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

Crystal, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

My first dollar earned as a creative was a brand content deal with a company in New York after I graduated NYU- it was a connection I had made through a friend, and my writing trio was hired to come up with comedy content for a company.

To give some context: at the time, I had recently graduated from Tisch with my three best friends… there’s a funny moment I’ll never forget, where the day after graduation, I tried to re-enter NYU’s Bobst Library, and my NYU ID wouldn’t let me in. I tried again at the Student Center and at the cafeteria. Denied, denied, denied. I was cut off. That was my wake-up call: the cushy West Village life that I was used to living as an undergrad was no longer my reality.

My besties and I quickly transitioned to living uptown in East Harlem, right off of Marcus Garvey Park at a wild apartment building called The Miles… this was before all of the gentrification, this was the Hood with a capital H. Methadone clinics next door, drug boys, it felt like the last corner of Harlem that was left untouched since New Jack City. We should’ve known it was wild because they gave us two months free rent to move into the building (haha!) Anyway, life got real VERY quickly, and we discovered that there was no halfway house to adulthood. What we wanted from New York was Sex in the City, but what we got was The Wire.

My two besties and roommates and I are in this project building, we’re these Tisch actor graduates with very little money but luckily, we had scrappiness and cleverness for days. So we shot a webseries, “Downtown Girls” based on our real life about our crazy move uptown, although our heart belonged “downtown,” and simultaneously started connecting with folks as a writing trio under the same name, “Downtown Girls.” You can still see the videos from that period- they’re up on Youtube. Over 10 years later and we are still working together and selling shows in Hollywood to this day. It’s a blessing to have this incredible, loyal, hyper-talented tribe. It’s so real that “Circles Rise Together.”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a writer, actress, and TV creator repping the DC area that loves sinking my teeth into stories that showcase dysfunctional families, parents, children, siblings, all of it. I’m also a sucker for a female protagonist on the brink of a meltdown. I’ve sold four comedy pilots to Warner Brothers and SONY, as part of the woman-comedy trio, The Downtown Girls. We are currently developing a comedy drama, FINESSE, with Bashir Salahuddin and Diallo Riddle and Warner Brothers, about women in the NYC nightlife space. We are also currently developing a feature, BLACK GIRL MAGIC, with Gabrielle Union, which we formerly sold to NBC and Sony Pictures Television as a comedy pilot. Most recently, we developed an animated comedy series entitled SERVICE ANIMALS with Warner Bros. Animation and Gaspin Media, about the day to day lives of three service animals. Previously, we sold DOWNTOWN GIRLS the comedy pilot to Warner Brothers and TBS, with Elizabeth Banks attached as executive producer. I also teach “Writing the Comedy Pilot,” at NYU’s campus in LA, I love teaching at my alma mater! I am the CEO of “How to Pitch TV,” a company that coaches aspiring creatives on how to successfully sell television.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Your passport and your privilege as an American citizen should not be overlooked- go Global. There are countries everywhere that host fellowships targeted towards Americans and American creatives and artists- google your favorite country in the world, align it with something that you’re passionate about, and apply apply apply. I myself landed an incredible fellowship in Berlin, Germany for a year and half, when I was 26 years old- it was a MUCH needed moment of inspiration after thugging it out in New York for many years.

Also! Besides your passport, your ability to Pitch yourself is your greatest asset. I have my own company, “How to Pitch TV,” which stemmed from realizing that so much of the industry is about pitching yourself into opportunities and creating your own lane. You must materialize your own career, and you do that by mastering the art of the Pitch. Typically, that’s a 15 to 20 minute verbal pitch in a room or Zoom where you lay out your creative vision, and if it’s for a TV show, you lay out the world and bring your characters to life. There’s a real art to it. Every show that my writing trio has created from scratch, we’ve successfully sold as a pilot to a studio. We’ve pitched over 100 times to execs, and what people don’t know is that for each TV project you bring to market, you are going to pitch that thang at leaaaast 15 times. It’s really the bread and butter of the business.

I coach with How to Pitch TV, and I offer free 15 minute consultations.
You can find me at https://howtopitchtv.com and contact me through the website.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

YES. As a professional writer and creator, we can all see that in the last five years the industry (and the world) is in flux. Between the Hollywood strikes, agencies crumbling because of #MeToo, and now environmental disaster with the LA fires- being fluid and able to adapt and pivot is a necessity. For me and my writing team, we realized that the success that we found selling pilots and show ideas generated a natural buzz around us for a long time, however the industry excitement about you will definitely ebb and flow based on if you’re ‘hot’ in a particular moment. During those off seasons, it is so important to stay consistent in your work and your belief in yourself, and also to generate buzz when others are not.

You must be the engine to keep your career going- an example of a pivot that my team created is we’ve started our own podcast, <i>Unglamorous Truths</i>; it’s a unfiltered kiki about the raw, unglamorous industry stories that people don’t always wanna talk about. We get into IT honey. This has magnetized people we admire in the business to us, generated our own buzz, and we’ve ended up interviewing the creator of Martin and the Jamie Foxx Show just off of having a consistent, high quality creative presence online. You can check us out at youtube.com/unglamoroustruths. So much about pivoting is understanding that “when you build it, they will come.”

I’ve also pivoted organically into teaching – I created a new lane for myself the minute I decided to create my own business “How to Pitch TV.” People started recognizing that I coach and teach too, and someone sent me a job application for NYU’s LA Campus to be a Screenwriting Professor. And I’m delighted to say that many years later, I went from that student at Tisch who was denied the day after graduation, to now teaching this craft that I love so much at my dream school. That NYU ID works again baby.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://howtopitchtv.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howtopitchfortv/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crystal-boyd-creative/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@unglamoroustruths
• Other: Crystal is offering free 15 minute consultations for aspiring creatives- get in touch at https://howtopitchtv.com/contact-us Also, be on the look out for Crystal’s new film, ‘Savage Season,’ which will hit the festival circuit this year. You can find out more at https://seedandspark.com/fund/savage-season#story

Image Credits
Photography by Kat Page. https://www.kathryn-page.com/