Star Wars Franchise Producer On Building IP, The DGA & The Future Of Entertainment

Diana Williams is the CEO and co-founder of Kinetic Energy Entertainment, a multi-platform venture studio transforming ideas into franchise-ready IP across film, TV, video games, immersive experiences, and the creative economy. She is the former Creative Development and Franchise Producer for Star Wars at Lucasfilm, where she oversaw Star Wars Rebels, Rogue One, Battlefront, Marvel's Star Wars comics and novel expansions, and co-founded ILM Immersive -- the lab behind Vader Immortal, Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, and the Academy Award-winning VR experience Carne y Arena. In this episode, Diana shares her extraordinary journey and breaks down the business of storytelling with rare depth: -- Growing up in a farm community in New Jersey and calculating box office numbers on microfiche in the library as a teenager -- Studying finance at Georgetown, deferring Wall Street offers, and moving to LA knowing no one -- Being the youngest person ever admitted to the DGA Assistant Directors Training Program -- out of 1,800 applicants, with 15 spots -- and giving the "wrong" answer in the final interview -- The assessment center story: why the real question was "do you stay or do you go" and no group answered it -- Working as an AD while producing a Student Academy Award-nominated documentary on the side -- The difference between having an idea and having IP: "Without business, legal, and the full structure around it, you just have a folder on your laptop" -- Her concept of "IP to be" and why she doesn't think in format but in story worlds -- Why every IP under Kinetic Energy is run as a business, not a project -- The real finances of being a founder and CEO of a startup: not paying yourself so the money goes into the making -- Why the entertainment industry has fundamentally changed since 2019 and what skills matter for the future -- Her framework for what matters: story, team, business, legal, tech, and community -- The cheeseburger philosophy: why mastering the basics is the foundation of all craft -- Her partnership with co-founder Dario Di Zanni, which started while building out the Muppets This episode also features co-host Shawn Pipkin-West, a graduate of the DGA Training Program and current board member -- a connection neither she nor Diana knew they shared before recording. Diana is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She is an Executive Producer on Apple TV+'s Number One on the Call Sheet and an Independent Spirit Award nominee for the feature film Our Song.