Girl with a Camera

From the acclaimed director of films and TV shows such as Gun Crazy, Crossroads, Billy Madison, Half Baked, Younger, Grey’s Anatomy, and more, comes an inspirational memoir about leading a creative life and running the show, from her early experiences learning from film legends like Peter Bogdanovich and Francis Ford Coppola to forging her own path in Hollywood.

Whether directing Britney Spears in Crossroads or NWA in music videos, battling studios for bigger budgets or raising two children while working fourteen-hour days, Tamra Davis has found ways to assert her power and lead her crew. The Zelig of the past three decades of Hollywood history, she has incredible stories of working with and learning from everyone—really, everyone: Indigo Girls, Shonda Rhimes, Adam Sandler, the Wu-Tang Clan, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Frederico Fellini, The Bangles, Olivia Rodrigo, Dave Chappelle, and Drew Barrymore—and she marshals these stories to teach essential skills to anyone seeking to lead.

With the L.A. insight of Eve Babitz and the pull-up-a-chair advice of a cool mom, Tamra delivers the definitive guide to wielding power on a movie set and in all areas of life, including how to find opportunities where no one else is looking, how to self-motivate, how to get credit for your work, when to have a kid, how to deal with conflict, what to do when you get fired or screw up, and how to turn a weakness into a strength.

Few people in Hollywood, much less women, possess the decades of in-the-trenches experience that Tamra brings to bear. One of the most prolific and beloved directors in TV and film since the 1990s, Tamra shares—in a warm, funny, relatable way—the strategies for creative collaboration she’s seen work, and the ones that haven’t. This singular inspirational memoir bridges Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act and the story-driven advice of Glennon Doyle, and it will help people in all fields bring their personal vision to life.