We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Yohanna Baez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Yohanna, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

One of the biggest risks I ever took was deciding to build an entire multi-platform universe from scratch, without institutional backing, without a safety net, and without waiting for permission.

After years of working across media, producing films, collaborating on campaigns, and ghostwriting narratives for other people’s visions, I reached a breaking point. I was sitting on an idea that kept haunting me: a sci-fi story grounded in the streets of New York, shaped by Caribbean diaspora, nightlife, designer drug culture, and radical tenderness. Instead of endlessly pitching it to gatekeepers or trying to squeeze it into a single format, I decided to bet on myself and expand it across multiple platforms: podcast, manga, video game, and animation. All with an amazing soundtrack! I call it All Night Deli, but you can call it weird!

That risk meant teaching myself new technologies, managing across disciplines, and leading a team without major upfront funding. It meant using my 9-5 money, applying for grants, and convincing collaborators to believe in something that didn’t yet exist. I used AI tools when others were skeptical. I used my phone to record when I couldn’t afford a full crew. It was messy. It was nonlinear. But it was mine.

And it paid off: All Night Deli was selected by the Gotham and Tribeca, and picked up by the ‘Netflix of podcast’. The world didn’t give me a seat, so I built the booth. That risk taught me that betting on your vision isn’t just brave, it’s necessary if you want to tell stories that haven’t been told yet.

Yohanna, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Yohanna Báez (not related to the singer, but a big fan!). I am a Dominican-born, LA-raised, East Coast-based creative producer, multi-platform strategist, and award-winning storyteller. I operate at the intersection of emerging tech, culture, and narrative justice. I create and lead original IP across film, games, podcasts, animation, and digital platforms, each project designed to challenge the status quo and invite audiences into layered, immersive worlds.

I got my start working behind the scenes on documentary films, public media, and cultural campaigns. But my real education came from navigating the creative hustle: PA-ing, applying for fellowships, collaborating with underground artists, and learning to speak the languages of both art and infrastructure. I earned my stripes producing experimental work in the U.S. and Latin America and showing up in spaces where voices like mine are rarely heard, especially in tech and speculative fiction.

I was honored with the Grand Jury Prize for Best Screenplay at the Urbanworld Film Festival. My work also received international recognition as a grantee of the inaugural European Performance Art and Transmedia Development Grant, awarded by Centre Chorégraphique National de Franche-Comté à Belfort Le Granit and Scène Nationale de Belfort/Montbéliard in France. I further developed my artistic practice through the Artist Summer Institute, a prestigious program hosted by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Creative Capital. Additionally, I was selected to participate in the Stowe Narrative Lab, a competitive screenwriting and story development residency run by Stowe Story Labs in Vermont.

Today, my flagship work is All Night Deli, a sci-fi transmedia universe that spans a podcast (featured at Tribeca/Gotham), a video game (Deli Scum), a manga (Queens of the Neon Underground), and an AI-assisted film (The Smuggler’s Memoirs). These projects explore identity, power, and liberation in neon-lit near futures shaped by Caribbean rhythms and underground nightlife. I build these worlds not just as entertainment, but as blueprints for collective imagination and resistance.

I also help others tell their stories. As a podcast producer and media strategist, I work with nonprofits, public sector orgs, and artists to elevate their missions through audio storytelling and digital campaigns. I’m especially proud of my work as the Media Production Associate for a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization, where I try to demystify the inner workings of government through conversations that blend policy, tech, and humanity.

What sets me apart is that I don’t wait for the industry to catch up; I prototype the future I want to see. I create tools and worlds that respond to the realities of being a creative in today’s ecosystem.

If you follow my work, you’re signing up for bold ideas, soul-level storytelling, and community-centered innovation. I’m not here to blend in, I’m here to remix the whole system. And if that sounds like your frequency, you’re in the right place.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

There was a year when everything felt like it was falling apart, personally, professionally, and financially. I felt stuck at a dead-end job, trying to recover from burnout, and my inbox was full of grant rejections. At the same time, I was getting pressure from family to take a more “stable” path. It would’ve been easy to give up. But instead, I went deeper.

That year, I decided to double down on my creative universe, All Night Deli. I stayed up late writing scripts, taught myself new tools. I launched a podcast despite limited resources. I mentored interns. I pitched to festivals with unfinished work, and still got selected. I showed up for the version of myself I wanted to become, long before the world recognized her.

Resilience, to me, is choosing yourself even when there’s no applause. It’s moving forward even when the conditions aren’t perfect. I didn’t wait for the right time, I made the time. That year taught me that creative breakthroughs don’t always come with clarity. Sometimes they show up disguised as chaos. You just have to keep building.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Yes! Absolutely! My mission is to reclaim narrative power and build future-forward worlds where global majority voices aren’t just included, they’re centered.

I’m driven by a desire to interrupt dominant narratives and create space for stories that are too often dismissed as “niche,” “too weird,” or “too political.” I want my work to feel like a portal into joy, into resistance, into possibility. Whether it’s through a sci-fi manga set in a neon underworld, a game about navigating mafia and family bureaucracy, or a proof of concept, inviting the audience into my process, I’m always asking: What if we could reprogram the story? What if we could build something better?

At its core, my work is about honoring where I come from while designing what’s next. I believe that creatives have a role to play not just in reflecting the culture, but in shaping it, and I take that responsibility seriously. I make things to heal, to imagine, to challenge, and to connect. That’s the mission. That’s the work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://yohannabaez.carrd.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emelindabaez/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yohanna-b%C3%A1ez/
• Other: https://substack.com/@emelindabaez
  https://linktr.ee/allnightdeli

Image Credits

Yohanna Baez