When Sondra Anderson moved to New York City in 2010, she had no plans of being in the entertainment business , much less in a position to make an important impact on the industry.
Being adopted at age 2 from South Korea and raised by an American family in Minnesota in an all white community, her own identity was unclear to her before moving to the East Coast.
When she married her Director/Producer husband, Lorenzo, in 2011 and was asked by him to be his entertainment manager, her eyes were opened to what the industry was really like and her passion to make a change in it became a mission that she can now stake claims to as her own.
In 2012 she formed her company, Poyzen Productions, with one of its main goals being to bring more Asian American entertainers into the forefront of the industry. Her first project was The A-Style, a reality show with an all Asian American cast of aspiring entertainers. The series was released on Sondra's YouTube channel, Poyzen TV. It's success helped bring Sondra and her company to what will ultimately be a major point in dealing with Hollywood's continued struggle with its lack of Diversity .
In 2015. Sondra and Lorenzo, who happens to be black, created a drama series, called The Fever. The storyline revolves around the main character, Amber Choe, the owner of a high end matchmaking services that specializes in interracial couples. But diversity not only lies in the shows storyline but also in its very diverse and unique cast and most importantly in its main character, Amber, who is not only Asian but is also a Lesbian.
Sondra's role as the shows Executive Producer took a major turn while also doubling as the shows casting director and trying to find an Asian actress in New York willing to take on such a provocative role involving partial nudity and lesbian love scenes and lots of four letter words that don't exactly fit the stereotype of a young Asian American woman.
That said, Sondra took on the daunting task of becoming Amber Choe in The Fever with her husband Lorenzo being both the shows writer and director.
Amber Choe and The Fever are the epitome of what's missing in terms of diversity in Hollywood and American media. An Asian American actress in a non stereotypical role as the shows lead character being written and directed by an African American male., with a storyline revolving around diverse relationships with a cast that includes Caucasian, black, Asian, Hispanic and East Indian and mixed-race actors. Characters that are straight, lesbian, bi-sexual, good, bad, but are anything but stereotypical set in the melting pot of the world, “New York Fucking City” as Amber says to one of her clients.
The shows pilot episode has already generated the attention of at least one major networks which sent a rep to one of the production dates but in December 2015 the new startup VOD platform, Cineplay TV made firsts moves on the show and acquired distribution rights for the full season scheduled to be released in September 2016.
Thus Sondra Anderson and her character, Amber Choe, have a an important mission to show Hollywood what diversity is all about both in front and behind the camera.
The Fever is now in full production. In New York City .