Check Out Lauren Spaulding’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Spaulding.

Hi Lauren, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Most kids get grounded for breaking rules. I got grounded for writing. My parents worried because I’d disappear into my projects for days, too obsessed and losing touch with reality. Stories weren’t just an escape for me. They were where I felt most alive.
So many people don’t know what they want to do with their lives. I’ve known exactly what I wanted since I was eight years old. Writing and filmmaking were everything to me. I was always creating, pouring my heart into every project and making sacrifices to keep the dream alive. It was the life I had imagined as a child, the world I had always hoped to build for myself.
Then I got to college. I was on set for twelve or more hours a day. It was a boys’ club. My projects were pushed aside and I was told to assist others. I was screamed at. I discovered a system that tolerated abuse. It was a crash course in how brutal the industry could be, and I understood why people became jaded. I felt like I had wasted my childhood chasing a dream that had turned into something I hated. It felt like I was starting from zero. I didn’t know who I was anymore.
I started my pre-college job at Chick-fil-A, and what began as a typical fast-food position quickly became much more. By the time I was twenty-one, I was running the entire store, learning firsthand about leadership, business management and organizational culture while working with incredible mentors. Those experiences later shaped how I would lead creative teams and helped rebuild my confidence and belief in myself.
Passion has a way of calling you back no matter how far you distance yourself from it. With a renewed sense of clarity and drive and no connections to the entertainment industry, I sent a cold email to Dan Cathy, former CEO of Chick-fil-A. That message led me to help launch a nonprofit at Trilith Studios, bringing me to Atlanta and opening the door to the industry I always dreamed of.
During that time, I returned to writing, and soon I was itching to direct. That itch became “Ollie,” an animated short about a good clown who questions his commitment to entertainment. It became a true test of my directing ethos. I drew on every skill and lesson I had gained during my break, learning a new medium, assembling a team from scratch and driving the project with vision and determination.
Through “Ollie,” I met my current business partners. From the beginning we recognized shared goals and a mutual desire to reshape the industry for the better. Together we founded RBL Entertainment, formally launching at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024.
Today I’m directing the projects I’ve always dreamed of with a team of friends and collaborators who share my vision. RBL is producing a growing slate of films and “Ollie” is in active production with more than thirty talented artists and storytellers. Operating independently of the traditional studio system, we’re pushing the boundaries of the medium while building a creative community that feels like home. Everything I imagined as a child, learning, experimenting and creating with people I love, is now fully my reality.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
They say every movie that gets made is a miracle because so much can go wrong, with high risks and high costs, and I’ve never understood that more clearly than now. Independent animation is largely uncharted territory, dominated by studios like Disney and DreamWorks, so we’ve had to forge our own path. Directing Ollie has been the most life-giving and the most demanding experience of my career. I’m leading a talented team while knowing almost nothing about animation myself. Every day is full of unknowns, with challenges and surprises around every corner, and that uncertainty is both terrifying and exhilarating, pushing me to learn, adapt and grow alongside my team.
As of August 2025, “Ollie” has been in production for over two years, a long haul for a short film. Working independently offers immense creative freedom but comes with unique obstacles. Short films are notoriously hard to finance with little to no return on investment for financers, and coordinating a volunteer team across competing schedules can make progress slow and painstaking. Keeping everyone motivated through that pace is tough, but seeing our team continue to believe in the project makes every obstacle worth it.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As a writer, director and Chief Creative Officer at RBL Entertainment, I am drawn to stories that stay with you long after the credits roll. They need to entertain, but they also have to carry weight, exploring the complexities of human emotion and experience in a way that sparks reflection or conversation. I want audiences to laugh and cry, to recognize parts of themselves they didn’t know were there, or to see the world through someone else’s eyes. The ability to guide people through that emotional journey, to open them up to empathy and understanding, is a responsibility I take very seriously.
That philosophy drives “Ollie,” my 3D animated film about a once-beloved clown fighting to stay true to himself when an evil clown steals the spotlight, forcing him to question his identity as he speeds toward irrelevancy. The story was inspired by shifts in society’s values around entertainment and the temptation for creatives to compromise themselves to stay relevant.
I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished with “Ollie” on a limited budget and without major studio support and even more proud of the way people have engaged with it. Our focus has always been on people and culture over product, prioritizing relationships over transactions and ensuring the team feels empowered, supported and creatively invested.
The team is genuinely committed and excited and it’s inspiring to see that energy ripple outward, motivating others to take creative risks and pursue their own projects. That combination of artistic vision and collaborative energy is what drives me as a filmmaker.

Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
My favorite childhood memories are the moments that my friends and I made movies and told the stories that mattered to us. We’d use Playmobil, LEGO and stuffed animals, tying wires around them and moving them by hand until our thumbs got in the shot. There was so much laughter, so many stories that made no sense but felt endlessly entertaining to us. Then we’d create trailers and DVD menus to make it feel official (back when DVD menus were a thing!). It wasn’t about coherence or artistic value, it was pure, limitless imagination, driven by fun and collaboration.
With every film I direct, I strive to capture that same boundless joy, that sense of wonder and possibility we felt as kids creating worlds together.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rbl-entertainment.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauren_spau/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laspaulding
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/ollieshortfilm

Image Credits
Austin Baur
Rosa Waite
Baker Waite
Adam Johnson
Trina Nguyen-Lieu
Jared Scrowther