What is Breaking & Entering all about?

Breaking & Entering is a comedy series about three friends seeking to enter Hollywood by breaking their backs working as assistants in the entertainment industry. The storyline centres on Michael, Sam, and Frankie who represent the nameless, faceless, personal assistants toiling away in the Hollywood machine working for celebrities, powerful producers, actors, and directors. People don't realize that every time they see movie star like Charlize Theron looking glamorous on the red carpet, it is an assistant working in her office who made arrangements to get her there.

The concept came from my experiences working as a writer in Hollywood. I did a great deal of behind the scenes development work where I encountered dozens of Hollywood assistants who were secretly aspiring actors, writers, and directors. I was fascinated by the idea that from the outside looking in, the perception of the entertainment industry was very glamorous but the reality was much more grueling. Shows like HBO’s Entourage gave the impression that the entertainment business is a lot of red carpets and paparazzi, but the people I knew really living in Hollywood were working 18 hour days doing ridiculous tasks for their bosses. What sets Breaking & Entering apart is its authenticity. There is no other series on television or online that can boast ‘what you just saw in that episode really happened to Brad Pitt's assistant’. There are no other shows on any platform that can make such a claim. We are very proud of that fact. The overall message of Breaking & Entering is that the little guys do matter and nobody can stop you from fighting for your dreams. Not even the Hollywood celebrity you work for whose dirty underwear you're washing.

Why create an online series?

We decided to make Breaking & Entering into an online series after having a billion pitch meetings that resulted in really bad experiences. We found that there was always this push to make Breaking & Entering into a romantic comedy, or to make a caricature out of the assistants. We had no interest in doing that. We felt very strongly about the fact that Hollywood assistants are often an afterthought or the butt end of bad jokes and we didn’t want to perpetuate these stereotypes. Especially considering that the work Hollywood assistants do is already unappreciated. Also, looking at the American television landscape, there have been so many more comedy misses than hits, we were terrified we would go to series, the show would get gutted, bomb miserably and then we’d lose our opportunity to tell these great stories about Hollywood assistants.

What are the benefits of creating an online series?

The benefit of creating an online series as opposed to a traditional television series is that you can create an interactive experience for your audience. Using the web as a distribution platform allows us to capitalize on the strengths of the medium. Our show is about Hollywood assistants who spend a great deal of time with their faces staring into a screen in some shape or form. So if we’re going to reach them, we know it has to be through social media. Once we do reach them, it’s our responsibility to make our content interactive and communicate with them in a fun and interesting way. These ideas to interact with the audience developed organically. At its core Breaking & Entering relies on the Hollywood assistants who share their stories with us to keep our show authentic. But then eventually we began to receive messages from interns and people who work outside of the entertainment industry who had stories to tell. We started getting more stories than we knew what to do with. I was writing complete seasons of hilarious material based on all the new stories we had coming in. Then I had [to] step back and figure out how to find a way to get the content out to the audience faster. We always get these funny calls from people complaining about their bosses that are literally too good to be true.

Tell me a bit about the characters in Breaking & Entering

I plays Michael, an aspiring actor working as a personal assistant for a movie star the audience definitely knows but we'll never tell. Noah Shalom is superbly talented and plays Sam, an idealistic writer working as an assistant for a very well known producer who we'll also never reveal. Meg Stevenson is incredible. She plays Frankie, a no nonsense production assistant with a mean streak that works on a reality show that you definitely have heard of. Lisa Darden is hilarious as Malaysia, the completely inappropriate First Assistant/Office Manager who makes Michael's life a living hell. Buckley Sampson is amazing; she plays the Group Leader who tries her best to maintain control of the AA Meeting. Angela Gulner is brilliant as Liz, Sam's beautiful co-worker who uses her sex appeal to tease and manipulate him. Myke Wright, one of the hottest young comedians in LA plays the TMZ (tabloid) Reporter and had everyone messing up their takes on set because they were laughing so hard at his ridiculousness. John P. Harden is a scene stealer. He plays Glenn, our elusive man behind the curtain, Sam's boss. Lastly, John Kaiser makes his debut as Nicky, degenerate bartender of the Casting Couch, the bar where Michael, Frankie, and Sam find their sanity after working 15 hour days.

You have a feature where fans can get involved in an upcoming episode. How does this work?

Once we decided to make Breaking & Entering interactive for our fans, the question became how do we make it easy for our audience to reach us? We sought to accomplish this by allowing our audience to dictate the interaction. So if fans want to share a story with us they can write us an email and it might appear in a future episode. If fans don’t have time to write us an email then they can send us a text message. If fans don’t have time to send us a text then they can message us on Facebook or send a tweet to one of our characters. And if they don’t have time to do any of those things they can just give us a call and leave a voicemail message. We want our fans to reach out in any way they feel comfortable contacting us. We’ve had many hilarious exchanges with fans who left voicemail messages for Malaysia, totally shocked that she would actually call them back. They’re priceless. Fans can also call, text, and send messages to all of our characters through our Facebook page where we parody pop culture and current events.

As you’re based in the USA, how did you come to hear about AlternaTV?

AlternaTV is becoming popular in the web series community in America. This is because there are many content creators looking for a similar platform to be created in the Unites States that can provide content directly to their audience. Personally, I looked at what AlternaTV was doing and I said I’m not going to wait for America to catch on when I can work directly with AlternaTV now. AlternaTV is at the cutting edge of what online channels can offer audiences and I want Breaking & Entering to be a part of that.

How do you think/hope the South African audience will react to a series like Breaking & Entering?

I hope the South African audience will laugh at how crazy Americans can be especially the Americans in Hollywood. More than that I hope South Africans will watch Breaking and Entering and ask themselves what they would be willing to do to chase their dreams. Breaking & Entering explores themes that are universal and cross all waters. Everybody has had at least one job in their life that they really hated. Breaking & Entering asks the audience if they would be able to suffer through that one awful job if it meant it might take them that much closer to achieving their dreams.

For more information on Breaking & Entering, visit the website here. Alternatively, visit the Facebook page. A new episode appears on AlternaTV every Monday. To watch, click here.