NYWIFT Blog

By Shayna Cartledge 

Welcome to NYWIFT, Allie Delury! 

Allie Delury is an award-winning producer and director known for Fault (Tribeca 2026), The Last Goodbye (AFF 2025), Tender Thoughts (Tribeca 2024), and Ivy Grace (CNN NBC Nightly). 

She was featured on the cover of MovieMaker Magazine for producing All Is Well in 48 hours and has also been to over 100 countries, done vanlife in Australia, sailed around the world, and worked as a combat camera officer in the Air Force. 

She now owns Work Our Way Productions, a 100% veteran owned-and-operated production company in Brooklyn. 

Could you give our readers a brief introduction to yourself? 

I’m a bit of a black sheep when it comes to the film industry. In 2008, I was convinced I would be the next Erin Andrews, and was working in sports media as a camera operator and sideline reporter (Big Ten Network, Fox Sports North, etc). But when the 2008 financial crash happened, I thought – I picked the wrong career field and am destined to be poor forever. Which in hindsight is hilarious given the current state of filmmaking in 2026. So, in a desperate act to save myself financially, I joined the military. 

In 2012, I commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force and worked primarily as a combat camera officer, where I taught (mostly dudes) how to document combat from the air, ground, and underwater. I got to travel around the world and document combat operations internationally, so those three-to-five years were essentially my film school. 

After I left the service, I worked primarily as a filmmaker for major travel clients like Tastemade, Thrillist, AirBnb, Booking.com, etc., creating content while jet-setting the world on my own dime. I traveled to over 100 countries and lived out of a van twice (once in Australia during the 2020 bushfires, and once in Mexico while pregnant). I also sailed around the world and competed in some of the most remote and difficult endurance races, including the hardest marathon in the world (Inca Trail Marathon in Peru) and Ironman Cozumel. 

When COVID hit and both travel and filmmaking gigs vanished, I found myself once again in a financial pickle. I decided to take a LinkedIn course on food photography so I could offer free food photography to all the restaurants in NYC in exchange for their food. Despite having no previous film industry experience, I applied to produce a short film with the Women’s Weekend Film Challenge (now Moonshot Initiative). To my shocking surprise, they accepted me, and I spent the next few weeks googling “how to be a movie producer.” After that, the work started flowing, and I went from a nobody in the industry to walking the red carpet and accepting 15+ festival awards within a year. 

What brought you to NYWIFT? 

What brought me to NYWIFT is its emphasis on connection. It’s the reason I was able to say, “I bet I can produce a movie,” and do it without starting as a production assistant, then a coordinator, then a manager, etc. My varied life experience set me apart and gave me the confidence to step into a difficult role, and being involved in a similar community has been an absolute dream for me.

Plus, I’m drawn to cool stories, and the women in this organization have seen and experienced things that blow my mind. I wish we could make a movie about everyone, and if we could, I would start at NYWIFT. 

What prompted you to create Work Our Way Productions? 

Work Our Way started in 2019 as a comedy podcast that my husband and I hosted while living out of a van in Australia. I was working as a full-time travel freelancer at the time, and he was touring as a comedian. We documented (and showed off) every aspect of our lives until the 2020 bushfires hit.

When the country was on fire, we traveled to Cobargo to volunteer for a few weeks with Team Rubicon and Blazeaid. It was a harrowing and humbling time that directly contrasted our travel influencer lifestyle. Going from that experience, to witnessing the COVID shutdowns, and then being dramatically kicked out of the country and forced to relocate to the epicenter of it all (NYC) – it was a lot. So, we ended the podcast to focus on surviving the next few years in the city. 

During that time, I was asked to produce/direct a short documentary in one day about two women from South Carolina and their abortion experiences before and after the fall of Roe v. Wade. Six weeks after it ran on CNN, NBC Nightly and People Magazine, the South Carolina Supreme Court temporarily overturned its six-week ban on abortion.

