22 years ago, Rachel Raimist was a film student at UCLA, following her dreams of being a film director. In a very short period of time, Rachel not only found out that she was pregnant with her first child, but that both of her parents had been diagnosed with cancer.
She crafted stories about her community and discovered she had a talent for teaching. Soon after graduating, she found herself teaching courses across the country as well as following her passion for film. Then she was accepted into a doctoral program while her daughter was in kindergarten and saw her film career fading into the background.
“As a media production professor, I was making things every day, just not my things,” said Rachel, “not anything like multi-million dollar television episodes. I sort of thought, not necessarily that filmmaking was in the rearview, but a career in [the] industry.”
Over the past two decades, she has been a mentor to many and a teacher to hundreds of students at the University of Alabama, where she is a tenured professor. But she never forget about her big Hollywood dreams.
Shows expressed interest in hiring her, but all needed Rachel to work locally.
They said, “tell your manager to call asa soon as you’re moved and settled in LA.” To make try to go big with her dreams and honor her parents as a director, Rachel needed to be back in Los Angeles. But finances, including student loans, membership fees to the Director’s Guild of America, moving costs, and securing a new apartment, made it difficult for Rachel to do on her own.
She took a leap of faith and asked her community to support her GoFundMe. “This is a bold move, especially for a single mama, but in Hollywood, your chance lasts like a whole half second and my moment is to try now.”
Since her move, Rachel has signed with a high-profile manager and directed an episode for ROSEWELL, New Mexico (The CW). As of February 2020, she is working as an episodic television director and continues to mentor many young filmmakers and former students.