Meet Isabella (Z) Vergun

We had the good fortune of connecting with Isabella (Z) Vergun and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Isabella (Z), why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I’ve always loved telling stories ever since I was a little kid and over the years I tried my hand at so many mediums. I spent a lot of my childhood drawing comic books, writing songs, and putting on little plays. There was even a time when I thought I would go into academia as a religious scholar!

But at the end of the day, I realized what I valued most wasn’t just storytelling but collaborative storytelling. Every project I pursue, at its core, is the opportunity for a group of people to come together and share an artistic vision.

When it comes down to it, I tell stories because it’s what I’m best at and what I love to do. I’m honestly not sure what a non-creative career path would have really looked like for me.

Although I did have a brief childhood dream of being an astronaut! It just turned out I was afraid of both heights and space.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My whole life, I’ve loved to tell stories. And I think the older I got, the more I realized that I didn’t just love telling my stories, but that I loved helping other people tell theirs. Through my experiences in writing rooms and hosting tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons, I realized that I had a certain knack for asking the right questions and helping people reach vulnerable places while we created a world together. I could help create an environment that felt safe and supportive enough to become emotionally invested, but dynamic enough that people felt empowered to make risky, creative choices.

That’s really how our podcast, What Happened in the Malachite Wastes, came to be. While most RPG shows follow one adventuring party, this show focuses specifically on community. The Malachite Wastes is a modern-fantasy slice-of-life show full of vignettes. It follows one character, the guest, as they navigate a day in the life of a denizen of the city of Tarahkea, a bustling metropolis smack dab in the center of a desolate desert of stone. Every episode follows a new character, and while each episode is self-contained, they also build on each other to create a rich lore that develops with every character’s story.

I wanted to create a lush fantasy environment to give my guests the chance to explore these small stories within a very big world. For some people, their tales are full of grand adventures of slaying dragons and saving the world. But a lot of us are just dealing with our own struggles – be it healing intergenerational trauma, navigating romantic relationships, dealing with systemic inequity, figuring out whose turn it is to pick up the kids – and the stakes to each of us are just as high. Being able to walk people through their own bespoke stories and play with the themes they’re most interested in is an incredible privilege for me.

All of the projects I have the chance to work on, whether in writers rooms or on an individual basis, have really only ever come to fruition because of the incredible, talented people around me who have helped me to grow as both a storyteller and a person. I’ve never finished a screenplay without having the eyes of other talented writers on it, each of whom have shared advice that made each iteration better.

When you make a movie, that movie is written and rewritten by three – arguably four – parties. The writer writes and rewrites a screenplay until it’s polished, the director brings a vision of the events that gives the actors choices of how to portray the characters, and the editors piece together a version of the story that they think works best. I’m sure there are creators who are going to hate me for saying this, but I think auteur filmmaking is really limited in this way. It absolutely gives a person a lot of latitude to dive into deeply personal stories, many of which are incredible! But to not have a team around you, a team who may share a vision but can bring different perspectives, feels like missing out on an incredible element of this medium of storytelling.

Building a career like this has never been easy and I don’t imagine it will get easy anytime soon, but none of it would have ever been possible or will ever be possible in a vacuum. I will always value bringing a story to life through partnership with others, and I’m so grateful to have found so many incredible people to collaborate with me throughout my career so far!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Best time ever in Los Angeles? Pretending we have a fairly unlimited budget…

1) Food. So much food. Brunch at SQIRL, tacos at El Sauz, lunch at Night+Market, taste everything at Sugarfish, and get gelato afterward. My first question when people are visiting is, “Okay, what kinds of food are hard to find back home?” and take them to my favorite places of whatever type of cuisine their craving. I don’t know if I’d call myself a foodie, but I definitely love to eat!

2) Off the beat sites. Whatever touristy thing they want to do, I try to make it happen, if only just for the novelty of it. But I do try to find fun ways to combine their wants with some cool experiences they might not have expected. If they really want to go to Santa Monica Pier, of course! Then afterward, I can show them the Venice Canals or take them out to The Rose. We might see The Last Bookstore, then detour down to Little Tokyo to browse the shops and restaurants. It’s also a fun way to accidentally run into a celeb and make their trip feel extra special.

3) Experiences! Take them to a CINESPIA screening at Hollywood Forever or a special Q&A prerelease event! See a concert together at the Ace Hotel or catch a drink at Clifton’s! Catch a show at UCB on the cheap to see some incredible performers or go for high tea at the Tea Rose Garden! See an Empowerment in Heels burlesque show! We have SO many cool museums; I used to love taking folks to the Museum of Broken Relationships before it closed down because I’d never been anywhere like it, but there’s always someplace that has an amazing exhibit in rotation. Los Angeles is so full of cool experiences that we can take for granted living here and it can be the highlight of somebody’s trip. Plus, no matter what you end up doing, it’s always different.

Depending on where folks are visiting from, I try to take folks to enjoy some of the scenery that it might be hard to get back home. Be it a beach trip, heading out towards the desert, or up into the mountains, I’ve had so much fun stepping a bit out of Los Angeles proper to experience some new things together. And if they’re down for it, I’m always down for a day or two at Disneyland.

But yeah, food touring is #1 in my book.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Oh man, it’s crazy how many people belong here. I can’t mention every single one by name because that would probably take up a novel, but absolutely my parents, Paul and Elisabeth. They’ve encouraged every quirky goal I’ve had since I was a baby and have supported all of their kids and kids-in-law in every up and down we’ve faced. Critical media theory is kind of a love language in my household and I’d be nowhere without it. My brother, Matty, is also a huge inspiration to me. He’s one of the most talented, funny people you’ll ever meet and somehow stays so incredibly kind and grounded in whatever he achieves.

I’ve had a lot of incredible mentors over the years and perhaps unsurprisingly, most of them have been teachers and professors. Janet McKnight, Serena Mason, Bethany Conrad, Carlos Gallego, Mary Trull, Becca Richards, Elizabeth Galbraith, Howard Rodman, Wendy Phillips, David Howard, Jack Epps, Mary Sweeney – each of these incredible humans taught me so much about the type of storyteller and person I wanted to be. I know for a fact there are more people who deserve to be on that list, but each of them came to mind immediately (like a mighty wave of names) when I thought about who really changed the way I thought about writing and collaboration.

Also, huge shout out to Cody James King, fantasy author and cartographer, who has been an incredible mentor and friend through thick and thin in this wild creative process, my absolutely incredible creative team on <i>Malachite Wastes</i>, and my partner, Luke Mason Sanders, who inspires me every single day.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isabellavergunstillwrites/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabella-vergun

Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6S0UHhGf5MC93ghXN4LNEj?si=f4e719e22d9e4d19 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/what-happened-in-105955000 

Image Credits
Malachite Waste images are by Gargoyle Pastures, sword image is by Nichole DeLaura, bed images are by Charlotte Peters, moth picture was by Xylo DenBoer, believe the rest are mine (Z Vergun)!