Rising Stars: Meet Gina Barboza of Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gina Barboza

Hi Gina , please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Growing up dirt poor in the housing projects on Fordney Street in Fall River, Massachusetts aka “The Riv” where the motto is “we’ll try” I can honestly say I lived my life trying. Nosey by nature, I still remain inquisitive about someone’s life story: how they’ve traveled through life, got to the place that they are, how their journey impacts the lives of others, and how I can tell those kind of human connection stories.

My mother, who lost her battle with cancer in 2011, used to take me to the movies and the library a lot when I was a kid. It was there I fell in love with stories. When my brother was born, we spent more time in front of the television watching our favorite shows. It was through both the big and small screens that I learned to escape the hardships of life growing up. I can remember being the only kid crying watching the movie “The Champ” with my cousins and uncle. My uncle said, “you’re an empath,” you feel the pain of others deeply. I didn’t know what that meant at the time, but he was right. Now my two daughters – Sasha and Mariah remind me of it. I never considered that a bad thing, because it came into play with my screenwriting. How can I take life’s pain and turn it into purpose? I got a chance to answer that question for myself when I found my biological father in 2003.

This was the first time I had a front row seat to mental illness in the form of schizophrenia hitting home. As his daughter, I wanted to investigate how his journey with mental illness brought his life to the place he was at when I found him. As a filmmaker, I started to document my journey for answers, partially to help me get through the pain of losing him as while I was filming he too was diagnosed with cancer. He lost his battle in 2017.

My filmmaking story started earlier than that when I moved to Los Angeles in 1992 and landed a job at Death Row Records for the infamous Suge Knight and music producer/rapper icon Andre “Dr. Dre” Young. I was hired to help create a hip hop magazine called “Death Row UnCut.” While I interviewed many people for the magazine, including legendary rapper Tupac, the magazine was never published in print form. While there, however, I saw film director F. Gary Gray shoot a music video feature Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Tupac and that’s when I fell in love with telling stories visually through film.

After leaving Death Row Records, I went to work for legendary actor, director and producer Bill Duke. It was there I fell in love with production and movie scripts as I often read scripts he received from Hollywood agents. I eventually moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1995 and was trying to help form a record label with a group of people, but when that didn’t work out, I attempted to get a job at Turner Broadcasting. I applied several times only to receive a decline. I put those decline notes in my Bible and kept ‘trying.”

Thankfully, I got with a temp agency and they got me a job working as a temp in Turner’s accounting department. I believe I made 22k a year, but I didn’t care. I was in the building and I was about to hustle and grind so I could stay in it! My prayers were answered when I was hired by the then Director of Production at TNT’s Creative Services Department. I started out as an assistant and 17 years later, I was the Director of Production and Music Licensing for both TBS and TNT making six figures. Sadly, all of that came to an end in 2014 when I was laid off with thousands of others. But on that day, I walked out the building and stepped into my CEO heels at my independent production company, Balancing Acts Entertainment LLC.

I actually started Balancing Acts Entertainment aka BAE in 2001 after writing a television pilot. Dr. Dre was going to Executive Produce it and I took a leave of absence at Turner to return to Los Angeles to jumpstart it. Sadly, September 11th happened and we stopped the process as our country mourned the devastating loss of so many precious lives. I returned to Atlanta, as my ex-husband, an Army veteran was sent to Qatar. I kept writing scripts, but they would sit in a box for years.

After my lay off in 2014, I started creating short form content with multi-talented filmmakers who created great, quality work at 1/4 the budgets I used to have working at Turner. I learned so much from them and built myself as a shooter in addition to producing. I freelanced for major networks like BET, CBS, Discovery, and more. I worked as a Production Coordinator, Production Manager, Supervising Producer, Story Producer, to eventually Producer. I would even work as a Production Assistant if needed. One thing about growing up poor in Fall River, I’ve live by “eat what you kill!”

You have to stay humble in this business we call entertainment. The same person you hire as a Production Assistant will be your boss on another show. It’s all about relationships. I never got a good job off of my resume. It was all relationships, busting my butt on each job, being honest and loyal.

The entertainment business is ruthless so you want to make sure you have friends in it with good character and build with them. A Rabbi told me once, “some times you have to be the only human in the room.” I have definitely lived by that and something my maternal grandmother once told me, “God reads hearts.” The empath in me likes to see the good in people, even if it doesn’t exist in everyone. It’s why I keep my circle small and God at the center of it.

Eventually, hard worked paid off as one of the line producers I worked with several times at BET HER, would give me an opportunity of a life time – Production Supervisor for the Tyler Perry film – “A Jazzman’s Blues” on Netflix. My friends and family back home in Fall River were just as I happy as I was. The hometown newspaper even featured me.

