Desiree

Desiree Staples

Creating a comedy feature about lifelong female friendship.

location: Los Angeles, CA

Company: My Divorce Party

Role: Executive Producer + Lead Actress

On My Divorce Party.

My Divorce Party is based on a true event, centered on the incredible theme that is friendship between women in a time of struggle. We also are extremely passionate in bringing this story to the screen as we feel like there's not enough content representing 30's aged young women and that stars a truly diverse female cast.

On being a founder.

To me, being a woman founder means breaking the glass ceiling of what’s been done before in the entertainment industry, and using my platform to create more opportunities for woman-identifying & diverse filmmakers, and all underrepresented artists in film and television!

The biggest obstacle we’ve faced so far is continuing to get the word out about our comedy feature film, “My Divorce Party.” We want to make sure all our potential investors, supporters, film enthusiasts, comedy fans, and the audience of our film, have the chance to get involved in our offering!

My biggest femme power role models would have to be Reese Witherspoon, and the creation of her media company Hello Sunshine. Reese continues to be a powerhouse pioneer in changing the narrative for women. Geena Davis is also a hero of mine for founding The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and her decades of work fighting gender bias on and offscreen in Hollywood.

Something I’ve needed to unlearn is the expectation that, as a woman, I wouldn’t take up too much space or “rock the boat." I think, as women, we have to break out of our comfort zones – be loud, proud, and find our voices in creating impactful and necessary change. As Laurel Thatcher Ulrich once said, “Well-behaved women seldom make history." It’s only fitting because our film is very much about women empowerment and our heroine breaking the rules and finding her voice!

The best thing about being a woman founder is inspiring other women through my projects and films. I aim to help others recognize that their abilities and passions are already enough to become fearsome founders and leaders.