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

Jessa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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?

After twenty years of being a writer, producer, director, and showrunner, I believe the most significant lesson I’ve learned is the importance of trusting yourself and embracing daily risks. To propel your career forward, you must be willing to face the possibility of rejection, moments of stumbling, big failures, and even total humiliation. I can’t think of any other way to achieve success than to persevere through the challenges that might try to hold you back.

There’s a quote from the movie “We Bought A Zoo” that I reflect on daily: “All you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just twenty seconds of embarrassing bravery, and I promise you, something great will come of it.” In essence, that’s a metaphor for my entire career – taking one courageous, albeit potentially embarrassing, leap after another.

I began my journey as a writer at the age of 17 when I confidently told a stranger in a restaurant that I could write their screenplay, despite having no prior experience. At 19, I founded a production company by reaching out to every “famous” person I knew and asking them to start the venture with me. In my twenties, I delved into directing by raising funds myself and seeking a partnership with a talented director. Throughout these endeavors, all the odds were always against me; I had severe dyslexia so reading and writing were always challenging, I didn’t know any female producers or anyone at the time who had started a production company (it was not as common back then), and I had no idea how to budget, raise money or even lead a set. I never had a clear roadmap at any time, and I failed a lot. But, for every failure, I kept learning and kept pushing forward. And, more than anything, I always trusted that I would work as hard as I could to be better and find my way through.

Taking significant risks is an integral part of being a creative professional. It’s through these daring leaps that you get to do what you love every day. Looking back, I’m immensely grateful for the incredible opportunity to be constantly working as a creative for over two decades, collaborating with some of the most wonderful people. It has truly been the gift of a lifetime.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hey there, I’m Jessa Zarubica, a proud Los Angeles native known for being an award winning writer, director, producer, and showrunner.

But, let me take you back to where it all began – where I was a quirky kid with a bad haircut and giant fear of reading out loud and spelling bees. So, I really, really never imagined that the heart of my career would be writing scripts in Hollywood.

My journey can be summed up in one word: unexpected and just as eccentric as me. And, I owe a great deal of it to my incredible high school teachers, now dear friends – Michael Ventura, Jazmine Ventura, and Karen Grant. They opened my eyes to the fact that writing isn’t just about grammar rules and punctuation. But, with their unwavering support, combined with my parents (Tadd and Cindy Zarubica’s) encouragement and a few sometimes embarrassing and daring leaps, I landed my very first gig as a screenwriter fresh out of high school. That singular moment turned out to be a game-changer. Fast forward, and I’ve written over a dozen scripts for a mix of independent and mainstream production houses. And, writing continues to be at the heart of my career.

Little did I know that the more I wrote, the stronger my desire grew to see my words come to life on the silver screen. This story should sound familiar to anyone in Hollywood. And, I soon learned that writing a script is only part of the journey. So, I dived headfirst into the world of production learning everything I could about how a set ran from the PA’s to the Producers. I spent years assistant directing and learning all I could about paperwork, running a set, and how to direct. Which lead me to again take the leap into directing my first short film. And, the rest was history. From there I went on to write produce and direct short films, TV series, digital series, and eventually, full-length feature films.

In the world of TV and digital series, I had the privilege to direct projects like “Shay Mitchell: Chapters,” delving into Shay Mitchell’s life post-“Pretty Little Liars,” shownrun the series “Captain Sparklez Mishmash” on Hulu and create / shown “Challenge Squad,” a female-led adventure scripted series for kids, available on Hulu and Amazon. During this time I also got to produce and direct numerous ads and branded videos targeting kids and young adults where I got to work with industry giants like Kellogg’s, Mattel, WWE, Simon and Schuster, Target, Colgate, Disney, and Walmart.

But, after spending years on an action adventure series, I wanted to create more representation in the action space and changed directions. I started this chapter off by producing the gripping thriller “Caged,” which hit the screens in 2021. And, sold my thriller feature “Wolf-ish” to ABE (featured on deadline) that I was also attached to direct. And, in 2020 during the early months of the pandemic where I directed, wrote and produced an almost fully remote film titled “Six Feet Apart” with some of the most talented actor and producers (JJ Nolan, Chris Candy, Asher Brown of Pollution Studios, Alexander Yellen, and Jenna Cedicci of No Name Pictures). Thanks to the Hollywood Reporter our team got the recognition they deserved and I couldn’t be more proud of all their work. We’re now on the cusp of completing post-production, eagerly awaiting the moment we can share this labor of love with the world.

