atlanta arts tagged interest

The Georgia Entertainment Public Relations Alliance (GEPRA) is launching a new podcast called “ShowBiz and Tell.”

The podcast will feature interviews with local Georgians in the entertainment industry and showcase their success stories, according to a press release. One episode has already been released, featuring an interview with Todd Harris, CEO of Skillshot Media.

The podcast is hosted by Melissa Sanders and Elise Riley. Sanders said the idea for the podcast evolved from Mitch Leff, the co-founder of GEPRA, who has his own podcast where he spotlights Georgia journalists.

“We are professional storytellers,” Sanders said. “What if we took the idea of what Mitch is doing with his podcast and found a way to tell stories of these other people in the entertainment industry?”

Sanders said when picking guests for ShowBiz and Tell, the goal was to show a range of stories and lines of work within the entertainment industry. Upcoming episodes include interviews with Chris Escobar, executive director of the Atlanta Film Society and owners of the Plaza and Tara Theatres; Drew Sawyer, founder of Moonshine Post; and Michele Caplinger, senior executive director at the Recording Academy.

“With these initial ones, we wanted to make sure that we touched a couple of different areas of the industry, because it’s not meant to just be the things that everybody knows,” Sanders said. “We want there to be names that maybe you don’t know.”

Sanders said that they hope the podcast can showcase positions and jobs throughout the entire pipeline of the entertainment industry, not just those at the top. Through storytelling, she hopes the podcast uncovers not only different secrets to success in the industry, but also aspects of those being interviewed that perhaps weren’t known before.

“Everyone has a story, and I think that we as PR people and storytellers are trying to find another way to tell those stories and engage people in what’s happening in our state, because it is so robust and there is so much going on,” Sanders said.