Largely inspired by her love of stories, Stacy Keppler Calabrese has had a successful career in Hollywood since graduating from the Communication Arts department in 2003. With credits across various successful films such as Drive, Hell or High Water, My Spy, Ender’s Game, and Harry Potter 6-8, Calabrese has expanded on her roots in Comm Arts to become a celebrated film professional.
Shortly after graduating from UW, Calabrese moved out to Los Angeles and landed an assistant job at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), where she was immediately thrust into the rigor of talent agencies in Hollywood. In 2005, Calabrese took a new assistant job for writer/director Gary Ross with Universal Studios. Ross was writing and producing The Tale of Despereaux at the time, and he would later go on to write and direct The Hunger Games. Calabrese credits her time in this role as the period she learned how to produce in Hollywood.
Following her job with Ross, Calabrese began working as a story editor and assistant to David Heyman at Heyday Films. Here, she composed story notes and talent lists for projects like Gravity and Paddington and assisted with studio screenings and development for the final three films in the Harry Potter franchise.
Calabrese spent the next decade working with Madison Wells Productions, under producer Gigi Pritzker. Here, she brought in and served as the development and production executive on the Oscar-nominated film, Hell or High Water. Following this, Calabrese worked as a development executive at Netflix Animation under Darla K. Anderson’s animation deal (Coco, Bug’s Life, Toy Story 3, Monster’s Inc.). Here, she sourced projects, led development, and oversaw production for animated and live-action film and TV projects.
Most recently, Calabrese launched her own business, Keppler Script Consulting, to provide professional script analysis and story notes to up and coming writers eager to develop their work.
Calabrese’s advice to current Comm Arts students interested in film and TV production is to get an in-person internship. The hands-on learning at her first job at CAA kick started her career and was where she began learning how to be successful in the business. Calabrese is also very eager to mentor other young professionals and would love to connect with current students to give advice and answer questions based on her decades of experience in Los Angeles.