With my budding passion for action, thriller and genre movies, I founded “Somethin’ Extra Entertainment” with former Disney executive Mike Sarner in 2021. My mission was to create an action slate that would reshape the landscape of action films by spotlighting diverse and relatable heroes, with commercial concepts and a built in marketing plan. And, we’re currently on this mission. Our first project is the action comedy, Mother Trucker that we just completed shooting a proof of concept for and was recently accepted into its’ first film festivals.

So, what’s next? At Somethin’ Extra Entertainment we hope to raise money for the slate while continuing to bring new voices into the action, thriller and genre space. Additionally our company seeks to expand from film, TV series and into commercials and promos. And, on a personal level outside our company, I’m developing three features with different producers, two of which I’ll be directing. While I can’t spill the beans on those just yet, I can tell you that I really hope someday my work inspires others to see their flaws and eccentricities as gifts and to look for the magic in the mundane that’s always there. So, to all of you in the middle of your own journey, feeling like giving up, remember this: sometimes the thing you think is your greatest weakness can shape your career.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

So, there are two big lessons that I think I have had to unlearn: The first is that you have to do your career alone without a mentor. When, I joined the industry in 2005 where the landscape of female creatives was very different than it is now. In other words, there were close to zero female producers working at the time. And, that had a wild set of gifts and challenges that I think I was ill prepared to handle. And, when I started AD-ing (assistant directing) there were even fewer female AD’s. And, again, I found a certain leadership and power in working in these position, but there were some dark sides. And, I think one thing I would tell all young filmmakers today is get a mentor immediately. Someone you can go to when times get tough or who can help you navigate the really tough things you will encounter in your career. I often wish I had pursued finding a mentor earlier because I think I learned some bad habits and limiting beliefs trying to navigate this career as a teenager on my own. This is probably why I love mentoring and helping young filmmakers to this day. I don’t want anyone to have to navigate the pitfalls without some help and guidance along the way.

The second thing I had to unlearn is that the only way to have a successful career as a female filmmaker was to do it yourself and work outside of mainstream Hollywood. This is a tough one cause there’s a lot about my career that I attribute my out of the box thinking. For instance when everyone was trying to sell their scripts through agents, I found other ways to sell scripts. I always looked for the opportunity where no one was investigating. But, as my career grew and the industry changed, I still continued to go towards less conventional ways to get my projects sold and made. I told myself a story that I couldn’t work mainstream, that I had to be outside the box to succeed and be treated right. This innocent little belief I think seeded itself in my mind and lead me to avoid mainstream opportunities and ventures that could have helped my career. And, I realize that this was just a way to play small to avoid getting hurt or failing on a massive stage. And, as I have talked earlier all creativity careers are about taking giant leaps. So, I think that belief held me back for a few years. But, now I am devoted to working on mainstream movies, tv series and doing everything I can to invite those opportunities into my life. So, I’d say to anyone out there pursuing a career make sure you check the stories you are telling yourself. Make sure they are ones that are pushing you forward and building you up. Mindset is so important to keeping your career moving in a positive direction.

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

During my formative years, I rarely saw women reflected in the media that I recognized or were even relatable. And, I’m on a mission to change that. I think the world is changing and its’ heros need to evolve too. And, I strongly believe heroism has many faces. A hero can emerge from any background, embodying diverse shapes and sizes and attributes and its’ time that was reflected in the media. I want to put value back on the uniqueness, the small kindnesses, the overlooked vulnerability, the baffling empathy in this world etc – the qualities that really make people heroic. Personally growing up there were many times that I looked outside myself for what to do, how to act and how to survive — and I hope that the films and shows I create will show people that they are heroic in their own unique way.  I hope I can do that for just one person. I hope I can make someone realize that they don’t need to look outside themselves for a little bit of magic and heroism.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jessazarubica.com
• Instagram: @jajajtz
• Facebook: Jessa Zarubica
• Linkedin: Jessa Zarubica
• Twitter: @jtzarubica
• Other: On instagram you can follow Somethin’ Extra Entertainment @somethinextraentertainment and coming soon in 2024 you can follow my new podcast @thingswedonttalkaboutpodcast.