NYWIFT Blog

By Guneet K. Singh

On the move. Roll sound. Interview Take 1. Welcome to NYWIFT, Rita Damirón!

Rita is a producer and director who has worked in various areas of production from news to animation to documentaries to post-production. She is a founding team member of Cheddar and was a lead producer for MSNBC’s Leguizamo Does America. Originally from the Dominican Republic, she’s passionate about creating strategic media content for Latinos.

Read our full interview with Rita to learn more about her career journey, what makes a great producer, and her advice for creatives pursuing their passions.

NYWIFT Member Rita Damirón (photo courtesy of Rita Damirón)

Tell us about yourself! Give us some insight into your creative journey, your career aspirations and what drives you.

I’m originally from the Dominican Republic. I always wanted to work in production and I always wanted to work in production here. Moving to New York was my dream. I went to Manhattan College where I studied production. I worked in news and created videos that I would shoot, write, edit and host. 

When I graduated college, I was a PA on set and then I got an opportunity at Cheddar which was pretty new at the time. I started the first live show with them and was there when they started growing the company. Being at a company at such an early stage gave me the opportunity to grow super fast because I was wearing many hats. It was like an intensive producer workshop. I was doing things like booking guests, producing segments, being a field producer, coordinating live interviews and covering events like the Tribeca Festival. 

It was really fun and hands-on but I realized I didn’t want to do news. I wanted to move into a more creative space. Slowly, I moved away from that and became more of a freelancer. I did animation, post-production, commercials and documentaries. I worked on shows for Univision and Telemundo where I was writing in Spanish and hosting in Spanish. I moved around through all the positions to find what I really wanted to do. 

At a certain point in my career, I noticed there wasn’t a lot of strategic content for Latinos and that’s when I started to concentrate on that. While I was doing my Masters, I started researching Latinos and media. That opened the door for me to be one of the very few Latino producers that also speaks Spanish and has an extensive experience within the community. That landed me the job with the show Leguizamo Does America for NBC which was an amazing experience. 

From there, I’ve continued to do documentaries and commercials and even fashion content. I’m moving into directing. One of the short films I directed just premiered in Chicago. Another documentary I did about the Dominican community in Washington Heights is going to be premiering this year in film festivals across the world.

NYWIFT Member Rita Damirón on the set of Leguizamo Does America (photo courtesy of Rita Damirón)

What brought you to NYWIFT?

I saw an email from NYWIFT about a film festival and started reading it and then I realized the group also had members. I joined because I really want to expand my network of women in production in general and see what other people are working on. I love being inspired by others and finding ways to collaborate.

Post-pandemic, it feels like everything is isolated and most of the time you’re talking to people just for a job and I would love to have more collaborative, creative spaces where we’re connecting outside of just reaching out for work.

You are a founding member of Cheddar. What was it like bringing the Cheddar vision to life?

It was really interesting because right out of college, I was helping to build a network. There were very few of us and we often had to wear many hats. It was very fast-paced. I was first in charge of booking guests. It went from booking eight guests to booking 30+ guests a day because we had 8 hours of content.

Then I went to producing segments and being part of the field team. I was working with a team but also I was supervising a team at such an early age. I was 22 and I had people under me. It pushed me to grow professionally faster and it allowed me to have more hands-on experience than if I were at a bigger network. It pushed away any doubts I had about my abilities because I just had to do it. It was very rewarding to me. It helped me understand I didn’t want to do news but gave me all the tools that I was able to apply to every other part of production.

NYWIFT Member Rita Damirón on the set of Leguizamo Does America (photo courtesy of Rita Damirón)

As a producer, you have worked in television, advertising, and music videos, among other pursuits. What makes a great producer? 

Someone that understands every single role. It doesn’t matter if you just want to do narrative. Once you go through every aspect of production and different types of productions, whether it’s documentary or music videos, it allows you to understand what you really like to do and when you go through different roles (pre-production, production, post-production, working in the office, working on set, etc.), it allows you to understand how everything is connected. 

As a producer, if you’re going to be on set, you are better prepared if you understand how post-production works. It will help you understand how to lay the right foundation for the post-production team. Having worked in all these different areas of production has allowed me to see things when they’re not there.

How does your approach as a producer change depending on the project?

Producer means many things depending on the project. Sometimes a producer is more involved in the creative aspects of a project and sometimes they’re more involved in the logistics or financial aspects. It depends on the size and type of project. My approach as a producer changes depending on the type of project, the size of the project and what my role is for that production. What kind of producer does the project need? 

If I’m just a producer in charge of logistics and operations, I always keep the creative in mind. How can I make sure the creative is not harmed based on the small budget we have? What are the ways in which we can make sure the story comes true? If I’m a creative producer, I want to also keep logistics in mind. If I want us to have a super cool car driving down the street, is it realistic for us to shut the street down? I want to make sure the creative input I’m adding to a story can be aligned with our budget.

It’s very important to look at the big picture and work with all the other departments because if you have an understanding of what the other person needs to do their job, then you can do your job better.

NYWIFT Member Rita Damirón on the set of Leguizamo Does America (photo courtesy of Rita Damirón)

You were one of the lead producers of Leguizamo Does America on MSNBC. What was your experience like working on the show?

It was an amazing experience. It was the first season of a fully new show so I got to essentially build a show with my co-producers and EP. It was six episodes and there were three lead producers. Each lead producer owned two episodes so for me that was Miami and Los Angeles. For those episodes, I was building the creative of the show and my Executive Producer was guiding me. It was really fun and was my first time with a crew that was like 75% Latinos. We got to speak Spanish on set and create a show for Latinos on a major network.

It was the first Latino-centric travel show on a major American network. That was the most exciting part and the people I worked with were also excited to do this type of show. We were learning from one another. The travel part was interesting because we would do everything from afar and then we’d just arrive a day or two before we started filming. It was a very unique show for us and was rewarding on a personal level because I was able to create something for my community.

NYWIFT Member Rita Damirón on the set of Leguizamo Does America (photo courtesy of Rita Damirón)

In Leguizamo Does America, John Leguizamo road trips across America and showcases thriving Latino communities. It’s an amazing step forward for representation. In your experience, why is diversity so important in television?

It’s a matter of showing people different ways of telling the same story. We allow people to tell their cultural stories but it’s not just that. They can also tell stories that have nothing to do with their culture but have their unique touch. I can see a pencil in a different way than you do. If we both wrote stories about the pencil, they wouldn’t be the same because of our life experiences. Allowing people a space to do that creates a more understanding world. If I can understand where you come from, even if I don’t agree, it can create a more inclusive world.

NYWIFT Member Rita Damirón on the set of Leguizamo Does America (photo courtesy of Rita Damirón)

You’ve brought your passions for travel, arts and storytelling into your career. What advice do you have for creatives trying to build a career that aligns with their passions?

There are always ways to find inspiration in the things you’re passionate about and bring it to the workplace. That fuels me. There are many jobs we do that might not be where our heart is. But how can we make them a little better by connecting them with what we love just through inspiration?

Let’s say I was doing a documentary about something I don’t really care about. But then I learn how to do research from making that documentary and I can later apply that new skill to a project I really want to do. When we’re doing things we don’t love, we learn a skill we can apply to something we’re passionate about later on. 

For more information on Rita, check out her website. Connect with her on LinkedIn and Instagram at @ritadamiron