueCat Competition, International Screenwriters Association and most recently, the Emmy-nominated indie web series “WASHED.” She has a Bachelor’s in Radio/TV/and Film and a Master’s in Entertainment Business.  One of her favorite things about storytelling is the ability to make interior life visible, and also show that exterior life can be worth a second look. I mean her work has been selected to participate in New York’s Cinephilia Productions which is a Film Development workroom for African & Middle Eastern filmmakers and in Stowe Story Labs. This summer, she will also be participating in the Mosalsalat Screenwriters Lab of the Royal Film Commission of Jordan. And if that doesn’t convince you how much of a genius she is – take it from me, she is an ICON and I learn so much from her. I’m excited to finally have her on the pod and talk about her experiences and works.  --- Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood Check out Diana Abousaleh on Instagram: @darolina & her official website: https://www.dianaabousaleh.com/ The Screenwriting& on Instagram: @screenwritingand & the official blog website: https://www.dianaabousaleh.com/blog Diana's Upcoming Short film "Plug It Up" on Instagram: @plugitupfilm --- This episode is sponsored by: Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/ ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-hollywood-chai/support

I am joined this week by a special friend of mine, the iconic Sabine Kahwaji. Sabine is a Lebanese Canadian director, writer and music videographer. Her narrative-focused directorial style has led her to work actively in the music industry with prominent labels and artists with a combined total of over 1.4 million views across her projects. As a proud Lebanese woman with a passion for storytelling, Sabine strives to eradicate cultural stereotypes through her work, ensuring that marginalized groups have a voice. She is dedicated to using her expertise to continuously raise awareness for causes such as Epilepsy and MS, as well as amplifying the female-identifying perspective on and off-screen. Her work has been featured on ETALK Canada, The Vancouver Sun & Province, Diafanis Argentina, iHeart Radio, among others. Most recently, as a strong storyteller her work has transitioned into directing and writing for television, commercial and film all while continuing her work in the music industry. You may recognize her as the special guest on our first two episodes (Episode 101 & 102) ever – a conversation that we did in March 2021 over Instagram Live that we both thought was important to share. I’m excited to finally have her on the pod in an actual capacity and talk about her experiences and works! Enjoy! --- Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood Check out Sabine Kahwaji on Instagram: @sabinekfilm & her official website: sabinekahwaji.com "Mind vs. Body" Short Film: https://vimeo.com/682172932 Tess Anderson's "Don't Believe In" Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8gbIhp3DnM  --- This episode is sponsored by: Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/ ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-hollywood-chai/support

This week we have another very special and unique guest. I am joined this week by a special friend of mine, the iconic Rana Sobh. Rana is an Arab American actress and model. Her passion for storytelling, interest in psychology and understanding emotion and motivation is heavily influenced by the film “Girl, Interrupted.” She speaks Arabic fluently and has a Bachelors degree in psychology from Oakland University. Syrian actress Amal Arafa, Nadine Njeim and Jim Carrey are her idols and she often imitates their characters. Aside from being on camera, she also works in film/TV production such as HBO Max’s “No Sudden Move” starring an all-star talented cast led by Don Cheadle and Benicio del Toro, and the Starz original crime drama series BMF, starring Russell Hornsby as well as in entertainment public relations. We sat down for a fun conversation about the psyche of acting, the psychology behind storytelling, what motivates us both as well as Rana's work behind the camera as production crew for several projects that shoot around her area. Enjoy! --- Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood Check out Rana Sobh on Instagram: @vivalaranasobh & on TikTok: @vivalarana1 --- This episode is sponsored by: Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/ ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-hollywood-chai/support

We have another very special and unique guest this week that harkens back to our mission statement of having special guests on that are trying to break their own way into the industry. I am joined this week by an icon of a woman, and soon-to-be momager, the amazing Stephenie Cooper. Stephenie has been in the entertainment industry for over 20 years and wears a LOT of hats! She has directed, produced, and put amazing casts together on the stage and in film. In 2021 she started Cooper Home Entertainment with her family to help bring exciting, clean media to the world that you don’t have to stop, skip, or mute! Since then, Cooper Home Entertainment has gathered over 10,000 followers on TikTok and 1.4 thousand followers on YouTube with more than 6,000 hours of watch time. She believes that we are all here to make a difference in the world. All it takes is hard work, and diligence. I had the blessing to meet her eldest son, the incomparable Jonathan Cooper (who is featured on Episode 120) and well, the rest is history! --- Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood Check out Cooper Home Entertainment on Instagram & TikTok: @cooperhomeentertainment and on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CopingWithNormal Check out Imagination Required Studios (the production sector of CHE): http://imaginationrequiredstudios.com/ --- This episode is sponsored by: Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/ ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc The Script Doctors - a sister podcast where we fix scripts on air! Follow on instagram @thescriptdoctors --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-hollywood-chai/support

