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

Simone, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I’m not one for accolades. I’ve spent the better part of 30 years in front of the camera, so I’ve had enough eyeballs on me and pats on the back. When it comes to legacy, I want to leave my portion of this vast world better than I found it. This means knowing exactly where and what God is leading me to and how I am supposed to walk out my calling and purpose. I’ve written a book, made a film, and recently had a seat in local government. In through it all, my hope has been to change hearts and minds in a positive way: whether it’s providing a tool for education, sharing my story for others to know they are “not alone” in what they are going through, or taking a stand in voting on the local level to make our city and California a better place to live.

Simone, 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 been in the entertainment industry for 30 years, working in front of the camera in films, television shows, industrials, and commercials. But in many ways, I’ve been a “jack of all trades”. It’s been a passion of mine to live life to the fullest, so I’ve done so much more than this: been a fitness competitor, author, city councilwoman, sales manager, and now producer and director. My goal is to do all the work before me with excellence-that doesn’t mean perfection-it means the highest quality that I am capable of with my God-given gifts, talents, and abilities. My producing partner and I made a beautiful documentary over the last year called “Letter to the American Church” and wanted it to be different and set apart from the rest of the genre. We spent countless hours, days and months going over every nuance, every fact, preparing for every interview. It was the attention to detail that made it so beautiful-and this is missing in much work ethic these days. We live in a fast paced society and you can see this in the quality of work, whether it be preparing a document, writing a report, executing an event, or producing a film. In addition, my producing partner and myself are two women who are in a male dominated industry. We’ve come across several people in business dealings who were taken aback by our strength and direct nature only to paint us as “difficult”. She and I both know that if we would have been men in the same situation, it would not have been an issue. We are still dealing with this today, even in 2024, but we don’t shrink back. In short, we are both go-getters: if there is something that we are being led to accomplish, we just go and get it no matter what the obstacles.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I’m one half of Tash Alex Productions. We are a new, female owned and run, production company. Rachel Tash and I met at church, after I was speaking on stage about my role as city council member in my small California city. Our church had refused to lockdown during the pandemic, based on the first amendment right to stay open and worship. At that time, everyone who attended this church were a bunch of rebels in the face of government shut down. Rachel must have seen a kinship in me, so she reached out after I spoke. At that time, I was working with another producing partner, but over the course of several months there were opportunities that were presented to me that I had to say yes to: too big to pass up. I made a decision to move on from that business relationship and Rachel said, “I will go with you.” That was 2 years ago and since then, we produced an ad for a major national company, then moved right into making “Letter to the American Church” which has been viewed globally in 195 countries. We have several more projects in the pipeline. There was a learning curve for us working together, but in the end, we know when to submit to the other person (which is a Biblical concept). We don’t continually lock horns when we don’t agree on something-either my opinion is strong enough for her to agree on a decision or hers is for me to agree. It’s just a balance and I think that, both being women, married with husbands, children, and family to tend to, we understand what the other is going through at any given time.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Rachel and I both know how to tell a story and relate to others how it will impact an audience. Having written my book, “Rugged Girl”, published in 2020, I went through 5 years of working through how to share my own story in order for my readers to be touched by it, see themselves in it, and apply it to their own lives in order to become a stronger and healthier person. The same applies to pitching a project for funding: you have to paint a picture, tell a story, share why it is important and how it will impact audiences. It’s also to understand the business side of filmmaking. Investors are looking for a return, so what other projects are compatible? How successful were they? How much revenue did said projects generate? Then there is the distribution conversation which is a beast to tackle. Rachel comes from the studio side of Hollywood, so she brought a lot of expertise about marketing and distribution to the table. Her former employers are Sony and Disney to name a few and that brings clout in terms of her experience as a Senior VP at these companies. For us, getting funding for our first project was just about painting a clear and excellent picture of how this film was going to be executed and then always coming through-setting a standard of integrity and excellence. We both have a strong faith in Jesus and it should be said very clearly that we know that He opened the door for the funding on our film and we just had to walk through it. Now doors have opened for future projects and we will tackle them in the same way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tashalexproductions.com
• Instagram: @thesimonealex
• Other: https://www.simonealex.com

Image Credits

Headshot: Funkton Films Photography/Steve Smith