No. 36 - Design Direction with Stephanie Sherry (Part 1)
A path as an actor with interior design as a side gig
In Nov 2017, I got hired as a server at a new restaurant in LA that was primed to be one of the biggest restaurant openings of the year. When I walked into day one of orientation, it felt like everyone there was either past introductions or had already known each other from previous restaurant jobs; I had moved back from DC not too long ago and my LA hospitality resume paled in comparison to everyone else’s laundry lists. I was excited to be hired, but nervous and, honestly, pretty intimidated by everyone there.
Luckily for me, my anxiousness quickly dissipated. I randomly sat myself next to Stephanie Sherry- she’s one of those people who has a big personality, a loud laugh, and a way about her that makes you become fast friends, exactly how our friendship came to be. She’s a theater kid, so IYKYK! We couldn’t be more different as humans, but by the end of that first day, we had become work besties.
I think you and I, we’ve always had a very funny friendship, because I only had performer friends and you're just not; I think I'm a wild card for you like you are for me. - Stephanie Sherry
A lot of times, I interview folks who’ve switched careers into design or design-adjacent jobs. But Stephanie Sherry’s passion and true talent is in entertainment and her side-gig is working at an interior design firm, Massucco Warner, as a design assistant!
Let me tell you, she’s funny and her mind as quick as she is witty. She talks fast, spits out sarcasm, and is so brutally honest about life- I’m so excited to introduce to you Stephanie Sherry
I know you come from the entertainment industry, can you walk me through what you were doing before interior design?
Sure! Well, I always grew up around design, because my mom’s an interior designer, and so I feel like I always knew the world. But you are correct, I went to school for theater and psychology, and then immediately started pursuing a professional acting career, shortly after graduating. I split my time between acting, standup, hosting work, and voiceover gigs.
I still do all that, and the truth is, the only reason I'm now in design is because I had a meet-cute with my boss at a Chipotle in Los Angeles, and I began babysitting for her. And when the pandemic happened and the babysitting was no longer needed, she started to test me out with various interior design related tasks here and there and realized that I could actually do them! We already had such a strong rapport that it just worked. And now I'm her design assistant!
So how has your experience been so far, compared to ALL the other jobs you’ve done?
So, as you of course know, I worked in restaurants for almost a decade and, when you're an actor, it makes sense. You do restaurant jobs because they are at night and you can audition during the day. And it uses all of your skill sets, you know? Like improvising, being on your feet, being entertaining, being personable and hospitable. But as we all know, it's so exhausting. But you need the flexibility and the money is good, so you stick it out before you just burn out entirely.
With Melissa it’s the best of both worlds. I get to use all those same skills but in a very different way. I still get to be engaging and hospitable - that’s the core of customer service! And that’s the industry we’re in, right?
But the beauty of this, too, is that because I started with Melissa in a different role, she grew to really understand and support my acting career. As a result, she’s been remarkably flexible with any auditions or bookings that arise and I couldn’t be more grateful. This is a very long way of saying, it's great!
You kind of touched on this little bit, but I wanted to ask if you had any experience or exposure to interior design? You had a little bit of family in it, expand on that a little bit more.
Yeah, so, obviously I'm not someone who officially studied design, but I did grow up with my Mom running her own interior design business. All of my childhood I was surrounded by Benjamin Moore paint decks and bags and bags of fabric samples. I used to love watching my mom stencil out wall units and floor plans. Sometimes if I was lucky she’d bring me to the D&D building in NYC and I’d just get lost in the wings surrounded by all the colors and patterns.
And while I don’t have a design degree, I do have a psychology degree which often comes in handy. Because for the most part, what Melissa has me do is pretty administrative. So I'll help make presentations for her and tear sheets for her and get sample prices and check stock on things. Having a degree in psychology and becoming adept at organizational tasks and presenting information in a clear way has become more useful than I ever would have thought!
But sure, when she's like, we need a third pillow fabric for this room, and I know what's already selected for the room and I know these people's style, there is a degree to which I am momentarily putting on my designer hat. At the PDC, narrowing down thousands of fabrics to the 50 for Melissa to sift through and send to the client, does take skill! I’m totally not making any final decisions, but it’s not like what I do doesn’t at least require an eye for interior design and how color/pattern play off each other!
I mean, honestly, that's what design assistants are. As designers, we've all done that, and we do that for so much of our careers.
And a lot of the job is also coordinating with showrooms to let us borrow things to present to clients. I like to think I’m pretty good at befriending all the showroom workers, so a lot of people that perhaps wouldn't normally lend out XYZ items to others, will for me. But let’s be real - I think it’s .01% me and my shining personality and 99% the fact that Melissa has already established such strong relationships with these vendors (lol).
I love that, for you, working in interiors is more like a side gig while you're actively pursuing your real passion, in entertainment. Could you share what those things are at the moment?
Ah, my passions in entertainment! Well, I mean, at the moment, I'm trying to juggle, pursuits in acting, hosting, voiceover, and comedy. It’s so much, because a lot of what I'm doing is both dictated by what I can fit in and self-direct versus what kind of auditions I'm getting. This week, I've had three commercial auditions. So I'm having more of an on-camera-actor heavy week, but the other week I did a scripted podcast, which is so funny, and it was my first SAG voiceover gig. It's called the Royals of Malibu, it’s an adaptation of this NYT Best Selling YA Series - it's basically all about this steamy love triangle at a rich Malibu prep school. I, of course, play the lead girl's "no nonsense fairy godmother". (Note: Since giving this interview, The Royals of Malibu podcast has dropped and been the #1 Fiction Podcast across all platforms for 4 weeks!)
