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Talkhouse

Baltasar Kormákur is an Icelandic actor and filmmaker whose work spans theater, movies and television. His latest film, Apex, starring Charlize Theron, Taron Egerton and Eric Bana, is now streaming on Netflix. He is the director of Icelandic films including 101 Reykjavik, The Sea, Jar City, The Oath and The Deep, the latter of which was shortlisted for the foreign language Academy Award. Since 2008, Kormákur has directed and produced several non-Icelandic features, such as Contraband, starring Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster and Kate Beckinsale; 2 Guns, with Denzel Washington and Wahlberg; the epic adventure movie Everest, with an ensemble cast featuring Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Sam Worthington, Emily Watson, Keira Knightley, Robin Wright and Jake Gyllenhaal; the ocean survival tale Adrift, starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin; and the survival movie Beast, starring Idris Elba and Sharlto Copley.

Baltasar Kormákur

Film

Three Great Things: Baltasar Kormákur

Steven Knight is a prolific writer for film and television whose latest movie, <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81319485" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man</a>, is out on Netflix on March 20. Before becoming a screenwriter, Knight worked in television and was one of the creators of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. His films as a screenwriter include Dirty Pretty Things (directed by Stephen Frears), Eastern Promises (directed by David Cronenberg), Allied (directed by Robert Zemeckis) and Spencer (directed by Pablo Larrain), and he directed his own screenplays for the films Locke starring Tom Hardy, Redemption with Jason Statham, and Serenity, starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway. On the small screen, he has created and written many TV shows, including Peaky Blinders, SAS: Rogue Heroes, A Thousand Blows and House of Guinness. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Netflix.)

Steven Knight

Three Great Things: Steven Knight

Mary Houlihan is a standup comedian, writer, and artist based in Brooklyn &amp; Los Angeles whose newest project, The Mary Houlihan Show, is now streaming on <a href="http://youtube.com/maryhoulihan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">YouTube</a>. She has appeared on The Chris Gethard Show, Broad City, Danny’s House, Billy On The Street, Rachel Dratch’s Late Night Snack, and Jimmy Kimmel Live. She writes for The New Yorker and McSweeney’s, and made the artwork for Joe Pera Talks With You on Adult Swim.

Mary Houlihan

Walden, But Good

David Moscow is the co-creator, executive producer, and host of <a href="https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/from-scratch/8466767356134323112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">From Scratch</a>. David made his feature film debut at age 13 in Big, starring as the young Tom Hanks; years later, he starred with Christian Bale in Newsies. He has appeared in over 40 films, television shows, and theater productions in his 40-year career. Most recently, David founded the production company The Hubris. He has executive produced more than 20 feature films, including Under the Silver Lake, To Dust, Strawberry Mansion and Wild Nights with Emily. David also develops mixed-income sustainably green apartment buildings. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Karen Moscow, and two children.

David Moscow

As a Creative, Sometimes You Have to Start From Scratch

Jon Stahl is a writer and producer operating at the intersection of traditional media and the creator economy. He worked in the writers’ room on the final two seasons of HBO’s Veep and wrote on FOX’s animated sitcom HouseBroken. He is the author of <a href="https://substack.com/home/post/p-153332382" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How Not to Be a TV Writer</a>, a Substack newsletter discussing creative work and industry change, and the creator of the comedy micro-series <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@CasenPointe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Casen Pointe: True Crime Detective</a>, which premiered on Jan. 20th, 2026. He is the Chief Creative Officer of Pointfake Media, where he focuses on comedy-forward storytelling, and the CEO of Prolog, a creative development software platform which was acquired in 2025.

Jon Stahl

From Newsletter to Pilot: How I Accidentally Rebuilt My Writing Career

Nick Dawson talks with filmmakers, musicians and comedians whose work he loves, avoiding the mundane, predictable questions they&#8217;ve heard numerous times and instead asking substantive, thoughtful questions that get to the heart of who they are.

