🎙️ Today we sit down with Paola Mardo, who Ryan Coogler personally tapped to lead his flagship Podcast, In Proximity. Her first role in the Industry? Getty Intern. Awesome story and better person.
Paola Mardo is one of my new favorite people in the Industry.
As the SVP Head of Audio at Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media, she hosts, directs, and produces their Webby Award-winning flagship podcast IN PROXIMITY.
She has led Proximity projects including SINNERS, IRONHEART, and WAKANDA FOREVER: THE OFFICIAL BLACK PANTHER PODCAST, written and hosted by Ta-Nehisi Coates and winner of the 2024 NAACP Image Award and Webby Award.
Born in Los Angeles’ Historic Filipinotown and raised in Manila, Kuala Lumpur, and the San Francisco Bay Area, Paola adapted her personal experiences as a teenage immigrant into LONG DISTANCE, a narrative podcast and short documentary series about stories in the Filipino diaspora and winner of the inaugural Google Podcasts Creator Program.
Our conversation is below:
AvA: What was your very first job in entertainment, and how did you get your foot in the door?
Mardo: My first job in entertainment was a paid Getty internship at Visual Communications (VC), a nonprofit media arts organization dedicated to authentic portrayals of Asian American and Pacific Islander people. I first learned about VC after watching a documentary about them in a college film class and was completely inspired. Before landing the Getty internship, I actually took an unpaid internship for their Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. I just wanted to work with them no matter what (and many internships were unpaid at that time).
As their Getty intern later that summer, I got to program screenings, meet filmmakers, and gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for AAPI filmmaking and storytelling – how far it had come and how much further it still needed to go. When my internship was ending, I had two opportunities: work for an indie publicist who worked closely with the festival and Asian American artists, or take a risky temp assistant gig in the international publicity department at Sony Pictures. I didn’t want to be a publicist. I just wanted my foot in the door of the industry. The indie publicist didn’t hesitate – he told me to take the Sony job and the rest is history. I’ve stayed close with VC and that publicist ever since. In fact, I shot the first short film I ever produced this past summer in VC’s office in Little Tokyo.
AvA: Many of our readers are just launching their own careers. What did you learn about yourself in that period of your career that still serves you today?
Mardo: Working at VC grounded me. I watched countless films that showcased the breadth of the Asian American and Pacific Islander experience. They weren’t all perfect, but it was exciting and inspiring to see the kinds of stories people were putting on the big screen. This was before Crazy Rich Asians, The Farewell, or the rise of streaming. I got to immerse myself in the classics – Justin Lin’s Better Luck Tomorrow, Wayne Wang’s Chan Is Missing. Seeing those films showed me what was, and still is, possible in telling stories from or about communities that rarely get the chance to do so.
When I went over to Sony, I learned about studio filmmaking, marketing, and what it takes to sell a movie to a global audience. The first film I worked on was The Social Network. It was an incredibly exciting time and a totally different world from the indie space I’d just come from. I learned how to stay organized, collaborate with people around the world, execute high-level events and campaigns – and, of course, the importance of smart color coding in a spreadsheet. All skills I still take with me today for sure.
AvA: Early in your career, you launched Long Distance, a deeply personal series that was selected for the inaugural Google Podcasts Creator Program. Would you consider that a turning point from “trying to get in the room” to having people seek you out for your voice and perspective? Or was it something else?
Mardo: In some ways, yes, but it took a long time to get into the room. Long Distance is a narrative podcast and short docuseries about stories in the Filipino diaspora that I launched in 2018. I first got into podcasting in 2015 after falling in love with Serial and radio. It took a lot of trial and error to figure out the kind of show I wanted to make and stories I wanted to tell. Eventually, I started gravitating toward stories about my heritage that were quirky, unexpected, and had a bit of an edge. My first piece was about the untold history of Tiki bars and how the first Tiki bartenders were Filipino immigrants in LA. It was also about cultural appropriation versus appreciation.
The podcast didn’t open doors overnight, but it built a deeply supportive audience. In 2019, it was selected out of 6,000 applicants from all over the world for the inaugural Google Podcasts Creator Program, where I received funding and mentorship. The show, and my career, grew from there. I still had to fight to get into rooms, but Long Distance became my calling card and defined the kind of work I wanted to do.
AvA: Ryan Coogler personally enlisted you to host Season 3 of In Proximity, where you brought on a wide range of creatives. What’s the through-line you see in the other guests' stories, and how has hosting these conversations shaped the way you think about your own journey?
Mardo: What’s always stood out to me about working with our Proximity founders Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler, and Sev Ohanian, as well as the Proximity team, is their willingness to take bold creative risks. We work hard to deliver at a high level, but we also care deeply about the details, the work, and the people involved. Sinners is a perfect example of that. So I wanted to find others doing the same in their own corners of the industry and dissect their process and story. Talking to people like HIM co-writer and director Justin Tipping, M88 talent manager James Swoope, Sinners cultural consultant Dolly Li, and Warner Bailey, creator of Assistants vs. Agents – a.k.a. the writer of this newsletter you’re reading right now! – opened my eyes to how artists, creatives, and entrepreneurs build meaningful work while staying true to who they are. It inspires me to keep going.
AvA: What continues to motivate you to keep creating?
Mardo: Working with the greats like Ryan, Zinzi, Sev, and the team at Proximity. Seeing how hard and high-level people work does a lot to keep you motivated especially on tough days. I also stay grounded in my community, whether that’s showing up to the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival or supporting a friend’s indie film. And I keep reminding myself of my own slate of projects and stories I still want to tell. I’m a creative first so I need to be making things or I’ll be miserable, honestly.
AvA: If you could leave a voicemail for your younger self hustling for that first break, what advice would you give about building a sustainable career in entertainment?
Mardo: Don’t wait for someone to give you your big break – give it to yourself! Write and do the thing you really want to do. Don’t stop until you get there. Take care of yourself. It’s going to be a long, bumpy, and unexpected road, but you’ll get there. Oh and if you do things the same exact way I did, it’s totally cool and worth it too.
AvA: Also go watch our interview if you haven’t yet!
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