What does insurance and risk management have to do with producing hit vertical dramas? More than you'd think.

Maryna Bogdan spent nearly a decade in insurance while writing scripts and shooting short films on nights, weekends, and vacation days. Today, she's a Los Angeles-based producer whose credits include narrative films, music videos, commercial campaigns, and vertical dramas for Fox Entertainment — including Saddled with My Nemesis and The Secret Billionaire Garbageman, both co-executive produced for My Drama.

In this episode, Maryna traces her path from a small town in eastern Ukraine to the LA film industry, and explains how her insurance background gave her an edge most producers don't have: an instinct for evaluating risk on every project, from stunts and animals to something as simple as where the equipment sits overnight.

She and Pauline also dig into the realities the industry doesn't always talk about — the financial instability of freelancing, the physical toll of long shoots, and what work-life balance actually looks like for filmmakers. Maryna shares why she believes vertical storytelling has room for more chick-flick energy, and why she thinks verticals are poised to move beyond the app and back into mainstream, horizontal formats.

The episode closes with Maryna's permission slip: her message to anyone standing at the edge of their own comfort zone, deciding whether to take the leap.

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