Ep 5: Behind the Scenes with Jasmine Pears: An Executive Assistant's Story

In this episode of Up and Comers of Hollywood, host Marie Finch sits down with Jasmine Pears, an accomplished studio executive assistant working with the vice president of adult animation development at a leading Los Angeles studio. Jasmine shares her remarkable journey from her small town in Northern California, through her education at CSUN, and her diverse experiences in the entertainment industry.  She discusses her varied experiences, from interning in college, working on big production sets, reading and finding scripts for an Academy Award Nominee film producer, assisting celebrities, and eventually transitioning into her current studio executive assistant role. Jasmine offers valuable insights and practical job strategies for aspiring professionals in the competitive entertainment industry. Tune in to hear about her challenges, successes, and the significant moments that shaped her career.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasmine-pears-471a876a/
Entertainment Job Board:https://www.entertainmentcareers.net/
Facebook Job Board (Los Angeles):  https://www.facebook.com/groups/PAJobsLA/
Linkedin Jobs: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/entertainment-jobs-los-angeles-ca/?currentJobId=4043069275

Chapters

• 1:41 Jasmine's Early Career and Internships
• 4:36 Transition to Talent Management
• 6:37 Life as an Executive Assistant for Talent
• 16:54 Studio Executive Assistant Experience
• 19:04 Jasmine's Journey and Reflections
• 25:35 Advice for Aspiring Entertainment Professionals
• 28:32 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Reflecting on Success

If I could talk to my childhood self right now and told her everything I've experienced and where I'm at today, she would not believe me. Every day I get to go to work, work on the shows I get to work on is a huge success. 

Introduction to Up and Comers of Hollywood

Welcome to Up and Comers of Hollywood, your channel for exclusive insights into rising talent, where we'll be shining a spotlight on their journey to success.

The challenges they overcome and the impact they're making on the industry. Subscribe to Up and Comers of Hollywood's YouTube channel and follow us on our podcast. Stay tuned as we uncover the inspiring stories of these talented individuals. 

Meet Jasmine Pears

Today, we have the pleasure of speaking with Jasmine Pears.

She's an accomplished studio executive assistant working with the vice president of adult animation development at a leading Los Angeles studio. Before this role, Jasmine traveled the world as an executive assistant to celebrities, joining them for photo shoots, events, TV interviews, and significant business meetings.

Jasmine's impressive resume also includes experience with an Academy Award nominated film producer. Thrilled to have her share her journey along with valuable job strategies that have helped her navigate and succeed in the competitive entertainment industry. 

Welcome back to Up and Comers of Hollywood. I'm your host, Marie Finch. I am so excited to have my special guest, Jasmine Pears. I'm excited here. Jasmine, thank you. I'm excited to be here. Hopefully my knowledge can be passed on and other people who do want to come in the industry, hopefully this will help them.

Jasmine's Early Career and Internships

Jasmine, you're not originally. From Los Angeles. So where are you from? I'm originally from a small town in Northern California, an hour south of Lake Tahoe, grew up being outdoorsy and in nature. How did you get to Los Angeles? I came to LA for college. I went to CSUN in the Valley. I always knew I wanted to be in TV and film ever since I was little, watching movies with my family.

So from a young age, I did know I always wanted to be in the industry, even though where I grew up, there was no one in the industry, no one really talked about celebrities or knew having a job in the industry was a thing. I just knew LA is the place to be if you want to be in TV or film. Granted, you could always go to New York, which is a lot of Saturday night live and late night shows.

Nowadays, you could go to the South. Atlanta has a lot of studios. But 10 years ago, I feel like if you were going to be in TV, LA was the spot to go to, and I was already in Northern California. So I knew I had to make my way to LA. So I did. I went to Cal State Northridge, graduated with a TV and film degree, did a lot of internships in college and just started working in the industry.

Your bio, I read it and it's amazing. You went a different route. So you said you interned while you were in college. Yes. What type of internship jobs did you have during college? I feel like I came to LA being one of those people that says I will work for free and take anything as long as it's on set.

