We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Montserrat Luna-Ballantyne a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Montserrat, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I was born and raised in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, México, and though I’ve had a proclivity towards writing since I was very young, writing for TV or film or just writing as a career period didn’t seem like an achievable goal. No one in my family had ever written professionally — The closest thing I had was a teacher who was a published novelist and poet… and the one time I went to a TV set because my dentist at the time brought me to this daytime show to demonstrate a computer-assisted anesthetic delivery system. I got a tooth filling done live on TV.
But when my family immigrated to the US and I began studying at Pepperdine, I saw that I could take classes on screenwriting, with screenwriting teachers who had written and produced films I had seen as a kid. It hit me that this was a career within my grasp. So I changed my major.
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’m a writer turned Consulate bureaucrat turned Catholic high school secretary… turned WGA writer. As a child, I dreamed of becoming a werewolf, and a Valley Girl, and thus far I’ve achieved one of those. Born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico, I grew up on a generous diet of folklore, ghost tales, and family chisme that resulted in my love for writing stories about supernatural horror, the horrors of navigating complex family dynamics, and the comedy that goes hand-in-hand with it all.
I got my start as part of the National Hispanic Media Coalition’s Series Scriptwriters Program, which led to my work experience as Writers’ Assistant/Script Coordinator for shows like MAYANS MC (FX). My writing credits include the GLAAD Media-nominated WITH LOVE (Amazon). I was most recently a staff writer on a half-hour teen comedy for a streamer. I currently live in Los Angeles, trying desperately to keep my umpteenth basil plant alive.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Community, in all its facets. No one creates alone. From the writers’ room, with everyone contributing their piece as they build the foundation for the story, to production with the incredible work and effort of every crew member, to post-production to piece it all together, to the story finding its audience. The shows and movies we create have thousands upon thousands of fingerprints on them. It took so many people saying “yes” to turn it into something tangible.
And beyond the professional side of it, storytelling is such an intrinsic part of what makes us human. We are able to find community with each other through stories — we are able to find our commonalities, and become better people for it. We’re all contributing a verse to this powerful play, and what a joyous thing that is.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Pay them for their work. Value their work and their voices and their contributions, and mean it when you say you’re valuing their work and their voices and their contributions. Let people take risks, and be messy, and let them take their time to find their rhythm. Engage. Go see the film in theaters, get a ticket to the play, buy the print. Talk about it. Discuss it. Figure out why you liked it or didn’t.
Money aside, I think one of the best things we can do is just foster a society where everyone is comfortable being creative in all its ways, shapes, and forms. Write a poem, and if it’s clunky so what? Rewrite it. Or leave it aside and write another one, or never write another one at all and try something else. We get so stuck on the idea of monetizing a creative activity, or always seeking external validation for it, that it’s easy to forget the sheer joy of creating something for the sake of creating.
And pay artists and creatives for their work.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lalunamontserrat/
- Other: https://writers.wga.org/montserratlunaballantyne
Image Credits
First photo: Jason Luna-Ballantyne Second photo: N/A Third Photo: Abby Guerra Fourth photo: Jason Luna-Ballantyne