Founder, Joey Borgogna
For most of my life, story has been the lens through which I’ve tried to understand people.
As an actor, producer, teacher, and facilitator, I became increasingly interested in a question that felt larger than performance:
What actually shapes human character?
Not just talent.
Not image.
Not achievement.
But who we become under pressure. How we make meaning. How imagination, memory, expectation, and perception shape the way we experience the world and relate to one another.
That curiosity eventually became the foundation for My Scripted Story™ and continues to shape the work I create through Novel Eye Productions.
Today, I serve as Executive Director of the Lincoln City Fellowship, an artist residency initiative of the Speranza Foundation that supports multidisciplinary artists through curated retreats, creative gatherings, and community experiences. Through this work, I help create spaces where artists can slow down, reconnect to their creative lives, and engage more deeply with themselves, one another, and the questions at the center of their work.
I’m also the creator of My Scripted Story™, an immersive story experience exploring imagination, empathy, perspective, and human character through shared narrative.
For more than 25 years, my work has spanned theater, film, nonprofit storytelling, artist development, and immersive facilitation. My path has included work as an actor, talent agent, producer, and student and teacher at Diana Castle’s The Imagined Life Studio.
Prior to joining Speranza, I served as Executive Director of the Creative Activist Program at Creative Visions Foundation, where I oversaw more than 200 pro-social media and arts projects across five continents in collaboration with artists, filmmakers, and cultural leaders.
I also serve as Creative Producer for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, helping shape story-driven campaigns, films, and live events centered on rebuilding, dignity, and belonging across Los Angeles communities.
Along the way, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with artists, nonprofits, educators, filmmakers, and communities in many different contexts from immersive residencies and documentary storytelling to nonprofit campaigns, creative gatherings, and adventures in awe with the Nomadic School of Wonder.
No matter the setting, I keep returning to the same curiosity:
How do stories shape what we see, how we relate, and who we become?
That question continues to guide my work and life.