I used to dream of writing for that paper as a kid in high school. Actually, it was my English teacher/school paper editor, Mr. Michael Vieira who told me I could be a paid writer when I was the entertainment editor. It was my 5th grade teacher, Mr. Stephen Fernandes who told me I could be something. Good teachers like that have more power and impact than they’re paid for! I was a broken kid and they helped fix a little part of me. They taught me to believe in myself when I didn’t.

During my gig on the Tyler Perry film, we had a meeting with Mr. Perry. He was talking about how he had written “A Jazzman’s Blues” 26 years prior and it was sitting in a drawer. I thought about all the scripts I had written in a box or on my drive. The industry was starting to change, strikes were happening, and A.I. was starting to take over.

I started to reflect on my screenplays. How would my stories get told if I wasn’t ‘trying” to get them out? Just as I asked the question, I got hired to co-write a feature film that is currently being pitched to major production companies by an agent. I started to put more energy in to the work I’ve written and began tightening and workshopping my existing screenplays at UCLA extension with the intention to one day also direct them. That’s when I also decided to return to college at Georgia State University.

I never finished my bachelor’s degree and as the industry started to change, I decided I wanted to one day teach and share my experiences while still having my feet in the business. After two years at GSU, on December 14, 2023, I graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Film Media and Theater. Next up, the MFA Digital Filmmaking program. I applied right away, and thankfully, I was awarded a spot as a grad student with an assistantship. I started this past August, and I’m loving every minute of it. Not only will I be able to teach and share my experiences with my future students, but I’m also learning to direct feature films and gaining new filmmaker cohorts who I’m creating content with.

Balancing my acts for sure, I still freelance as shooter, producer, writer, director, who is growing skills in editing. I’m working to finally finish my mental health documentary as the post phase has been a journey in itself. Sadly, as mental health advocate, it’s hard to cut the cord on a personal story, but it’s time as I want to be a voice in the mental health space helping the lives of so many still dealing with the stigma.

Through filming my mental health documentary, I became more consistent in my yoga practice and awaiting the final results (as I write) from my final exams to be certified as a 200hr yoga teacher. My goal is to take everything I’ve learned and the fires I’ve walked through to help kids get at the front end of mental health issues through the arts. I started a nonprofit called – A Child Evolving Organization, Inc aka Young C.E.O. – to not only put my voice out there in the mental health space talking about what needs to be done, but to also be walking the walk. I want to thank the Holistic Life Foundation for inspiring my practice and my cousin, D’Anne Hill for making sure I finished my yoga classes at MyVinyasaPractice – an online yoga school that has truly helped me.

Today, we are pushing the feature film script through the agent. The door opened for me to share some of the others I written with the agent, so I’m letting go to the attachment of the results and letting God work on the rest. I have some short film projects that I’ll be filming over the course of next year and after I finish one more class at UCLA online, I will also be certified in screenwriting. In the meantime, I’ve working on securing grants and sponsors for my nonprofit as I want to be able to share and teach the youth everything I’ve been blessed to learn and experience in the film/television industry coupled with my mental health and wellness practice.

As I continue to build Balancing Acts Entertainment to tell stories that help change lives, I’m excited about adding Professor Gee to my name. I may even go all the way. Dr. Gina Barboza has a nice ring to it. In the meantime, every time I’m blessed to wake up and try to be the best mom I can for my daughters, the most rewarding job in my life, is a good day on this planet we call earth. I hope one day my stories will be on those small and big screens too. Maybe, just maybe I’ll change someone’s life like film/television changed mine. After all, my struggle was so I could find my purpose and I did as a writer who wants to heal, a healer who loves to write.

I’m proof that you don’t have to let rough beginnings determine your life’s future path. I’ve won some and I’ve lost a lot, but I never stop betting on myself. With both parents no longer here, I am their representative. I hope that while my daughters have watched me fall, they’ll never forget the moment I pivoted to still rise in their presence. At the end of the day, they’re the only audience that matters. Thank you for reading my story. I hope it helped you in some way. Now breathe and keep trying!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. I came up with nothing so bumpy roads aren’t new to me. I just learned how to get in my truck and navigate them.

When I worked at Death Row Records, helping to co-publish the hip hop magazine Death Row Un-Cut, we got distribution with Time Warner in New York. When I got on the plane and landed back in Los Angeles, they changed their minds. I cried for weeks. Then we had to put a halt on the magazine all together.

When I wrote a pilot that Dr. Dre was going to Executive Produce, September 11th happened and the spirit of creativity was gone for awhile, especially as an empath. Years later, the TV series Empire would come out and it was so close to what I had created back in 2001. Different main characters, and no, they didn’t steal my idea. The film / television industry has about seven or more original ideas / themed stories. Everything we’ve ever watched is just a branch off that tree with a different spin.

