Welcome to my new column, Pretty Interesting! Capsule has given me the opportunity to write about some truly epic humans I have met who march to the beat of their own drum and who have genuinely inspired me recently.
I feel oddly proud that I have mended my algorithm enough to no longer be forcefed a constant stream of negative news and collective trauma when I scroll. There is a privilege in protecting your mental health this way, even if it means remaining a little ignorant to certain things. And yet, if I am honest, a lot of feel good stories can lack the punch to really hold my attention. There is a strange duality in wanting something juicy and compelling without feeling like you are reading a glossy puff piece.
This column is my attempt to sit right in that tension – human, honest and a little sharp around the edges.
The first cab off the rank is with Kiwi writer/director Taylor Nixon.
I first heard about Taylor the way I seem to hear about the most interesting people lately. Not through a glossy announcement or an industry whisper, but through a crowdfunding page that kept popping up in my orbit. Feelings Club. The name alone stopped me – then the momentum behind it kept me fixated.
I remember thinking, ‘Who is this person who is quietly, but confidently gathering people around an idea that feels this big?!’
As a creative, I’m always looking for those humans. The ones who are not just talking about how broken everything feels but are actually doing something about it. Building. Risking. Showing up.
If I’m being really honest I’ve always wrestled with imposter syndrome in my creative life. I’m very good at spotting brilliance in others, but I’m slower at backing my own. So when I see someone diving in headfirst without waiting for permission, it does something to me. It makes me lean closer.
Taylor Nixon is the creator of Feelings Club, and I genuinely believe he’s part of a new wave that has the power to reinvigorate the entertainment industry. Not just through what we watch, but through how it is made, through how people are treated and through what it actually feels like to be on set.
Feelings Club is a new drama-comedy short-form web series, bringing together some of NZ’s biggest talents (think Michael Hurst, Oscar Kightley, Robyn Malcolm and Tom Sainsbury) as well as many new faces who are set to become household names.
But when I asked Taylor how he describes Feelings Club to someone encountering it for the first time, he didn’t lead with genre or format.
“Feelings Club is built around the idea of opening up,” he says. “Beyond the series itself, it stands for creating space for honest conversation, especially around emotions we’re often taught to suppress.
“It’s designed to help start those conversations in a grounded, relatable way, without preaching or dramatising mental health. It’s about recognising that everyone is carrying something, and that talking about it can be both ordinary and powerful.”
That intention, for him, is deeply personal.
“My high school had a really bad mental health support system when I was there,” he says. “And I soon found a lot of people my age had similar stories of missing out on the right care.”
He started to wonder what might happen if young people stopped waiting for systems to catch up and instead took care into their own hands, and hat question became the seed of the show.
And like most stories worth telling, this one was met with a lot of no.
“Oh, [I heard ‘no’] a tonne,” he says. “It’s been rejected more times than I can count.”
Funding bodies passed. Doors stayed closed.
“The toughest rejections were probably from funding bodies. Knowing that traditional support wasn’t available meant I had to take unconventional routes, crowdfunding parts of it, self funding most of it, and selling a lot of my own stuff just to keep it moving.”
During the height of the crowdfunding campaign he was calling around 50 businesses a day. In the end only about 10 came on board.
“You don’t have time to sit in the rejection when you’re in the thick of it,” he says. “If you know it’s the right idea, lingering on the no’s can slow you down.”
And the rejection still hurts.
“It definitely rocks you,” he says. “I’m still learning that it’s not a reflection of my worth.”
But perseverance, for him, is simple. “One foot in front of the other. You don’t wait for the storm to pass. You keep on walking through it.”
What struck me most, though, was not just the project. It was the culture Taylor created.
“I really hope to create spaces where people feel like they belong and have opportunity, regardless of where they’re coming from,” he says. “I want everyone involved to feel like they’re part of something, not just hired onto it.”
That philosophy was tangible on set – and I’ve been on enough sets to know when something is performative and when it is real!
I spoke to several of the cast about their experience working with him, and what they admired most about his directing and ambition with this project. Their answers were strikingly consistent.
One of the actors on the show, Sam Gardner, who plays school student Jake, put it simply: “Taylor is awesome. Through the whole process you could feel his joy and passion for the project radiating from him. He is also a kind and genuine person. These combined into a directing style that allowed us actors to work the characters as we thought we should while still ensuring the project was heading in the direction he wanted. He also just added life to the set. We love Taylor.”
Fellow actor Shelby Kua, who plays Patricia, echoed that sentiment of having a deep trust in Taylor. “I simply adore him!” she says. “A big part of being an actor is being able to trust that your director will guide you and make sure you’re able to tell the most truthful story in service to the character and the work as a whole, and I really felt that with Taylor. It’s a big relief to have that kind of actor director relationship, because I can just focus on my craft and not have to worry about anything else. Captain’s steering the ship.”
She laughed when she spoke about his energy.
“His passion is so joyfully infectious. Everyone on set was constantly buzzing. He’s equally incredibly driven and incredibly kind, which is such a rare sight. That man is a force of love and kindness. We need more people like him in the world.”
Mega Alexander, who plays Tilly, noticed something else. “I loved how determined Taylor is. When he asked me to be on board it was an immediate yes. He’s so creative and extremely calm in stressful environments. I remember messaging him saying wow, you were so chill all day as we were filming. Then he told me he was very stressed in those moments. We had no idea.”
And finally Billy Cox, who plays Aiden on the show, spoke about the trust.
“He said this to me early on when I was preparing and constructing Aiden as a character,” he says. “On set that trust was definitely felt. He would let us just go for it in every scene and bring whatever we wanted to the character. The environment and support he gave made it feel like a really safe space to do so.”
Safe – that word came up again and again.
For Taylor, set culture is not a buzzword.
“Kindness and compassion on set aren’t difficult,” he says. “For me, success is knowing that people walk away from a project feeling proud of the work and the experience.”
He’s clear about what is non negotiable (“Any form of discrimination, bullying, or harassment is completely unacceptable.”) and there is a calmness to him that feels earned rather than performative.
“I’ve tried to live life with intentionality, especially with mindfulness to how I show up with people,” he told me. “Talking therapy has really made an impact. Name it to tame it as they say.”
He doesn’t pretend to be untouched by hardship. He has simply learned how to meet it with more care.
Talking to Taylor did something to me. Watching someone back themselves so fully, makes you question where you might be holding back out of habit rather than truth. It softened something in my own imposter syndrome. It reminded me that leadership can involve both ambition and kindness. Drive and generosity. Calmness and feeling things deeply.
Feelings Club is not just a project. It is a signal. Of what is possible when we stop waiting to be chosen and start choosing ourselves and each other.
And that is absolutely something worth paying attention to!
You can watch Feelings Club on Instagram.
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