We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Leigh Costa a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Leigh, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I honestly don’t know if there was ever a time in my life where I considered pursuing a non creative/artistic path professionally. As early as I can remember I was obsessed with movies and the idea of “Hollywood”. My first favorite film was Jaws and yup, you guessed it! My parents gifted me Jaws on VHS for my 5th birthday. Now this was definitely not a traditional gift for a 5 year old, but my parents fortunately realized movies were my passion and luckily for me, they chose to support this interest and make it really feel like a possibility of something I could do one day. Cut to college. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do yet, but I knew it had to be related to the film industry somehow. I only looked at schools with solid film programs and even though I had never been to LA before, I was convinced I needed to go to school in LA. So my parents being my parents, booked us a flight and we flew out to LA to look at schools. I’m not sure exactly what I expected LA to be, but when I first touched down at LAX I have to admit I was rather surprised. A Connecticut girl born and raised, LA felt so foreign to me. Knowing in my heart that one day I would end up in LA (I have now lived in LA for 6 years), I decided to stay on the east coast for school and ended up at The University of Miami (go canes).
UM was a fantastic school and I owe so much to all of my film professors there. It was at UM that I first found screenwriting and where I decided I wanted to devote all of my efforts to becoming a paid screenwriter. Although I haven’t been paid for any of my scripts yet (emphasis, yet), I have placed in several respected competitions (Austin Film Festival, ScreenCraft, WeScreenplay), am currently the Script Coordinator on FBI: Most Wanted., and am in the process of self-producing a short film with one of my best friends and collaborators, Ellenor Argyropoulos.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m a dramedy screenwriter that specializes in character driven narratives with a feminine focus. I have written three features, an original adult animated pilot, three TV specs and I am currently self-producing a short with one of my best friends and frequent collaborators, Ellenor Argyropoulos, who will also serve as the director. Below please find a little bit more about some of my projects!
Letter To My Boobs (feature) – After years of hating her chest, 30 year old Olive finally decides to get breast augmentation surgery. It’s a raw, fantastical, coming of age story that’s told non-linearly. At both times humorous and heartbreaking, you will be rooting for Olive to love herself.
The Borkowskis (feature) – A year after their mother’s death, a dysfunctional family reunites for their father’s wedding. Over the span of one weekend, the family is faced with skeletons from their past, forcing them to relearn what it means to be family. Think “This Is Where I Leave You” meets “The Family Stone”. Semifinalist, WeScreenplay & Austin Film Festival.
Sugar Honey Iced Tea (feature) – A group of friends in LA navigate dating, sexuality and being adults as Millennial/Gen-Z cuspers. Equal parts outlandish and humorous, anyone who has spent time in LA or gone on a date will resonate.
There Will Be Blood Tina (Bob’s Burgers Spec) – The Belcher’s attempt to help Tina navigate her new-found womanhood when she gets her first period on the eve of the Wagstaff beach party. Top 3 finalist at the Austin Film Festival (2021).
A Bit Fishy (original animated pilot) – Grieving the death of his sister, Ricky Fowl, the black sheep of his Roosterfish species, tries to figure out his place in the reef and if he even belongs. The series deals with serious themes in a silly goose type of way. Think “BoJack Horseman” meets “Bob’s Burgers”. Finalist, The Golden Script Competition.
A Funeral To My Vibrator (short) – Rowan Coleman turns to her best friend for support after her beloved vibrator, Vibby, passes on. Surprisingly touching, this hyperbolic story puts female pleasure and the importance of female pleasure at the forefront.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
One of my favorite stories that shows my “resilience” was at my first industry job. I interned with a sales and distribution company at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. They had several films on the market and my job was to basically do anything and everything the executives needed during the run of the festival. One of my first few days in Cannes, the VP of the company instructed me to go out and get him lunch. He gave me only $20, told me a dozen different cuisines that he did NOT want to eat and sent me off. Now, I didn’t know the area well yet, nor did I speak any french. After about 15 minutes of wandering, I managed to find a Chinese restaurant (this cuisine was not listed as a no go and therefore I thought it was safe) and got as much food as I could for $20. I then rushed back to our offices and the VP took one look at the food then looked back at me and said in a deadpan voice, “You failed.”, before walking back into his office. This story makes me laugh today, but at the time, oh baby it stressed me out. But, it was an important learning experience because the entertainment industry can be ruthless and there are many different personality types you have to deal with. I was set up to fail lunch and I’m sure my boss would have told me I failed lunch no matter what food I picked up for him, but from this experience I learned when to take something personally and when to let it roll off your back.
A more recent story that showcases my resilience is from during the 2023 WGA strike. The strike happened as I was just wrapping my first season working as a Showrunner’s Assistant on FBI: Most Wanted. I finally got one of my dream jobs and a strike happened. The strike was so important and necessary and I proudly picketed alongside the WGA, but to say this didn’t hurt is an understatement. I was unemployed in 2020/2021 due to the pandemic and I was just feeling like the industry was getting it’s groove back, but then here I was unemployed again. Instead of wallowing (okay, I wallowed for a hot second), I got a nanny job and focused on my writing. When I first took the Showrunner’s Assistant job, I thought the chapter of odd, non-industry jobs had passed, but the strike reminded me that working in entertainment means you are signing up for a level of uncertainty indefinitely. I had to make peace with this notion and I began to focus on the positives. I was getting paid to hang out with some pretty cool kids and I finally had the time to finish my feature, “Letter To My Boobs.”
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
A lot of the time (if not most of the time) being creative means struggling to get by for years and years until you get your big break or the money coming in starts to become enough to not have a bunch of side jobs etc. Hell, sometimes the side jobs remain constant forever. I’ve found that this way of living is hard for non-creatives to wrap their heads around. They tend to think there is some easier way of doing things and us creatives are choosing the hard way to get by. I’ve had so many people say to me, “Why don’t you just get a job doing ‘insert normal job here’? “, and there’s a sliver of truth to all of this. On paper it could look like a creative person is not living by the mantra, “work smarter, not harder”, but from my own personal experience, I have found that I am constantly trying to make things easier for myself. When you are a creative though, you don’t have as many options as a non-creative for work and money because your focus needs to be on feeding your creativity. I’ve taken jobs before that are not creative for more money and better job consistency, but the light that fuels the writer in me always gets dimmer and dimmer until she’s almost non-existent. This is normally when I have a mini freak out and quit my job because I know regardless of what the financial benefits are, feeding my creativity is what needs to take top billing because when I’m not feeding my creative-self, everything else in my life tends to also suffer.
I recently have been dealing with a personal issue that has taken up the majority of my time and thus my writing time has suffered. The other day though I finally was able to ignore the world and write all day and the wonders it did for my mental health were astronomical. I had somehow forgotten how important it is to make sure I am able to have time every week to be write. Taking the time that you need to serve your artistry can feel really selfish, but it’s what makes a creative tick and if you aren’t showing up for yourself how can you possibly show up for others?
So what I would say to creatives is, take the time you need/do whatever you need to do to feed your creativity and make sure that you are balanced. And non-creatives, as unconventional or “harder” it seems, your creative friends are most likely doing the best they can with what they’ve got.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://leighannecosta.com
- Instagram: @leighannecosta
Image Credits
Funeral To My Vibrator & Letter To My Boobs Poster made/owned by: Ellenor Argyropoulos