Tay Barrett

Filmmaker Tay Barrett is probably somewhere cuddling a tiny dog right now. The Los Angeles-based creative queer is not only a puppy lover, she’s also the maker of two series. Most recently, LGBTQ network HereTV released six half-hour episodes of her TV sitcom “Work in Progress,” a cheeky comedy that interrogates how people find meaning and purpose through their jobs. It’s based around a circle of queer friends in Los Angeles, and Phil Morris of “Seinfeld” fame (he was “Jackie Chiles”) also plays a minor role. In 2014, she also wrote, directed and acted in a nine-episode web series, “Tiny Nuts,” about two friends trying to get their lives together post-college as they’re beginning to adult. Both the shows are based somewhat on her life—a fictional version of it anyway. “Any success I have with my comedy I attribute to authentic storytelling,” she says. “And since most of the stories I tell are inspired from my life, my queerness is fundamental to my success. I live for queer stories.” When not working on her own stuff, Barrett is in an editing bay, working deep into the night on hours of footage. —AE