About this episode

Dana Ledoux Miller discusses her journey from a production assistant to co-writing and co-directing Moana 2 and writing Disney's live-action Moana, highlighting the challenges of representation in Hollywood.

Dana Ledoux Miller ​is a shape shifting scribe. ​ S​he was PA'ing on Lost and The Descendants when she first said out loud that she wanted to be a writer. A decade later, she's co-written and co-directed Moana 2 and written Disney's live-action Moana , in theaters July 10 — becoming one of the ​f​ew Pacific Islander writers steering a major Disney IP. In this episode, we trace ​h​er full arc: from set life in Hawaii, to landing in Aaron Sorkin's writers' room on The Newsroom , to the surreal call that brought her onto Moana. We talk about what it actually feels like to carry the weight of representation on a project this big — the pressure of getting it right, the imposter syndrome that hasn't fully gone away even after a billion-dollar movie, and how she handles public reaction to work she's poured herself into. We also get into PEAK, the nonprofit she co-founded so she's not the only name on the list of Pacific Islander storytellers working in Hollywood. Plus: desert island essentials, her favorite Hawaiian island, and what The Rock is actually cooking. AOP SUBSTACK 📫 Musings, Mixers, Workshops, and Exclusive Content https://angleonproducers.substack.com/ AOP WHERE TO…

People in this episode

Host: Carolina Groppa

Guest: Dana Ledoux Miller

Topics covered

• screenwriting
• representation
• Disney
• Pacific Islander storytellers
• career journey
• imposter syndrome

Keywords

• Dana Ledoux Miller
• Moana
• Disney
• Pacific Islander
• screenwriter
• representation
• Hollywood

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Disney, PEAK

Books & works: Moana, Moana 2, The Newsroom

Places: Hawaii

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