GenTalks w/ Taryn O'Neill and the MythOS team
Hey everyone,
This Wednesday 10-11am PT / 1-2pm ET is our weekly digital get together to connect on how we are all making our way through this new era for creative industries and AI among other emergent technologies, sharing ideas, tips, knowledge amongst ourselves.
Our group is an amazing mix of creators/ producers/ builders/ some new to this stuff/ some OG/ all of us constantly learning.
This week our guests are the filmmaking team behind the short film MythOS, a hybrid live-action / generative AI short film created in collaboration with Adobe Firefly that premiered at the Adobe House during Sundance 2026. The film explores the need for collective storytelling and new myth-making in a time of planetary and technological disruption.
Led by Taryn O’Neill, she is a filmmaker, writer, and futurist working at the intersection of storytelling, science, and emerging technology, with a focus on ‘Protopias' and the power of story to help society imagine better, more resilient futures. Before MythOS, her directing credits also include the fantasy features Wicked and Torn, the sci-fi short Live (released by Gunpowder & Sky), and The Assignment, a hybrid climate-fiction short created with ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination. She wrote a sci-fi action webseries for Stan Lee and recently sold a sci-fi animated feature concept to The Jim Henson Company. She has 20 years of on-camera and stage experience as an actress.
As a futurist, O’Neill writes Future Film Fridays, a weekly newsletter on entertainment and emerging technology, and is the author of Protopia: A New Horizon for Screenwriters, A Futurist’s Handbook for Hollywood, and The 4th Act. She co-founded SCIRENS, a female collective advancing STEM storytelling in media and climate narratives, and was an early voice in digital storytelling as co-producer of the Streamy-nominated web series After Judgment. She studied Economics, Film, and Theater at Duke University and is based in Los Angeles. Social @tarynoneill
Maddie Hong - AI Art Director & Technical AI Lead
She is a creative technologist and filmmaker specializing in using emerging technologies to achieve human creativity. Her career has spanned from technical AI artist work for companies such as Secret Level, to editing movie trailers, to technology teams at major studios such as Netflix. Her innovative AI filmmaking has been publisd in Forbes and Wired and has earned several accolades, including Finalist in Runway's Gen48 competition, Second Place in the Culver Cup sponsored by FBRC.AI and AWS, and official merit selection in Runway's 3rd Annual AI Film Festival.
Maddie is also an educator and frequent public speaker, and has given presentations on AI filmmaking to Curious Refuge, the American Society of Cinematographers, and LA Tech Week. She believes in using technology to empower previously unheard voices. Maddie is a member of creator partner programs for Runway, Luma Labs, and Pika Labs and actively contributes industry research and programming for SMPTE, the Hollywood Professional Association, and the USC Entertainment Technology Center.
Website: maddiehong.com Social: @hmdehong
Drigan Lee - Editor
He is an AI Artist and Emmy-nominated filmmaker. His current projects include serving as a creative technologist on an AI collaboration between Ron Howard and Obsidian Studios, editing episodes of Rick Rubin's TETRAGRAMMATON podcast, and co-writing a vérité documentary about an Alaskan strip club (Prod. Chloe Zhao and Alex Gibney). His lead editing work includes CALLBACK (Sundance '26), THE MONEY GAME (Emmy-nominated, Amazon), BAMARUSH (HBO). His additional editing work includes DAUGHTERS (Sundance '24, Netflix), CUSP (Sundance '20, Showtime). As a commercial director and creative director he's worked extensively for Condé Nast Entertainment, Warner Brothers, and Vox Media. In a past life, he directed a stage adaptation of Kafka's THE TRIAL at Cherry Lane Theatre, and acted in films, network television shows, and regional theater productions. He graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Theatre Studies.
Julia Harris - Creative Technologist
She is a creative entrepreneur merging AI and traditional filmmaking to create unique branded content. After 8 years of producing content for brands like Dell, Guayaki, Atlantic Records, Netflix and more, she now brings both worlds—content production and AI innovation—into her work. she creates stories that are as human as they are future-facing.
She also co-founded Femme Creatives, an in-person community dedicated to empowering women through creative leadership, community, and intentional conversations. https://www.juliaharris.work/
Joanna Popper - Executive Producer
She is a global media executive, board advisor, and award-winning producer working at the intersection of storytelling, technology, and impact. She has held senior roles at Creative Artists Agency, NBCUniversal, and HP. As an executive producer, her projects have premiered at major festivals including Sundance, Venice, Tribeca, and SXSW. She is co-founder of SatireAI with James Jones, where their 30+ AI shorts have won more than 20 international awards, and she executive produced King Willonius’ animated short Welcome to the BBL Drizzyverse, which premiered at Adobe MAX. She is on the Producers Guild Board of Directors and leads the Television Academy AI Toolkit series.Today she advises companies and creators on the evolving media landscape and the use of AI in storytelling and distribution.