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That

Podcast

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That: Sarah Sherman

Walker Kalan is a filmmaker based in New York. <a href="https://www.inylseries.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I Need Your Love</a>, the comedy series he co-created with pop singer Camille Trust, premiered at Tribeca, won a jury award at Slamdance, and is now available on YouTube and Spotify. Walker’s previous work has won jury awards at Brooklyn Film Festival, HollyShorts, and Ventana Sur. He’s currently developing a drama series set at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships and training his rescue hound, Snoopy, for her on-camera debut.

Walker Kalan

How to Bribe a Priest, and All the Illegal Things We Had to Do to Make Our Series

Cooper Raiff is a filmmaker-actor from Dallas, Texas, now based in Los Angeles. His innovative drama series <a href="https://mubi.com/en/us/series/hal-harper" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hal &amp; Harper</a>, starring Lili Reinhart, Mark Ruffalo and Raiff himself, is now streaming on Mubi. His debut feature, Shithouse, had its world premiere at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for Narrative Feature, and his second film, Cha Cha Real Smooth, starring Raiff, Dakota Johnson, Vanessa Burghardt and Raúl Castillo, premiered at Sundance in 2022.

Cooper Raiff

Three Great Things: Cooper Raiff

Famke Janssen is currently starring as Betty Jonkers in the Netflix crime drama <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81654735" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amsterdam Empire</a>. She is best known for her breakthrough role as the iconic James Bond villain Xenia in GoldenEye, portraying Jean Gray in the X-Men film franchise and playing the female lead opposite Liam Neeson in the Taken trilogy. Janssen’s other notable feature credits include Made, Hansel &amp; Gretel: Witch Hunters, Hide and Seek, Rounders, The Faculty and Redeeming Love. On the small screen, Janssen has played key roles in Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us, The Blacklist: Redemption and Hemlock Grove, and recurred Nip/Tuck and How to Get Away With Murder. She made her directorial debut with the dramedy Bringing Up Bobby, starring Milla Jovovich, and in 2008. the United Nations appointed her as a Goodwill Ambassador for Integrity. (Photo by Olivia Witmond, courtesy Netflix.)

Famke Janssen

Three Great Things: Famke Janssen

Writer-director Rachel Wolther&#8216;s latest film, <a href="https://thefrenchitalianmovie.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The French Italian</a>, is available on VOD everywhere movies are rented and sold; you can follow the film <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thefrenchitalianfilm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>. She is an alumna of the Sundance Screenwriter&#8217;s Lab, her work has appeared the Black List and in 2017 she was featured as one of Filmmaker magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” Her first film was <a href="https://www.snowybingbongs.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Snowy Bing Bongs Across the North Star Combat Zone</a>, which she directed with Alex Houston Fischer.

Rachel Wolther

I Put All My Best Ideas into the Movie Itself, So Don’t Expect Much From This Essay

Shannon Plumb has shot over 200 short films, which have been exhibited in museums, galleries, and on international screens. She started by shooting herself as various characters, acting out three-minute situations using humor and silence as her vehicles for storytelling. In 2013, her first feature film, Towheads, premiered at MoMA as part of New Directors / New Films; it is now streaming on the <a href="https://www.criterionchannel.com/towheads" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Criterion Channel</a>. You can see her short films at <a href="http://shannonplumb.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shannonplumb.com</a> and Towheads is available on Netflix and iTunes. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, director Derek Cianfrance, and their two sons.

Shannon Plumb

Delusion and the Artist

Lily Lady is an artist from New York City. Lily&#8217;s journalism can be found in Office and Dirty Magazine and their feature film, <a href="https://www.factorytwentyfive.com/sams-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sam&#8217;s World</a>, is available digitally on Tubi, Amazon Prime and more platforms via Factory 25. Lily’s full length poetry collections are quickie (2022), NDA (2024) and Blood Brother (2026). (Photo by Max Lakner.)

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