Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sabrina Dubner. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Sabrina, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I have had two most meaningful projects in my career thus far, one an older project dating back to 2023 and one more recent, which together represent my evolution from a scrappy, independent creator to a larger-scale producer.

Back in the summer of 2023, the internet witnessed a viral phenomenon when indie artist Emily Jeffri released an 80s-inspired horror album. Fans on TikTok collectively fabricated a “lost media” 1980s slasher movie around it called Zepotha, creating fake lore and gaslighting the internet into believing it was real. Capitalizing on the frenzy, Jeffri announced a worldwide short film competition where the public would vote on the best depiction of the lore, and the winner would be named the official “canon film.” A close friend sent me the competition link just two weeks before I was scheduled to leave for my freshman year of film school at SCAD. Facing a tight deadline, I went into hyperdrive: in just a week and a half, I wrote a 25-page script based on the fan lore, cast the project, found locations, and sourced 80s costumes and props. Over a three-day shoot, my high school friends and I brought the story to life, with myself and my friend playing the leads. I was a literal one-person crew—acting as the writer, director, DP, costume designer, and editor. I edited the film during my first few weeks in my college dorm, and on Halloween 2023, our film won the global competition and became the official canon. Today, it has over 70,000 views on my YouTube channel. This project is incredibly meaningful to me because it solidified my passion and proved that I could create something massive out of absolutely nothing.

More recently, that same resourcefulness was tested on a much larger scale when I produced “Sherlock Holmes Vampire Slayer”, a 12-page senior thesis film written and also produced by Jon White, and directed by Joey White. When Joey first approached us and estimated the budget at $15,000, we initially thought he was joking. Once we realized the sheer scope of the project, we knew it would be a massive challenge, but we accepted it. Over the course of eight months, we fully fundraised and secured $19,000 through crowdfunding and private donors. As a producer, I hired and managed a seventy-person crew and coordinated with our location manager and production design team to acquire incredible, period-accurate locations. This included working hand-in-hand with the studio production of Jake Gyllenhaal’s “Road House 2” to share their historic River Street filming location. Despite brutal hours and freezing weather conditions, we managed to capture everything we needed, and the film is now preparing for its premiere. This project is deeply meaningful to me because it proved I could scale my passion up to lead an army of creatives and navigate complex industry logistics, representing the filmmaker I am today.

Sabrina, 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 a filmmaker, producer, and actor driven by a lifelong love of storytelling. The arts have always felt like home to me. I started directing short films at four years old with my mom’s camcorder, turning childhood playdates into creative productions that sparked a passion I’ve pursued ever since. What excites me most about filmmaking is the ability to build entire worlds from an idea and invite audiences into them through narrative, performance, and visual storytelling.

My work exists at the intersection of traditional filmmaking and digital media. I taught myself how to shoot, direct, and edit at a young age, eventually growing a YouTube channel to over 13 million views and nearly 25,000 subscribers at the age of fifteen. That platform later evolved into my production company, SADUB Entertainment, where I now develop and produce original narrative projects designed to reach audiences both online and beyond the festival circuit. Across my social platforms, I’ve amassed more than 50 million views and over 120,000 followers. I’m especially drawn to stories that feel cinematic, emotionally grounded, and character driven.

Alongside directing and producing, acting and music have been a huge part of my creative identity. I’ve trained extensively in musical theater, performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall, and worked on union film and television sets. Those experiences shaped the way I approach collaboration on set and gave me a deep appreciation for performance and actor-focused storytelling.

I’m currently a junior at Savannah College of Art and Design pursuing producing and directing. One of the projects I’m most proud of is “Sherlock Holmes Vampire Slayer”, as mentioned in my previous response. This was a senior thesis film I produced alongside Jon White and director Joey White. Over seven months, our team assembled a crew of more than 70 people, raised a $19,000 budget through fundraising, registered the film as a SAG Micro Budget project, and shot over five days on the Arri Alexa Mini LF. Bringing a production of that scale to life as students was both challenging and incredibly rewarding.