So my internships definitely were that. I interned for a show in the art department and worked with a prop master, a lot of work on set and prep. production and then post production you gotta strip everything down. Originally I did think I was gonna be an assistant director. Being on set was the main focus to do at that time.

After that I feel like any young college kid you're just taking PA jobs on set. So just a lot of production assistant jobs for workout videos, music videos. I said yes to people working on big productions to get behind the scenes and see how each set works. My last semester of college, I worked for a film producer in development.

He had his own production company, so I was interning for him. After I graduated, luckily, he just hired me on as his executive assistant. So that's what kind of got me started in the film development side. You did a lot of PA work while you were in college. Yes, I did a lot of PA work because I knew I wanted to work at a network or studio and you have to have a good resume and a lot of them do want you to have on set experience.

I knew any on set experience would be beneficial to me. You're really versatile because I saw you were a PA on what, a Chris Brown video shoot? Yes. A commercial? You were in the art department for Kevin Hart's Oscars party? Oh yes, I did help set up Kevin Hart after Oscar party and it was fun. Yeah. You did a lot in college.

Yes, yes I did. 

Transition to Talent Management

After working for the film producer, I started working for a visual effects studio. They worked on a lot of Marvel movies, a lot of action movies, sci fi movies, which was really cool to actually see the behind the scenes and the mocap stage and everything they used to create. characters like Thanos.

And while I was in that job, one of my good friends started assisting a celebrity. I always knew it was just one of those things you heard people talk about. You need to join talent management, or you need to join an agency to get to a studio. At this time, I was like, okay, those have to be my next steps.

And my friend started working for celebrity and said, Jasmine, have you ever thought of being in talent management? So, she piqued my interest in that, and that's where I hopped into working in talent management. Then after my visual effects job, I got into talent management. I would work for A List Star's managers, as well as them directly.

So, I was working for talent management for a few years, and I always wanted to be in to work at a studio and there was just this pivotal point where I said, I don't want to keep working directly for talent. I think it's a great job and I think that any person who is very organized and loves to travel and work under someone that closely at such a high caliber should definitely do it.

But at the point in my life, I always knew I wanted to be behind the scenes. I knew I wanted to read scripts and work at a bigger company. So at that point I Knew I needed to pivot back to a studio, and that's what I did. Now I work at a studio in television, specifically adult animation in development.

So you really did a lot of different jobs to get to where you're at today. Yes. For talent, that must have been exciting. Being able to travel and meet different celebrities. Yes. You were always around that, right? Now, I know you signed at NDA, so you can't really say names of the talent that you worked for, but they were pretty big talent.

Yeah. And they were women. Yes, they were women. So we can say that. 

Life as an Executive Assistant for Talent

What are the challenges of being an executive assistant for a talent, opposed to what you're doing now, an executive assistant for the studio? Being an assistant to a celebrity is different than being an assistant to an executive at a studio.

From my personal experience. There are many things that do correlate. I do find that because I was an executive assistant for talent makes being an executive assistant at a studio easier. Some jobs are similar as far as scheduling or setting meetings, but both jobs are very different. When working directly for talent in the entertainment world, you have to know yourself.

As well as who you're working for. You have to know yourself because you have to stay grounded in any situation because you are this person's backbone. You have to know them so well that you can tell them what they're going to do two, three, four, five steps before they know what they're going to do. And if something at any moment has to change.

to change. You have to be that person that says this is what's gonna happen at this time and for this reason and run with it. So I think that knowing yourself as far as knowing your strengths is important because you can use those strengths to benefit both of you and knowing the talent so well that they're not getting frustrated with you because you should have already known.

Their favorite color, or well, their favorite flower, or whatever it is that they want you to know, because you get that personal. You're with them all the time. You should know everything there is to know about them. That's way different than working at a studio. Obviously, you're boss, and you do the same thing.

Okay, she's gonna want this lunch with this person. But, It's not as personal. They're not having you in their home versus a celebrity. How would someone find a job like that as an executive assistant? Do they have to become a personal assistant first? It varies person to person. Some people, and I'll say people, cause it's not just celebrities, managers, artists, musicians in the entertainment industry.

