We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Natalie De Diego. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Natalie below.
Natalie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career.
Our school system is built on a binary version of success. You either pass or you fail. Failure defines you. It labels you and it stops your academic career in its tracks. There is no other way that failure is presented. Post-school, I have not found failure to be the nuclear bomb that I was warned about. It is a part of your journey in your career and in your life. The reality is that you’ll hear “no” more often than “yes”. And ultimately those failures don’t define you. Instead they provide the best moments of learning.
When I was coming up as an assistant editor trying to make the jump to editor, I got frustrated and upset when something I cut was either rejected or completely re-worked. I worried that this is was proof positive that I wasn’t talented enough to make it. I eventually learned to stop allowing my set backs to label me and focused instead on what I could do better. I asked for more feedback from people I trusted and just kept re-working my cuts until I could see that I was making progress. I can look back now and see that it was an important time in my career. I am grateful for those setbacks.
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 an editor/co-producer who has been working in documentaries for over a decade. I initially went to Film School and after graduation got a job as an assistant editor at a post house. Over the years, I have worked my way to being an Editor.
My work has played on various platforms including HBO, CNN and Netflix. The diversity of my work – from historical to character study to eclectic sports – have allowed me to hone my skills as a storyteller.
My work includes – CNN’s The Eighties, The Nineties, The Movies and Roku’s What Happens in Hollywood. In 2017, my episodes of CNN’s History of Comedy screened at Sundance. In 2020, I was nominated for a Sports Emmy for Netflix’s We are the Champions. One of my more recent projects, The Way Down, had the biggest debut of any docu-series for HBO Max.
I have also directed and written two shorts. My first, Every Night at 3;30, premiered at the Hollyshorts Film Festival in 2023. My second, Prick, is a project that I am most proud of and will be screening in the near future. It reflects my skill as a filmmaker and a love for subverting genre.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
As a Latin woman, so often we are relegated to being the nurse, nanny or hooker in tv and film. I would love to tell stories that have latin women as leads. And not only as leads but as compelling, complex characters. On hard days, this keeps me going.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
When I had my short, Every Night at 3:30, play at the Georgia Film Festival, the audience reacted with gasps and laughter. Sitting there, listening to them was one of the most deeply satisfying moments of my career. How my work affects others is the greatest reward.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nataliedediego.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/natdediego
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-de-diego-96aba97/
Image Credits
Images from the set of Prick and Every Night at 3:30 were taken by Lexie Overman.