We’ve been busy with some professional projects and some personal matters that have forced to take a mini-hiatus at the start of this season, but we promise we’ll be back very soon with feature-length episodes and amazing special guests. But for now, we bring you our very first mini episode! This mini cup of chai is actually an interview that, I the host of The Hollywood Chai, Jon Akkawi, did for The Catalyst: A Creative Industries Podcast, the official podcast of Chapman University, a prestigious film, TV and media school down in the Southern California area. We talked about several things but mostly about the cultural landscape of the entertainment industry. And in fact, you might recognize the interviewer…it’s none other than Perla Nino! Our special guest on Episode 109 – “A Dummies Guide to Film School”. The interviewee becomes the interviewer and vice versa --- Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood Check out the official podcast by Chapman University - "Catalyst: The Creative Industries Podcast": https://www.chapman.edu/wilkinson/cci/catalyst-podcast.aspx Check out Episode 109 of The Hollywood Chai with Perla Nino! --- This episode is sponsored by: Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs  Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/  ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation  DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-hollywood-chai/support

Going back to our mission statement of having special guests on that are trying to break their own way into the industry, we have a very special and unique guest who is forging his own path that we are lucky to be apart of. I am joined this week by a very good friend of mine, my co-worker and boss (more on that in the episode) and fellow writer, the talented Jon Cooper. Jon Cooper is a self-made screenwriter and co-founder of Cooper Home Entertainment. As showrunner for CHE, he has helped create and produce over 10 hours of serialized content for shows like "Coping with Normal," "Once Upon a Mermaid," and "Shadows of Doubt" on YouTube. Together with Cooper Home Entertainment, Jon strives to bring wholesome but exciting content to the world that you don't have to pause, skip, or mute. Graduating from the UCLA Professional Screenwriting Program in 2020, Jon has gone on to work with companies such as Avatar Studios, Viacom CBS, SEGA, and Imagination Required Studios to produce various forms of written content. Our host, Jon Akkawi, met him at UCLA while they were both students in the same cohort and have grown to be great friends with a writing relationship and we thought what better guest to talk about screenwriting outside of specs for the first than him before we introduce a new subseries on the chai! Enjoy! --- Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood Check out Cooper Home Entertainment on Instagram: @cooperhomeentertainment Check out Imagination Required Studios (the production sector of CHE): http://imaginationrequiredstudios.com/ Stream S1 and S2 of "Coping with Normal" and tune in Wednesday's for weekly episode drops of S3: https://www.youtube.com/c/CopingWithNormal/featured Follow The Script Doctors and prepare for the premiere on Instagram: @thescriptdoctors --- This episode is sponsored by: Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/ ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-hollywood-chai/support

It's January, so you know what that means! The Sundance Film Festival is upon us! Over the past four years, I’ve been attending the prestigious film festival in an effort to network, review and support independent and marginalized voices in Hollywood. And for this chai-spilling episode, we've invited on none other than the iconic Nicole Nino, whom I had the privilege of attending Sundance with over the past four years (both in-person and virtually). Nicole is a cinephile in her own right, who has a particular passion for Disney and animated films as well as in supporting and amplifying the voices of women filmmakers and MENA/Arab filmmakers by watching and talking about their respective films on social media platforms. I invited Nicole on to talk about our thoughts on the importance of film festivals, Sundance and accessibility of festivals as well as taking a walk down memory lane for the two years we attended in person before everything went virtual in 2021 and hopefully convince you, the listener, to think about attending the prestigious film festival in your own way. --- Follow us on Instagram: @thehollywoodchai and Twitter: @ChaiHollywood Sundance Institute: https://www.sundance.org/ --- This episode is sponsored by: Anchor - for all your Podcasting needs Dalia Web Design - for all your website designing needs and maintenance: http://www.daliawebdesign.com/ ZENA Creations - for customizable gifts, merchandise and whatever you need: https://www.instagram.com/zena.creation DrafTees, Inc. - for all your writer t-shirt needs, follow on instagram and twitter @drafteesinc --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-hollywood-chai/support