We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mary Tamura. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mary below.

Alright, Mary thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I’ve learned that everyone’s creative career and journey is different. Of course, I would beat myself up for not starting sooner, or doing one thing over the other, but I realized that every step in the journey, the detours, the rejections, are just chapters in my career. You can always wish that you had a different life or started something sooner or even later, but I’ve realized that there is no going back, you learn from your own mistakes, learn from those who’s done it before or after you, and keep going.

Mary, 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 enjoyed telling stories as a kid. I would write my own fan-fiction in middle school and high school about my favorite shows or movies. As I grew up, I learned that writing and producing is a job that people can make a living off of, and I decided to pursue it. I went to school for TV and Film and had internships in entertainment working in New Media. I enjoyed how YouTube, upcoming apps and media could propel anyone in the spotlight and get their dreams made. I’ve always known that I was destined to be creative in some way. Then when I graduated, I started at Warner Bros. as a Tour Guide. I learned a lot about how studios work. It’s different from learning from the classroom and learning in real life / real time. Then after that, I got a job at Warner Bros. working in social media. Now, I am still in social media working for an agency that works with entertainment studios.

But that’s just my day job. My passion is writing and creating. I would love to one day create my own TV show and go into creative development to help those who also want to do the same. My passion project Yokai is loosely based on my family background being Japanese American. Yokai is about a Japanese American witch that gets trapped in 1942 and teams up with her grandfather to track down an evil wizard who wants to take over the world but her time runs out when they are placed in Japanese Internment Camps at the start of WWII. I strive to create stories and champion other stories that are diverse and give a worldly perspective.

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

My goal and mission that drives my creative journey is to give AAPI creatives a voice. What I am trying to do with Yokai, is something that I want to help others with down the line. While working towards my goals, I always try to help others as well. I want stories that are told from perspectives that are different and have not been done before, and by uplifting other unique stories does just that.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being creative is to see your work get recognition. Sometimes, your projects can be stuck with you, your friends or family, and may be deemed as good, but you never know until you show the real world. To see things that I’ve done be enjoyed by people who are not biased or know who I am is truly rewarding.

What got me into being a writer and creative in general is when I was in college, I wrote scripts that were used to film projects and it was crazy to hear the words I wrote spoken aloud and be edited down into one project.

Contact Info:

• Website: marymajikku.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/marymajikku
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-tamura/

Image Credits
Daniela Barbani, Taylor Hampton