Episode 52

COVID, Corruption, and the Screen Actor's Guild.

Namakula's career was derailed by the entertainment industry's COVID mandates. Now she's fighting back by running to be the NY president of SAG-AFTRA. Victory, however, may require exposing shocking levels of corruption within the union.

Namakula is a multimedia artist who graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She went on to develop a robust career spanning over 20 years in NYC, working throughout the US and Europe as a commercial video editor, creative producer, actor, VO talent, writer and casting director, at a high level. She's supported and spearheaded commercials, industrials, webseries, art films, live events and has worked with top tier ad agencies and production companies, on accounts ranging from multi-million dollar prestige brands to indie projects. She's also a bass player, known as "Nasejje", currently in the indie rock duo, FINE PRINT.

In the last few years, she and 1000s of SAG-AFTRA members have suffered work stoppage due to the union pushing unscientific, medical mandates as a contingency for employment. This, and the discovery of rife corruption within the guild, has been the impetus for her SAG-AFTRA NY Local Presidential candidacy, (August 2023). https://www.namakula.com/artivist

0:00:00 -- Intro.

0:03:37 -- Renaissance Woman and Citizen of the World.

0:18:54 -- Curiosity, Openness, and Being an Outlier.

0:23:51 -- On Pandemic Skepticism.

0:52:12 -- The Onset of the Mandates.

1:02:35 -- Dysfunction & Corruption in SAG-AFTRA?

1:27:58 -- On the Future of Show Business.

-------------------------------------------------------

SUBSCRIBE TO THE STATE OF THE ARTS: cliftonduncan.substack.com

BUY TWIN ENGINE COFFEE: https://twinenginecoffee.com/?aff=4

DONATE VIA VENMO: https://account.venmo.com/u/CliftonDuncanArt

OR PAYPAL: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/CliftonDuncanArt

OR CASHAPP: $CliftonDuncanArt



About the Podcast

Show artwork for The Clifton Duncan Podcast
The Clifton Duncan Podcast
Art, Culture & Society

Listen for free

About your host

Profile picture for Clifton Duncan

Clifton Duncan

With sharp wit, striking good looks, and a voice built for listening, veteran professional actor and singer Clifton Duncan is as powerful a presence among content creators as he is on stage and on-screen.

He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University's elite Graduate Acting Program (a subsidiary of the Tisch School of the Arts).

In addition to multiple television guest-star appearances (including on the popular "NCIS: New Orleans") and having starred on Broadway (in "The Play that Goes Wrong", co-produced by J. J. Abrams), his impressive body of work--from Shakespearean Tragedy to Musical Comedy, and beyond--has been celebrated on many of America's most prestigious stages.