It depends on their preference. I've been with people who have personal assistant who does personal stuff. An executive assistant who handles business stuff. I've also seen where it crosses over. So you could do a little bit of both. You even see people who have chiefs of staff who runs the other assistants and gives them the guidelines.

So every person handles their staff completely different. I wouldn't say, Oh, you need to be in a personal assistant to get executive assistant. It crosses over, but it just depends on your preference. Personal is running errands. taking care of the dry cleaner and executive assistant handles more big picture fashion lines, makeup, brands, meetings, setting studio calls, but you don't have to take one way versus the other.

If you want a job in this industry that is specifically working with talent or managers, On a personal level, there are hiring agencies will run your resume, run a background check, and hire you to work with specific talent. I didn't go that route. I stumbled upon this world through a random job posting.

What skills would it take for someone to work with talent as an executive assistant? I would say the top skills would be strong management skills. You also need to have good leadership skills. I'm very organized. I'm an arranger. Even if it's my normal day to day tasks at home, I'm making lists. If I'm packing for a trip, I'm making a list.

I'm naturally very organized, so the job just worked well for me. I'm not afraid to give advice. And I think in this industry, there's a lot of yes men and they don't want yes men. You need to be honest in a nice way. You need to be extremely good at communication. You also really need to be adaptable and flexible.

Because not one day is the same, not one hour is the same, anything can change in a minute. And you also have to work really well under pressure because these people don't stop. You have to be good at working under pressure in fast environments and keeping your cool. Because if you lose your cool, the whole house is going to come crashing down.

Can you share with the audience what a day would look like as an executive assistant for a talent? Yes, of course. Each day varies, but I can share with you, let's say, a day where you're prepping for an event. The particular event I have in mind is, it happens in New York every year. And so the first things that go through my mind are like, okay, we're on the West Coast, we gotta get everyone to New York.

The main people I think about are the makeup artist, the hairstylist, and the wardrobe. After you get all organized and you figure out flights and accommodations, And then with my Particular boss, you have to figure out car services, you figure out security. Before each event, you have this overall team prep with anyone that's on your talent's team from security to other assistants to travel.

You got to make sure everything is secured because this is a big person. Anywhere they go, you just got to keep security and being safe at the forefront. After you get through all that, then you're like, okay, let's go to this event. Everyone flew out to New York. Then in the morning. It's pretty much all hands on deck all day.

We woke up at 8am, had breakfast. Then you have everyone come over at 10am. Then prep begins. The makeup artist arrives. The hairstylist arrives. Wardrobe for this particular event had already been picked out because it was custom made. So that had months and weeks of prep. prep lying and sizing. The day before we would usually go to this wardrobe stylist place and get the last fittings, get the last alterations.

And then the day of consists of getting her ready, prepped, doing makeup. There's usually A behind the scenes person shooting footage or taking pictures for the prep of this event that you can post later on social media after she's prepped, which probably took about a few hours. You make sure the car service is ready.

There's usually a lot of paparazzi outside the hotel because for some reason it always gets out and security. Escorts her to her car, you hop in with her because you always make sure you have to go anywhere they go. And then you drop them off at the event, you make sure everything goes smoothly. You have to wait up and then after the event ends, you're in the car, you're helping pick her back up.

That's what a day looks like getting ready for a event. That seems exciting. It's very exciting. It's a lot of fun too. To get to that excitement, there was a lot of prep work behind the scenes in the office before you started all that, right? Yes. You're probably working hours making sure everything has to match up.

Yeah. It sounds like you can miss a link and something like the car won't be there. Right. Was that a stressful situation to go through? The prep helps. That's why it's good to always be prepared and as an assistant, you think, okay, if this goes wrong, okay, this has to be in place. If this messes up or if something breaks, you have to do this.

