We had the good fortune of connecting with Ashley Kravitz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ashley, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
To be honest, I never intended to build a business. My dream was to always work from home. When I was pregnant with my second child I decided to leave Disney and be a stay at home mom. However, I love to work and one day I mentioned to a colleague that I may not return after maternity leave but if they ever needed help to please reach out. 9 months later I received a call from that same colleague asking if I wanted to work on a film and the rest is history. I was able to gradually build up my business to what it is today. When I left Disney in 2000 it was just me and I would work on one film at a time. 20 years later and I have a home office, great staff and I’m lucky to work on several projects ranging on multiple different platforms all year round.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
A lot of people (even in the business) don’t always understand what clearances is. To put it simply, I seek permission from a company to use their intellectual property in movies and television. For instance, when you see a painting, a magazine, a famous photo, or even a character watching TV – I have to seek permission to use those assets in the production. Surprisingly, I had no legal training before pursuing this as a career. Everything I learned was from on the job training. I became a corporation in 2006 and named my business Cleared By Ashley. The name was derived because producers on set would ask if something was clear and the decorator’s response was always “yes, it was cleared by Ashley!”

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles and there’s so much to do and explore in this city. My favorite place in LA and maybe the whole world is Dodger Stadium. I’m also a huge foodie and I love trying new restaurants. A few of my favorites are Pizzeria Mozza, Otium and Elephante.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’ve met many wonderful people throughout my career and one of them is Laura Gross, a producer I met a number of years ago when I was working on DVD Bonus Features. She is still a producer but also a political activist doing great things in our community.

Website: www.clearedbyashley.com
Instagram: @theeash
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clearedbyashley/
Twitter: @clearedbyashley

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.