Dana Protyshak on Vertical Drama's Next Big Leap

Dana Protsyshak is the founder of Dana Productions, the LA Vertical Drama Market, and Vert-I-Go Media, and co-founder of the International Academy of Vertical Arts, introducing the Apollo Awards — the inaugural industry awards dedicated exclusively to vertical storytelling. With 30+ vertical projects across writing, development, and production, Dana is one of the leading voices shaping vertical drama in North America. She regularly evaluates series and creators for festivals, studios, and acquisition platforms, and develops original vertical projects with international teams across North America and Europe. This May, she's launching the 2nd Edition of LAVDM and the Vert-I-Go app, a creator-friendly platform built specifically for vertical drama.In this episode, Pauline and Dana discuss what it means to build industry infrastructure from scratch in a space most people were dismissing just a year ago — and how Dana moved from web novels and script supervising to becoming one of the vertical world's most prolific builders. Dana shares how she overcame the fear of launching the market when people told her to cancel, why she gave up steady script supervising work to bet on herself, and how telling people her plans before she was ready became her strategy for commitment. They explore why verticals sit at the intersection of technology, human behavior, and entertainment, how real-time data gives creators an advantage traditional studios can't match, and why the deepest creative work requires writers to stop hiding behind glass and live through their characters.Connect with Dana: InstagramLinkedInDana ProductionsVert-I-Go Media