The Vertical Buzz
The Vertical Buzz is a podcast all about the world of vertical entertainment -- this includes vertical film, vertical series, vertical advertising, and vertical apps.
Episodes
🎙️ Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice.
This week, host Buzz Leer welcomes Emmy-nominated director, writer, and producer Scott Brown, founder and CEO of Second Rodeo Productions. With more than 1 billion organic views across projects featuring MrBeast, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Larry King, and major global brands, Scott brings a unique perspective on where digital storytelling and vertical e...
Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. Season 3 begins with one of the brightest stars in vertical entertainment, Brooke Moltrum. Host Buzz Leer sits down with the award-winning actress to talk about her journey from the small town of Camas, Washington, to becoming one of the most recognizable faces in vertical storytelling.
Brooke shares how competing at the Jimmy Awards helped launch her caree...
Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with acclaimed director Chris Nguyen Campbell, one of the filmmakers helping redefine what premium vertical storytelling can be.
Chris shares his journey from theater and film school to directing for Brat TV before becoming one of the industry's most respected voices in vertical ...
Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, we're on location at the legendary Sunset Las Palmas Studios in Hollywood, California, for our first ever episode filmed outside Glendale Podcast Studio.
Host Buzz Leer sits down with Knockout Shorts co-founders Chris Crema and Matthew Ko to explore how they're helping shape the next generation of...
Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Chase Mattson, actor, model, father of four, and one of the most recognizable leading men in vertical entertainment.
Chase shares how he was discovered as a teenager while working at Hollister, how modeling took him around the world, and how early on-camera moments in...
Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Blair Bai, Head of Executive Producers for North America at DramaWave and one of the leading creative voices helping define the next stage of vertical storytelling.
Blair talks about her journey from Beijing Film Academy and USC School of Cinematic Arts to early vertical hits and her leadership role at DramaWave. She...
Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Troy Brookins, actor, producer, former athlete, and one of the driving forces behind MicroHouse Films.
Troy shares the origin story of MicroHouse Films, the new vertical platform he is building with Taye Diggs, Autumn Federici, and Shelby Stone, and why their mission ...
Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Darren Darnborough, an actor, entrepreneur, and tech innovator helping shape the future of casting, auditions, and vertical storytelling.
Darren shares how a Dr. Pepper commercial at 16 opened the door to acting, why he pivoted from acting school into film and media, and how his entrepreneurial path led from nightclu...
Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Nick Ritacco, a Chicago-born actor, athlete, baseball fan, and one of the standout leading men in the vertical drama space.
Nick shares how a high school injury led him from baseball into theater, how New York and Shakespeare shaped his foundation as an actor, and how...
Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Emmy Award-winning casting director Paul Ruddy, one of the most influential casting voices in the vertical space today.
Paul is currently casting at DramaBox and has worked across more than 250 film, television, digital, and vertical projects for platforms including Netflix, Disney, Hallmark, Lifetime, Fox, Paramount...
Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Eric Guilmette, one of the most recognizable leading men in the vertical drama world, to talk about the unusual path that brought him from romance novel covers to nearly 50 vertical films, producing, poetry, and a rapidly growing fan base.
Before vertical storytelling exploded, readers were already connecting with Er...
Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where vertical entertainment finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Royce Lundquist, one of the most exciting new leading men in the vertical space, to talk about his fast rise as an actor, his creative roots, and the new ventures he is building beyond the screen.
Royce shares his journey from being a homeschooled theater kid in a Navy family, to studying at the Orange County School ...
Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where the vertical entertainment world finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with D'Arcy Smith from the University of Cincinnati to talk about a major shift for the vertical space: vertical storytelling is entering academia.
D'Arcy is teaching vertical performance at the university level, which means this format is no longer just something actors stumble into on set. It is becoming somet...
Welcome to The Vertical Buzz, where the vertical entertainment world finds its voice. This week, host Buzz Leer sits down with Felix Merback, one of the hottest leading men in vertical storytelling right now, to break down what makes this format so addictive, what acting for closeups really demands, and why the vertical boom is still wide open for creators who are willing to move fast.
Felix shares his origin story from arriving in...
This week on The Vertical Buzz, Season 2 kicks off with the person who helped legitimize the vertical space in Los Angeles. Host Buzz Leer sits down with Tina Contogenis, founder of Eris Talent Agency, to break down why vertical is no longer a trend, how the money and views proved the model, and what actors need to understand if they want to compete in the fastest-growing lane of entertainment.
Tina shares the moment she real...
Welcome to the Season 1 finale of The Vertical Buzz. This is a special edition episode and a full preview of the Vertical Drama Love Fan Awards happening this Thursday in Los Angeles. Vertical is moving fast, but the biggest story is even bigger: fans are not just watching anymore. Fans are shaping what wins, what gets made, and what becomes the next breakout.
Buzz Leer is joined in studio by Sam Silliman and Amy Sullivan Riley, wi...
Welcome to The Vertical Buzz. Host Buzz Leer sits down with actor, writer, and director Rick Shepherd to talk about what happens when a traditionally trained filmmaker jumps into vertical storytelling and has to rethink everything for the 9:16 frame.
Rick shares his Cleveland performance roots, his training across Case Western Reserve University and grad programs in London and Columbia University, and how COVID became the unexpecte...
This week, Buzz is joined by Emma Reinagel, one of the most highly sought-after rising stars in the vertical entertainment world. Emma and Buzz break down what it really takes to act in 9:16, why the format is exploding, and how the next generation of actors is using verticals as a fast-track training ground.
They also talk about their feature film The Abduction of Sal Bedford, a found footage documentary-style sci-fi horror that w...
This week on The Vertical Buzz, host Buzz Leer sits down with Noah Fearnley, one of the most in-demand actors in vertical entertainment right now, to talk about what it takes to work at a high level in two worlds at the same time: vertical storytelling and traditional television.
Noah opens up about the real grind behind the momentum, from juggling nonstop vertical shoots to stepping into major press for Love Story (FX, Hulu, Disne...
This week on The Vertical Buzz, host Buzz Leer sits down with Danny Farber, a Chicago-born director, actor, writer, and producer who has been crushing it in vertical entertainment across multiple countries and platforms. They kick things off with a cold open on why vertical is not just a phone rotation, it is a storytelling shift that changes framing, blocking, pacing, and emotion.
Danny shares how he broke into verticals as a dire...
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