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

Isaiah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I’ve been fortunate to earn a full-time living from my creative work in post-production and editing within the entertainment industry. This role requires a combination of both technical expertise and social skills, which are essential to the job and not easily acquired. It’s a bit of a “trial by fire” – you either have these skills, or you don’t. Achieving a full-time career doing what I love didn’t happen overnight; it was a gradual process. Like any profession, I had to work diligently to develop the necessary skills.
What helped the most was preparation, understanding where I was in my development, and setting concrete goals to advance my career. In college, I consistently set small, actionable milestones. These included tasks such as learning a new Premiere plugin or teaching myself After Effects. I was fortunate to land a job just a month after graduation, but that wasn’t simply due to luck. I was strategic, selecting classes and projects that specifically addressed the skills I was lacking. Each victory and setback provided an opportunity to reflect and assess what I’d learned, allowing me to use those insights to further my professional goals. Through persistence and constant effort, I reached the point I had been working towards.
The constant driving force during that time, and still today, is knowing what I wanted and believing in my ability to achieve it. I don’t believe you need to be the most meticulous or organized person to work full-time in an artistic field. What truly matters is your approach. Do you enter the field with the mindset that you already know everything, or that you inherently deserve the job or opportunity? Or do you approach it humbly, acknowledging that a successful career in the creative industry requires hard work and a commitment to proving yourself to the world—not to yourself? The key is always to maintain belief in your own abilities and vision.

Isaiah, 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’ve always been fascinated by the different elements of the arts. From an early age, I used my imagination in various ways—directing war films with inanimate objects, composing musicals on the family piano, and recording short films on my mother’s laptop. From experimenting with mixed media collages to exploring the nuances of photography, my artistic journey eventually found its true expression in the captivating world of film.
In 2012, I was selected as a juror for the Seattle International Film Festival’s Films 4 Families program. In high school, I directed a documentary that was featured in the city’s newspaper. I honed my craft by editing short content for the school’s news network, which was broadcast to the entire city. But, like many teenagers, I wasn’t sure if this was the path I was meant to take. Despite my love for film, I doubted my ability to turn it into a career. During my senior year of high school, I struggled with overwhelming feelings of inadequacy and almost joined the Marine Corps. I had applied to several colleges but had only heard back from a few, none of which felt like the right fit.
It was a week before I was set to ship out to boot camp when my acceptance letter from USC arrived. It felt like a genuine miracle and completely changed the course of my life for the better.
After being accepted into the University of Southern California for Film and Television Production, I became the go-to person in my cohort for post-production, while also serving as lead technical support for the editing labs. With over seven years of experience as an editor, producer, and occasional director, my journey at USC has been defined by impactful projects that deepened my love for cinema. I am wholly dedicated to the art of storytelling, especially when it involves exploring open-ended worlds filled with intrigue, excitement, and danger. During my time at USC, I fell in love with editing and have since edited a variety of short films, advertisements, music videos, and documentaries.
For over four years, I’ve worked as a freelance editor while also holding a full-time position as an assistant editor. I’m fascinated by narratives that lie just beyond the boundaries of perceived reality—experiences that feel otherworldly and unique. I aim to use film to create immersive worlds where imagination can thrive without interruption.
As a nonbinary artist, I am deeply committed to authentic representation and love working on projects that feature LGBTQ+ characters as a means of uplifting and amplifying voices within my community. Editing and filmmaking are not only my passion—they are my life’s purpose. I am incredibly fortunate to share this work with the world.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Honestly, it’s the freedom. The freedom to express myself in a variety of ways, exploring different aspects of my creativity and personality through tangible, physical mediums. The freedom to fail repeatedly while still holding on to the passion that originally inspired me. It’s the raw ability to play with human expression through characters and stories, building worlds and narratives that connect people.

At the end of the day, I believe the most rewarding aspect of being an editor is the freedom that comes with the craft. It’s a practice that helps me understand the nuances of life and people. It’s liberating—it allows me to see the world through a new lens, one that shapes both how I live my life and how I approach my art.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I think one of the biggest challenges is the fear of failure. It may sound cliché, but as young artists, we’re often driven by ego, and with that comes the difficulty of recognizing the nuance in failure. Ego isn’t inherently bad—it’s important to take pride in our abilities, creativity, and growth. However, it needs boundaries.

To truly grow and become unique artists, we can’t let our egos control us. Every day, we face failure, and every day, we battle our egos to allow ourselves to learn from that failure. What I think many young artists, myself included, need to understand is that this isn’t a one-size-fits-all. You can’t learn from failure if you completely rid yourself of ego. The most humble people aren’t necessarily the ones breaking boundaries or exploring uncharted territories. It’s those who believe in themselves and their art who are the innovators.

In order to push forward, you must develop an educational relationship with failure. What I mean by that is, instead of eliminating your ego or self-worth, you should use it to reflect on what’s working and what needs improvement. It’s not about beating yourself up, but rather about understanding what makes you, you, and accepting that some aspects can always be better. Balancing this is difficult—it’s something we will probably spend our entire lives learning to do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.isaiahlenoue.com/
• Instagram: Isachiah_21
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/isaiah-lenoue