I remember one time we were in. Italy going to a fashion show. You know how you take those little boats through Italy and it takes you from place to place. Well, we were getting on the boat and her tie that ties your heel with the clamp on it, it snapped. So she couldn't keep her shoe on. So right then and there, luckily we had a wardrobe.

person with us who had a little bag of supplies, they were able to clip the part that had popped off her shoe back on real quickly before she got out. So it's stuff like that that you always need to be aware of and prepared for in case something like that does happen because she can't go out there barefooted.

Like that's just not a possibility. And you don't have time to go back to the hotel, you're in a boat, going somewhere else. It's just those are always the things that you have to keep at the forefront of being an assistant to talent because. Anything could go wrong, and as long as you're thinking ahead, you'll be fine.

Did you have to learn about security? That was new to me. I know not all talent probably has security. I'm sure when every talent goes to events, they have security for safety measures. Yes, that is something I had to learn, but we're all a team. We are all a family. And we spend so much time together. So we all want the same thing to make sure your boss is successful and continues to be.

Joining this team specifically, it was meeting with security, making sure everything's buttoned up and tied down, and that was new. But it was also super helpful because it's just more people to help carry the weight of things. So it's not all on your back. Oh, that's a really good point of having a big entourage.

Yes, it does. As much people complain, there's a huge entourage coming. As being a person in the entourage, it definitely helps to have a bigger entourage because you have more people to rely on. I couldn't imagine having a high caliber celebrity have their hands in so many things. They probably are branding a lot of things.

They're on social media. Yeah. They got clothing lines. Makeup lines. Yeah, they're entrepreneurs as well. I think a lot of people are getting in the entrepreneurial space and learning you can make a lot of money not just writing music or being in front of the camera. You can have your own businesses. A lot of celebrities are branching in the entrepreneurial space, realizing that's where you can make a lot of money.

So a lot of them do have their hands in multiple businesses. That must have been like a business degree for you. Learning the business side of things, right? Because you learned film and TV at CSUN. But did you learn a lot about business as an assistant to talent? You do because you're sitting in on all the meetings and you're hearing billionaires in business talk to these celebrities.

or my boss in particular. And it is very informational. You hear how deals are done and how contracts are made. But even in my current job, it's the same thing. You're dealing with high profile celebrities and talent. And then I get to hear across from me is our business affairs team. executive, and I hear him constantly on the phone, making deals, talking about contracts, calling the agents.

So business is a huge factor in all of entertainment. That is so great that you have that experience and not just the creative side of things. Right. Being business savvy is definitely at the forefront. If there was no business, then the creative side would not be possible. Entertainment is a business, right? 

We talk about that in a lot of our segments and our episodes. 

Studio Executive Assistant Experience

What would a day look like as an assistant in a studio? Let's do the contrast here. Being an executive assistant at a studio for an executive, which usually is a VP and above. So SVP, EVP, anything in that range. You're in an office, so it's not as personal.

You definitely get to know your boss on a personal level, but it's not doing anything personal for them. I think the most personal thing I do is probably just setting up lunches or dinners or going to dinner with my boss for fun. A day working at a studio is more corporate. You do a lot more scheduling meetings.

Scheduling pitch calls, you read a lot of scripts, you discuss the scripts and notes and watch cuts, anything that comes in from our shows, and setting up general meetings with writers and producers. It is all about networking, so a lot of the meetings are networking with either producers or writers.

People we work with already and they're just having touch base meetings or meeting people from outside, outside vendors, outside people who want to work with us. There's a lot of that happening throughout the day. Also just a lot of internal meetings with different departments, marketing meetings. If we're going to launch this show, what is going to be shown?

If this is a holiday special, what clip is going to be shown? So a lot of meetings like that. One thing that I learned that they didn't teach me in college was what actually goes on at a studio. I feel like a lot of people know production companies because they're in the nitty gritty of writing the scripts and have the writers and are on set and making the show happen.

But at a studio, they're not always on set every day with the producers working in the nitty gritty. It's the higher level overview look at a show or film. There's so many departments, so many people. There's lawyers who are in our business affairs and legal department. There's accountants who are helping with budgets and finance and marketing people, publicity people.

You have an HR team. So I think that once you join a studio, learning and learning, Everything there is to know about the studio as a whole, not just your department, is very beneficial. Thank you, Jasmine. 

