Resident Starts Media Production Company and Launches First Film Project By: Kira Villarreal
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t has been a busy year for former Schertz resident Elissa Cuellar. The 2015 Steele High School graduate has released her first major project with Says Who Productions, the company she formed in 2019 with some friends and fellow theatre students from the University of Houston. The project is the pilot episode of a show called Secret Lies of the Gossip Teen, which Cuellar describes as “a broad comedy take on high school dramas.” The episode was filmed in and around the Houston area over a four-month period beginning in January 2020, and Cuellar not only wrote the script but directed and produced the episode as well. Cuellar’s passion for this project, and for the work that her company is doing is apparent. Like most young artists, she knows firsthand the struggle of trying to create a successful career in the television and film industry. Though the company is still quite new, she and her colleagues at Says Who already have a clear mission for the company as not only a vehicle for
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Schertz Magazine
July 2020
creating art but as a way to help struggling young artists gain experience and support. It is this mission that drives her, but she also credits her upbringing in Schertz with helping to set her on her current path. Her experience and education at Steele High School was a particularly big influence, helping her discover her love of acting and theatre. As a child, Cuellar’s family moved around a lot, and when they finally settled in Schertz, she says she was immediately accepted by many of the students from military families who had similar experiences with being new in school. Many of these students were involved with theatre, and it was here that Cuellar really found her place in high school. “Steele was a place where the arts were important, and the educators were incredibly supportive,” says Cuellar. “I was involved in productions throughout my years there, and the theatre students became my people.”