The Edge of Entertainment Bree Frank: Ambassador, Activist, Advocate
Photo by Sagaftra.org
Bree Frank, Senior Vice President of Physical Production at Hello Sunshine, is a force to be reckoned with. As an accomplished Television Executive and advocate for people of color in media, she is passionate about creating opportunities for professionals of all backgrounds. With over twenty years of professional production experience, she has produced unscripted television, including MTV's Room Raiders, TLC's A Makeover Story, and the award-winning television format Wife Swap. Frank’s ultimate goal is to amplify the voices of marginalized and undervalued BIPOC professionals in the world of media and beyond.
Bree Frank’s passion for film and television was sparked when she first saw Oprah Winfrey on TV as a child. At Long Island University, she majored in Journalism. However, the ability to work in Editorial News, Film, and Television seemed unattainable to her. So once she was out of school, she took jobs at temp agencies and tried to make connections with anyone remotely close to the entertainment industry. “The internet had basically just reared its head as being something that you could go on to actually look up resources,” says Frank. “I started to sleuth as much as I could for companies, but even the terms to search for were difficult to find.” She ended up working in advertising for two and a half years at Campbells Soup and AIG, but she left with defiance to pursue her passion. Once her foot was in the door, she started working with producers, and her resume began to scale.
Frank’s advice to any college student who wants to work in entertainment is to not just get an internship but to get an internship with a purpose. She tells interns that they have effectively failed if they work at a company and three people don’t want to hire them when it is over. According to Frank, “The whole point of the internship is to build your network, show people how smart you are, that you can take direction and innovate, and if people are unable to figure out who you are and to remember you enough to want to call you back as those entry level or green jobs start, you missed out on an opportunity to create value for yourself while you were there.”
Once she got close to the top of the pyramid in production, Bree Frank hit overt barriers. She was often the only woman of color in the room working in production coordination. “The thing about racism is that you can get a little bit of it all. Some of it felt very overt, and some of it felt like the typical microaggressions, says Frank. “We did not have the language for it then, and it was not something that you could necessarily call out. I had a steep mountain to climb.”
She has made great strides and broken ceilings for black executives through her role as the Senior VP of Physical Production for Unscripted Content at Hello Sunshine. Her foundation, Hue You Know, spawned from the feeling that being uniform is not a compliment. The idea for Hue came to her on the first restless night of Black History Month. She asked herself the question
“what are you doing to contribute to black history?” From that thought, she began to examine what service would look like for her as a woman of color with two children. Bree decided to start a Facebook group. She took everything she knew about the industry and gave it away. “I wanted to create a community where we could be not selfish in telling job information and not have a scarcity mindset. I combed through all of my hundreds of colleagues on Facebook, and only 27 of them were people of color.” The group grew from 27 members to 500, to 1,000, to almost 20,000 just five years later. The original thought was straightforward and really small. As Bree’s recognition grew, she leveraged her daytime job and her access to help other people. HUE You Know is a 16,000+ member production resource group for media professionals of color. It is comprised of international members of multiple ethnicities. Its principal focus is to create a safe space for professionals of all levels to post employment opportunities and seek mentorship and community. Through the organization, Bree is keen on demystifying the diverse hiring process.
Due to Covid, Hue started doing virtual panels. Instead of talking to a room filled with fifty people, she could talk to hundreds from all over the world. Frank says, “we are working now on how to try to get people back together in a room so that we can create the synergy that only happens when you are in a room with someone.” Since Hue started, she has been able to speak on a panel for organizations like the Television Academy and SAG-AFTRA. “When I first started, someone had to correct me because I kept using the word minority. Someone once told me that we actually are not the minority. We are people of the global majority. It is really important, to tell the truth, so we can change the framework. I disciplined myself to stop saying minority because I totally understand what she was saying.” There are pipeline programs that need to be made, and according to Bree, there is a delta that exists between the want and desire of people of color who are qualified and those who lack access or recognition.
When asked how non-BIPOC can help the mission of Hue You Know, Bree stated, “learn how to be a conspirator.” The best thing we can all do as humans is to take on the mindset. To truly be social justice advocates, we have to clear the room, use our power as a stool, and get out of the way of marginalized groups.
Hello Sunshine was founded by actress and producer Reese Witherspoon to put women at the center of every story they create, celebrate, and discover. “We don’t believe in fitting in. We believe in being culturally additive,” Frank says. She is thrilled to work at a women-led company with a clear mission to tell exceptional stories and move the television zeitgeist forward. She leads with compassion. Bree Frank has big ideas and big dreams, and she knows how to accomplish them while making people feel seen and heard.
For more information about Bree and Hue You Know, check out https://hueyouknow.com/ Hello Sunshine https://hello-sunshine.com/#!