It was in that moment that I realized I wanted to make this a living, so I decided to open Work Our Way Productions and keep the comedy podcast name to pay homage to our time in Australia and feeling fearless and free in my work. 

From storytelling to serving in the Air Force to world traveling, what fuels your drive to live life to the fullest? What advice would you give readers looking to get more out of their life? 

Truthfully, I probably saw this quote on a candy wrapper or something equally as trivial. But it’s – my biggest fear is looking back on my life and wondering what I did with it. As someone who used to jump out of planes in the military, I don’t fear much. But I do fear the future, and whether or not I’ll be proud of the person I’ve become between now and then. For me, it’s a daily meditation. Am I better than I was yesterday? Am I closer to my goals? Is my paycheck slightly bigger? Am I happier, regardless? 

I have always believed that most of the red tape we envision in our lives – the thing that holds us back, limits us, or tells us no – is self-made. We often assume we cannot do something or that things must be done a certain way to succeed in the industry. I didn’t do any of that. I didn’t go to film school, and I never worked on a narrative set before saying “hell, let’s see if I can produce something like this.” I just went for it and braced myself for the rejection. To my surprise, the rejection never came. And I can’t help but wonder how beautiful life would be for so many people if they embraced rejection the same way they embrace success. Both are beautiful outcomes, and the reason I’m exactly where I’m meant to be today. 

What is your approach to overcoming setbacks and challenges? 

The first is not being afraid to pivot. I hate how people equate that to failure. If you are driving down the road and see a fallen tree blocking the way, it would be absurd to try to continue moving forward and drive over it. Just turn around and find another way. You’ll still reach the destination, it just won’t be how you originally planned. It’s crazy that we don’t have that same sensible approach when we look at our careers. 

We think, ‘I’ve invested so much time and effort into this, I have to keep going and endure!’ No, you don’t! Some of the best things that have happened to me in my life happened shortly after immeasurable failure and uncontrollable circumstances. And it was because of my ability to let go and trust the process that I was able to navigate through it and come out stronger on the other side. 

The second is diversifying your talents. You are not a one-track human. You have many talents and interests, so get weird with it. In the same way you should be diversifying your income, you should be diversifying your talent. I didn’t know anything about food photography, but I was hungry and I knew how to use a camera, so I gave it a go and it allowed me to meet some of the coolest humans in NYC. I didn’t have family in the military, but I decided to commission as an officer because I wanted to get paid to travel the world and learn cinematography for free.

All of those risks I took when I was young allowed me to have a comfortable life in film, where I get to be my own boss, take on projects that resonate with me, and spend way more time with my family than any traditional 9-5 job would allow.

What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned about yourself through your travels? 

I’ve climbed many literal and figurative mountains throughout my life, but I think it all comes down to yet another candy bar quote: ‘Never judge the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Only then will you see how small it was.’

I’ve learned that these immeasurable and impossible opportunities are ours for the taking if we commit to them. Put in the work. Make those uncomfortable phone calls. Use the money that you would spend on StaffMeUp to treat someone in your network to coffee. Do things with intention and only ever compare yourself to who you were yesterday. No one else. 

What was your most exciting experience? What goals do you plan on achieving in the future? 

Take me out to coffee and I’ll tell you! [Laughs] But seriously, I doubt I can pick just one experience. I’ve lived many lives and remain so thankful for how life continues to surprise me. 

As for my goals? I’d love to be an old lady sipping some prosecco on a yacht in Monaco, bragging about my recent screening at Cannes while watching the sunset with my family. But I’d also be happy not changing a thing. Simply closing my laptop after writing this final paragraph so I can take my boys to the playground, hug my incredible husband, and look back on my life for a moment. Never needing to wonder. 

Connect with Allie Delury on her website alliedelury.com or on Instagram @workourwayproductions or @alliedelury. 

(All images courtesy of Allie Delury)