But none of that is truly that severe as the death of my mother, Caroline Barboza to her third battle to cancer. Watching your mother take her last breath and witnessing her life leave her, broke me in two. However, she was raised in a family of 15 where being strong was crucial. She never cried a day of my life in front of me. Not even when the doctors gave her 6 months to live. I realize now she knew I was an empath and she remained extra tough so I could be. Her last gift as a mother was to help my brother and I get through her death. I stopped having nightmares of her dying when a film crew friend said how wonderful it was that my mother knew she was surrounded by her kids and family when she left this earth. That gave me all the comfort I needed.

Three years later, I would be laid off at Turner. The friends I had for 17 years there, the memories we shared, growing in our lives, losing loved one, getting married, having kids, all of it – gone. I barely heard from anyone after that. Just a few people. Survivors remorse of those who didn’t get laid off I guess. It broke my heart at first, but then I realized God pushed me out the door so I could fulfill the dreams on my heart. Eventually, they too would all get laid off down the road. It’s the circle of life.

Building my company, I had one of the projects I created get picked up at a network, and then they changed their mind. For my mental health documentary, I had two separate investors for the post phase both cancel their investment because sadly 2020 shocked our nation. Another force of nature beyond my control.

Freelancing is okay, but with the strikes, and 2020, I lost everything. I closed down my house, was moving to Los Angeles, the kids moved in with their dad until I could get jumpstarted but I ended up returning to work on the Tyler Perry film. Thankfully, driving across country to Los Angeles was worth it as I made some great friends who still send me business.

Going back to school was rough at first. I had to work a part time retail job as it’s hard to work production going to school full time, especially with a 4.14 GPA I wanted to keep. Some people won’t humble themselves to take on any kind of job when times get tough. I was happy to see a lot of people let go of that pride as 2020 definitely did some damage. I got some of my best screenplay ideas working back in retail. My associates degree was in Fashion Merchandising before I switched to film for my bachelor’s and MFA.

Losing my dad, after searching for him for 1/2 of my life was tough.

But one thing I’ve learned about obstacles / challenges is they are there to help you grow even when it hurts like hell.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
You can see more in my main story at the top as I believe I put a lot in there.

I will add, that what I’m most proud of is my two daughters Sasha and Mariah. They continue to make me proud. They both have their own businesses and they started at 17 and 18 years old.

I’m also a crocheter @racked_up_boutique. The picture of me in the cowboy hat and crochet skirt and dress was made by me. I also have items on Etsy.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I’ve been a risk taker since the day I could get on a plane. I always said, “No Rules. Just Risks.” Flying to Los Angeles, the first time I left home for good, with just $200 in my pocket. I met one of my besties on that flight and it’s how I got the job at Death Row Records. I met another bestie, my former roommate at the airport for the first time. My bestie Melissa, back home was dating a guy in Cali and my former roommate was dating his brother. Melissa hooked it up and I jumped at the chance to move there.

I always jumped in the ocean and figured out how to stay afloat because I was on my own at 16 feeling like a 22 year old. I didn’t have what my kids have – two parents helping to guide and shape me. I stayed out of trouble though, because I wanted the chance to make something of myself.

I’ve never been afraid to speak to anyone about anything but the late Rich Homie Quan and producer Dun Deal have a song called “Risk Taskers” that came out some years ago and it became my anthem. My heart broke to see my fellow Libra pass away just as his next new, amazing chapter of his life was just about to begin again. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends and all who loved him.

When I was working my part time retail job, he often came in there with his family to shop for their son. He was just a dad so I didn’t want to sweat him. I wish I had the chance to tell him how much that song lifted me when I needed it the most. A reminder to take a RISK and don’t wait to speak up about what’s on your heart.

I think taking a risk, as long as it’s not something that won’t land you in jail, is worth it. Especially if it will benefit your life. Don’t live with regrets. I definitely have some of those, but death will teach you to speak up for yourself. Life is not promised. It’s why I took the risk to focus on school and my scripts. You have to squeeze out of life what you want. It’s not going to ring the bell. In fact, I’ve heard more NO’s than yes’s. But so did Steve Jobs.

I remember, when I was moving to L.A., I asked my mother if I was making a mistake. She told me, “You can always come back home. You’ll be mad if you don’t try.” Needless to say, I never went back home. In fact, eleven years before she passed away, she left everything and everyone she ever knew back home and moved here! Now, that’s a risk taker and I’m her daughter.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.balancingactsent.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ginabarboza/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ginabarboza29
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BalancingACTSentTV

Image Credits
@thaflicksta – of me in fake fur hat and puffy coat (he’s tagged on pic)