Jasmine's Journey and Reflections

At what point or age in your life did you decide or knew that you wanted to work in the entertainment industry?

Weirdly, I think I've always known since I was really little. I always loved to put on plays with my sister, and that was a start of it. I grew up dancing and on stage and in theater a lot, and just watching the Oscars with my parents every year and watching movies with my dad a lot. He's a big movie buff.

So I always think it was a part of me when I hit middle school, something clicked and I was like, Oh, I can make this a career. You don't know what you're going to be when you grow up. I think knowing that this was always something that piqued my interest. And then when I realized. Wait, I can continue to do this and be creative the rest of my life?

Is that aha moment? Ever since then, I think I just ran with it and just started learning more about the different jobs within this industry. And when I learned, oh wait, you also just don't need to be an actor. You can be behind the scenes. That's when I knew, okay, I want to be behind the scenes. I want to work in the entertainment industry.

I just have to figure out specifically what I want to do. But I always knew at a young age, I wanted to work in entertainment. What are some of the challenges that come with being an executive assistant in the entertainment industry? Earlier in my career, just knowing the industry as a whole and how it functions is very important.

But once you get that. down. It gets easier with time. And then when you get your next job, you're like, okay, I learned some things here. These are some things that didn't go so well. These are some things that went really well. So let me apply it to this new job. So I think now in my career, I've fine tuned my skills and I've grown a lot.

So I can say that I don't have any current challenges. What would you say are some of the successes that you've had? I feel that every day I wake up and get to go to a studio a lot.  Because if I could talk to my childhood self right now and told her everything I've experienced and where I'm at today, she would not believe me.

Every day I get to go to work and work on the shows I get to work on is a huge success. There's still things that I obviously want to achieve and goals I have for myself. But right now, I can honestly sit back and just say how proud I am of myself and everything I've accomplished. So yeah, I think every day is a success and I think everyone should feel that way no matter where they're at in their life.

Because it's all process. I tell myself it's progress, not perfection. So, waking up every day and doing the little things, that's just one step closer to getting you to where you want to get to, and I think that is a successful day. Also very important in the entertainment industry, being grounded and grateful, because this industry can be very cutthroat and very harsh, and I think that as long as you have a good head on your shoulders, And you stay positive and optimistic, even though sometimes the world may not look like that at that time, that you will look back years down the line and be proud of yourself.

I really like that. That was so inspirational. Thank you. I think it's important to be just thankful and grateful every day of what we're doing and how we're doing it. So thank you for the sharing that. Of course. What was your perception of Los Angeles before you got here? I really didn't have a perception of LA.

I didn't have high expectations that, Oh my God, it's going to be this amazing place and I'm going to shine and be a star. But I also didn't think negatively of it. In my mind, I just knew LA is where I had to be. So I  That's just what came to my mind when I thought of LA. And what's the reality for you? I would say the reality is definitely better than what I thought, only because I didn't have high expectations for it.

I feel like if I thought it was this greater thing, then maybe my perception would be different. But because it was minuscule, now I'm like, Wow. Just the city alone is beautiful. From the beaches to the mountains to the hillside. I think the energy here is great. But even coming from Northern California to Southern California, it's a huge change.

Like the people are different. That was a change. I will say when I first came to L. A., it was bittersweet. I did miss being home, but I knew L. A. is where I had to be. It was this tug of war thing between me and my old self. But after a while, I realized how much L. A. has to offer and how much good there is in L.

A. that I came to terms with it. But I will say a turning moment for me, because I lived in L. A. for five years, and I still was kinda like, Okay, it's L. A., I have to be here for work. But then when I got a job that took me outside of L. A., and I was never in L. A., I missed it. Something in me was like, oh my gosh, wait, I miss the beach, I miss hiking, I miss the sun, I miss being able to go downtown and have one vibe and go to Santa Monica and have another vibe.

I missed L. A. for once, and after that I was like, I'm not gonna leave, like, I wanna come back. And that's what I did, and now I see this being my home. I couldn't imagine leaving. So why did you have to leave and where did you go? I actually had to leave LA for work when I was working for Talent because their base was not in LA.