At the core of my work is the belief that storytelling is both an art form and a responsibility. Whether I’m producing a film, acting in front of the camera, or creating digital content, my goal is to make work that connects with people, entertains them, and leaves a lasting impact while continuing to create opportunities for emerging voices and collaborators.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My ultimate mission is collaboration and inclusivity: opening up Hollywood to creatives who may not have traditional industry connections or access. The film industry is often seen as incredibly gate-kept, and I want to help change that by creating opportunities for emerging artists to showcase their work and tell stories that might otherwise never be seen.

Through SADUB Entertainment, I’ve focused on building a community-driven production company centered around accessibility and collaboration. For every project I produce, we post open casting calls, crew calls, and writing competitions that anyone can submit to. We’ve even produced winning scripts from aspiring writers and helped bring their stories to life on screen. To me, that’s one of the most rewarding parts of this journey: creating spaces where talented people can be discovered based on passion and creativity rather than connections.

One of the moments that really reinforced this mission for me was producing a film remotely in New York City using a crew made up entirely of people I had never met before. Strangers from around the world applied simply because they loved filmmaking and wanted to collaborate. Watching artists come together through a shared passion for storytelling was incredibly inspiring and reminded me why community matters so much in this industry.

At its core, SADUB Entertainment exists to help amplify voices that deserve to be heard. I truly believe there are billions of stories out there worthy of being told, but many creatives lack the resources, support, or access to make those stories a reality. My goal is to help bridge that gap and create an environment where new voices, perspectives, and ideas can thrive.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media has been a part of my life since 2015, when I created my first Musical.ly and Instagram accounts at just eleven years old. My parents were very cautious about internet safety, so I originally posted under a fake name. At the time, I was making challenge videos with friends, filming skits, and experimenting with editing tricks like duplicating myself on screen and pretending I had a twin. Looking back, it was an early introduction to storytelling, performance, and filmmaking.

In 2017, I transitioned the account into a personal YouTube channel under my real name, Sabrina Dubner. I started creating long-form content including tutorials, vlogs, challenge videos, and comedy skits. At the time, my TikTok following was still relatively small, but everything changed in 2019 when one of my tutorials unexpectedly went viral and reached over nine million views. Almost overnight, my YouTube channel grew to around 25,000 subscribers, and by age fifteen I was earning stable income through the platform and working with major brands on sponsorships.

One of the biggest lessons I learned is that there’s no formula for what goes viral. The videos you spend the least time worrying about can sometimes become the ones that change everything. Consistency matters more than perfection, and authenticity matters more than trends.

In 2020, I made the decision to shift away from personal influencer-style content because I realized my long-term goal was filmmaking, acting, and directing. I worried that being labeled solely as a content creator might prevent people from taking me seriously professionally, so I transformed my YouTube platform into my production company, SADUB Entertainment. I began using the platform to release short films and original narrative projects I created throughout high school and now college.

Over time, I realized social media and filmmaking don’t have to compete with each other. In many ways, having an audience has become one of my greatest assets as a creator. It’s allowed me to market my films independently, connect with collaborators around the world, and build a community of artists who genuinely care about storytelling. Across my platforms, I’ve now grown to over 114,000 followers and more than 40 million views.

For anyone just starting out, my biggest advice is to start before you feel ready. Don’t wait for perfect equipment, a perfect niche, or a perfect plan. The internet rewards consistency, originality, and personality far more than perfection. Create the kind of content you genuinely love making, because audiences can tell when passion is real. Building a community takes time — trust me, I’ve posted consistently almost every day for the last two and a half years — but if you stay authentic and continue creating, the right audience will eventually find you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sadubentertainment.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sadubentertainment/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61583440710139
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabrina-dubner-1bb655333/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC17_RPd9DuRTZfP-cZh6_IQ
• Other: TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@sadubentertainment?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

Image Credits

Sophia Shuttleworth
Sarah Elise Walker