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

Hi Renae, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

My entire childhood I made such silly, strange videos with my friend’s camera. We made dramatic soap opera-like skits, recreated MTV’s TRL, we made a spoof of MTV’s Sweet 16 show, we made news reports denouncing school bullies, and commercials advertisements to go in between for things like hemorrhoid cream, and bread. When I was in eighth grade, I was the school’s weather reporter, and then in high school I took a multi-media class and produced our “morning announcements.” I created an opening theme song and everything called “Waking Up To Love.” It felt like play time to me. I remember laughing so hard once when I was saying the pledge of allegiance, I had to personally apologize to every teacher in the entire building, which was ridiculous. It can be stressful as a high school kid being asked by adults what you want to do with the rest of your life. I didn’t feel like I was guided well or had any mentors at that age tell me what the possibilities were as a creatively inspired and driven young person. All I knew is I liked to write and I liked making videos. In college I ended up pursing journalism, which I quickly felt like was not for me. A professor told me that if I wanted to be a journalist, I had to change my hair, I could never have tattoos, I had to wear certain clothes, basically I was told that self expression as a journalist was “wrong.” I felt lost in that idea of confinement, so I remember just skipping a majority of my classes and instead editing projects and videos for friends, which is how I eventually got into the TV industry.

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.

If I didn’t rebel against journalism, skip my classes and follow my bliss, I’m not sure I would have ever discovered my passion for producing TV. While in college, I made a highlight reel, or a “sizzle reel” for a woman who was a Medium, and she then got her own pilot, and then eventually her own TV show, which I worked on after college as a Story Assistant Producer. This was my first time ever on the set of a real production and my job was to track story through field notes and hot sheets. It’s indescribable but I had this all encompassing feeling of alignment and just knew that this was exactly what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I’m very single but maybe people feel this way when they meet their husband, wife, or their forever partner? Anywhozer, I’m a very outgoing person and became very close friends with everyone I worked with on the production team, and they all helped me obtain more opportunities and get my foot further in the door. After a few gigs in the field, I started developing the crave to diversify myself and get into post production and editing, which is where I am at now. I am a Story Producer and work on unscripted, docu-reality series on a variety of networks and platforms like Bravo, Peacock, and Netflix. As a creative, post production is so much more fulfilling for me because I have all the pieces of the puzzle in front of me to work with. I take pride in finding the subtle, the silly, and the nuance in the footage. I feel like it’s the little things that draw in a viewer, and make them feel connected. Even though I’m editing hours of raw footage, I strive to produce authentic, dynamic, vulnerable moments from the complexities of the human experience that derive empathy, compassion and relatability within the viewer based on the story being told.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Two years ago, I was working on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and my partner at the time caused a fire that put me in the Burn ICU for a week. I was in and out of the hospital for two months, and it forced me to go on disability because I lost the ability to use my hands. I remember feeling like everything I had worked so hard for had been taken from me, and it was all out of my control. I just took that time to really focus on my healing, above all else. When I returned, I had a shifted perspective on just about everything. I knew I loved my job, but after surviving severe burns, I felt like I was back on set for the first time, falling in love with it all over again, which was confusing to me because again, I felt like I was happy. This all taught me a lesson on resilience that I didn’t even know I needed. I think as creatives (or as passionate people) when we find routine in doing what we love, consistency, a groove, our lives can feel lackluster and mundane because it’s very easy to confuse stability with boredom. If we choose a creative path as a job, and rely on it to make money, it’s vital to keep inspiring yourself, because that has a direct impact on your work. If I’m not a dynamic individual with hobbies and friends, how am I going to tell the story of a dynamic individual with hobbies and friends? The emphasis this accident put on me to live my life to the fullest has greatly, directly impacted my passion for my work and its quality. I don’t have to do this, but I get to do this, and I’m just abundantly grateful to have that perspective.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

It’s rewarding and fulfilling how much of my own personality gets to exist in my work. I tell stories and highlight moments that I personally think are funny, that I personally think make sense, and in the collaboration process, you get noted. Sometimes being told that my work needs to go in a different direction feels like rejection. It feels like my parents telling me that I’m wrong for liking Slipknot, or my journalism teacher telling me I’m wrong to like tattoos. When your job is so tethered to who you are as a person, it’s hard to not take a critique personally, but it’s just a learning opportunity and a good way to diversify my work. It took me a long time to understand that. It took me awhile to learn that it’s okay to be me, to like what I like, and to always follow my bliss.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @bobbifurgeson

Image Credits
@tychomag / Max Ceja