Sometimes I’ll be super lucky and have a ton of animation auditions, which are all voiceovers. You know, sometimes Nickelodeon, sometimes DreamWorks, sometimes Pixar. I just feel like it depends on the week, but I'm auditioning as much as I can and occasionally writing stand up. The stand up has kind of fallen by the wayside because I'm creating a podcast! I’ve recorded seven episodes so far, it's not out yet, but it's called Late To The Party!
It's inspired by the idea that I feel like my whole life I’ve been told I'm “too late” both personally and professionally. But of course the reality is there is no timeline in life - and if there’s no timeline, you can’t be late. By interviewing various people in my life and people that inspire me about the timelines of their lives I seek to prove that everyone’s life has its own unique timing and that ultimately everything happens at the right time for them. And that of course - it’s never too late. Like yes sure, I’m 31, and I’m single and it weighs on me daily - when am I getting married? When am I finally falling in love? When am I having kids? Also, I haven't “made it” yet as an actor or a comedian/host.
And most hilariously, I feel like I'm way too late to be starting a podcast! I just keep thinking of the Alex Coopers of the world who started at like 22 and now are insanely successful. Obviously, the answer to ALL of that noise is: it's never too late. So, in a way I'm trying to prove to myself that it’s never too late to do what you want to do with your life, by doing this podcast. And then while doing it, I'm giving others a chance to share their stories. And maybe we all can feel just a little less behind/stuck/lost in our lives because we realize everyone is or has felt that way at one point or another. And these people I’ve interviewed have come out the other side!
I love interviewing people and figuring out what drives them. I’m so fascinated by what makes people the way they are. What keeps them up at night? What keeps them going? What’s it all for? What moment or decision brought them into their own? And most importantly - what is that narrative that’s holding them back and how do they overcome it? I think, at the end of the day, sure, it would have been lovely if I had started doing more of my own projects earlier, but I didn't. I was scared. I was scared of failing. I was scared of being judged by my friends and family. By strangers! I was scared of making a fool of myself. But I couldn’t let those fears control me any longer. I had to do this project that I’ve just known I needed to do for the last decade of my life. Even you, with this newsletter, I'm sure that was something you've always wanted to do. And now you do it and it doesn't really matter that you weren't doing it three years ago. I think every day you're avoiding it, is just another day you're not doing it. And that became unbearable.
Like yes, there’s a low grade hum of anxiety, constantly, because I'm so anxious about the podcast; it’s very technically difficult, I don't understand audio… it’s a lot to learn at once. But the stress and the anxiety and this fear of doing it, all of those negative emotions, are so much better than the despair that is knowing every day that you’re not doing it. That you’re not going for your dreams.
I feel like you're such a doer and always have been; even the limited capacity in time I've known you, you've always been like, yep, I'm going back to school and then I'm doing this and when you weren't happy with your first job, you're just like, I'm gonna leave. Even in your relationship, you just always seem very sure of what you're doing. And I know it probably doesn't feel that way. I think you and I, we’ve always had a very funny friendship, because I only had performer friends and you're just not; I think I'm a wild card for you like you are for me. But you are so organized and functional and not psychotic. (LOLOL!!)
So wait, I know this was about me, but explain this whole thing and how it came about.
The newsletter? Well, I've always wanted to share; I love sharing. I think we both, probably because we're in the same age range, we kind of grew up in the sharing culture, from sharing on your away messages, to Facebook, to like, all these things, Myspace, right? So it's been in my life and I love sharing my experiences and I like reflecting back on my experiences and hoping that it can either: one, inspire someone to do something or two, just be entertaining, and also three, I think, the more vulnerable you get in front of folks, the more you can feel really connected to people. And in the digital age, that's kind of the way we do it, unfortunately. But then, it's cool when it becomes offline after that, like somehow you connect online and become offline friends and have that connection.
But anyway, I've always wanted to share something about my life, I just didn't know what. I always thought my life was so boring, so what the fuck am I gonna share? So now, I'm kind of doing something quite big in my life, or something that I think is big: opening a restaurant, going off and designing on my own instead of working for a traditional firm. I'm like, I should just document this. I don't know what this is gonna be; this could just straight up be a diary. My friend said to me, honestly, you're gonna love to have this written out, being so raw, almost live documenting this. Because a year from now, you're gonna look back on these moments when you were so unsure and scared and feeling like, I'm a piece of shit, I don't know anything, I don't know the fuck I'm doing, and yet, at the end of this, when you have built a restaurant, when it is open and people are eating there, you're gonna look back and be like, damn, I really did feel that scared but fuck, I also built that. I think that arc is just so important. I think that people miss that, or glaze over it, or you forget how hard and scary and uncomfortable starting these projects are, putting yourself out there, starting your podcast and putting it out in the world. And you're like, what the fuck? Who's gonna listen, right? That's like the first thing you're going to think: who the fuck is gonna listen to my voice, and every week? But also, if you just keep doing it, people are gonna listen, people are gonna read it and doesn't have to be for the sake of making huge money. It's more like, just an expression of ourselves. That's what we do. You know, we do want to express ourselves in these ways. Maybe we're not Tik Tok people. It's totally fine. We can be podcast people. We can be newsletter people; other mediums still exist.
Next week, we get into the realities of working in entertainment while juggling her day job as a design assistant. We dive into money, how her acting career started gaining momentum, some outrageous things actors have to do in auditions, and why she believes so much in her work.