Life & Work with Isabella Dake of Santa Monica

Today we’d like to introduce you to Isabella Dake.

Isabella, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
So, I actually started as an actor—it’s something I’ve loved since I was a kid. I studied theater and Entertainment Industry at USC, and while I’ve always stayed connected to acting, over time I found myself also drawn to the behind-the-scenes process—like, shaping the story, building the team, figuring out how to actually bring something to life. That led me into producing, which I’ve realized is this amazing combination of creativity and strategy.

Right now, I’m an indie producer and actor working in the TV and digital space. I just finished producing a female-led buddy action-comedy pilot called Wander Women. It premiered at the Beverly Hills Film Festival and was selected at SeriesFest in the Independent Comedy Pilot category, which was super exciting. My producing partner Scarlett Bress and I are building out this model for creator-led indie TV—it’s story-first, but also scalable and repeatable. The goal is to prove that you don’t need a studio to tell bold, funny, meaningful stories.

For Wander Women, we brought together an ensemble of influencer-comedians with a combined following of over 20 million and used brand partnerships to offset production costs. We also made it a point to staff the team with all-female or queer department heads, including our amazing director Drew Denny and DP Ino Yang Popper. Ann-Margret came on board as our executive producer, which was such a gift—she’s been a huge mentor and champion. I also have a small acting role in it—I always try to sneak in a cameo when I can.

Outside of that, I work as Head of Production for a fast-growing YouTube channel that puts out a new video every few weeks. One of our videos, which I produced with Apollo astronaut Charlie Duke, was actually nominated for a Webby for Best Longform YouTube Video last year. I also handle all of our brand partnerships, and that experience—understanding how brands think, how to position content for them—has really helped me finance and develop my own creative projects in smart ways.

Before going indie, I worked for five years at a digital production company called INVIZ, which was founded by Adam Goodman and Michael Bay. I started as Adam’s assistant and eventually became Head of Talent, where I signed our digital roster and helped develop creative campaigns for original product lines and branded content.

So my path’s been kind of a mix of traditional and digital, acting and producing—but I think that’s what makes it work. I just really believe in collaboration, in finding great people and telling great stories, and doing things a little differently.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I wouldn’t say things have always been smooth, of course there are challenges! Graduating into a pandemic, which threw the entire industry into uncertainty was definitely hard to navigate. Everyone always says “make your own content,” and honestly—it’s true. There were no traditional opportunities, so we had to create our own. That pressure turned out to be empowering.

The pandemic and strikes were tough on everyone, but being in the indie space gave us moments where we could still create. Making Wander Women during that time was a total breath of fresh air. A lot of people were out of work when we were filming, so we ended up with an incredibly talented and special team—people we might not have had access to otherwise. It was a silver lining during a really challenging moment.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a producer with a background in acting and storytelling, so I tend to approach projects from a creative lens. I really care about character and performance, and I think that helps me connect with actors and the team as a whole and understand what brings a story to life. I’m especially interested in bridging the gap between traditional and digital—finding fresh ways to merge both worlds.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
One thing that’s really important to me is community. I’ve always leaned on mentors and peers, and I try to return that support by sharing opportunities and bringing others into the fold whenever I can. Nothing in this industry gets done alone, and I’m lucky to have a network of talented friends and collaborators I can learn from, work with, and grow alongside.

I’m still early in my journey, but I care a lot about creating positive, respectful environments where people feel energized to do great work together—and ideally, have some fun while doing it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://wanderwomen.mychannl.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bella-dake-a4b0a3177/
• Soundcloud: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4755997/
• Other: Email: [email protected]