They had bases across the U. S. Their hub was not in LA. We would come to LA for appearances or shows. Since they weren't living in LA, I wasn't living in LA at that time. After working for them, I did realize how much I missed LA. I love the way you're really speaking to me. Beacon, like a code, because I know you probably had to sign some NDAs.

Now what does that mean for people who are in the industry? An NDA is a non disclosure agreement, and it's pretty much just saying that whatever you see here, you pretty much just can't repeat it or talk about it. And that can be used towards a job or it could even be used when you're going to go look at something for the first time that hasn't come out yet.

It's just an agreement. that you signed just to say that everything here is confidential. I can see why you would have NDA for talent because you know where they live, you know their schedules, you have to protect them. Yes, exactly. That's big, I think. The jobs that you've had were really big responsibilities because you have to be careful in what you say and how you say it.

Yeah. So on that way. Let's see where you get that talent from. It's hard to get things from me. I'm speaking in code. You're speaking in code. 

Advice for Aspiring Entertainment Professionals

How do you become an assistant for a studio? Yes, I think that's a great question. You could go about it a lot of different ways. When you talk to people, everyone has their own story and journey.

Obviously mine is going the talent management route, but I feel that for any people out there are trying to get into a studio, a lot of people go the agency route. When people say they've worked in the mailroom and worked their way up. That's true, people have done it. So you can go through an agency, you could go through a management company, anything that gives you on set desk experience is very important.

And just knowing how the basic fundamentals of answering calls and scheduling meetings. No matter if you choose agency or management or being a PA and working on set, you're learning positions, you're learning about people, you're meeting people, which is very important in LA. As long as you're paying attention.

And you try and take the most you can out of whatever job you're in, you'll do great. Do you have any resources or tips or anything that can help anyone who really wants to go that route? You can always look for job postings. I know LinkedIn is a great resource that posts a lot of assistant jobs for studios or networks or production companies.

I think it's also a great platform. place to network. You can message people and reach out to people and see if you can set up a quick coffee. There's also entertainment job boards you can look at online. There are some Facebook ones you could also join as well. So would you say try to do as much as you can while you're in school?

Because that's going to build up your resume. Yes, I think that's a huge factor. If you can get as much experience in before you graduate, you're ahead of the curve. For anyone who wants to work in entertainment, specifically a production company or studio or network, you're gonna have to apply a lot.

Sometimes it's a numbers game just to get in the door and any executive will tell you I'm sure they did the same. It's taking any PA work that's available just to put on your resume and finding the job you want to do earlier on in your career. is really helpful because then you know exactly the path you want to go down.

You can research the people who are in that job that you want to be, and you can maybe even set meetings with them or try and follow their career path. I know not one career path is the same, or it doesn't hurt that if someone is already in the job you want to be, and you just try and mimic their career path.

That's a good suggestion. Reach out to people and talk to them about their job and how they got started. Maybe they might even give you some information. Right. That you were networking, you're doing the same and people are doing the same with you to find out what you do because you're right. There's so many jobs here and you shared was the importance of that resume before you graduate.

You were really hustling and it sounded like you were doing a lot of different internships of PA work for commercials. music videos for the art department's television film to see where it is that you really want to land. 

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

I am so excited and honored that you're here and I'm so glad you were able to share your journey with folks who want to go in that same direction or just didn't think about this career path.

Jasmine isn't ending here. Sounds like she's got some other things she's thinking about in the future. I do, so keep an eye out for me. Okay, we will do that. Because we are up and comers here of Hollywood. So we're going to be following you Jasmine to see where you're at. We are here to support everyone and really love you being here and talking about everything that you had to share.

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. A podcast like this would have been helpful when I was younger. So I think that having this now and people that are interested. and coming in the industry or even people who are already here and are just trying to learn more. I think this is super helpful. So I think it's great that this podcast.

Oh, thank you so much. And with that, go after your dream, go get it, network with some people, but most of all, stay kind. 

Um, uh,