-- On set, the frame is 9:16 and the pace is relentless. Alicia Read confers with her DP over a last-second blocking tweak, then steps straight into the frame, producer brain off, performer heart on. Minutes later, she’s back behind the monitor, laughing with a crew that feels like any prestige-TV unit, only faster, leaner, and built for a phone.
Today’s shoot is for GoodShort, a Los Angeles–based global app known for streaming feature-length, bite-size soap operas to hundreds of millions of viewers. During her lunch break, Read reviews location options for an upcoming ReelShort Original, the first Canadian-developed project for one of the world’s most talked about and profitable vertical microdrama platforms. She is co-producing and co-starring under seasoned Executive Producer Sammie Astaneh’s Service Street Pictures Inc., marking another milestone in her rapid ascent within the explosive, multi-billion-dollar format reshaping modern entertainment.
Building a Sustainable Future for Storytellers
Read isn’t just acting in this new world, she’s investing in it. With more than twenty years of executive experience in the prestige beauty industry, she’s channeling her business sensibilities into vertical microdrama production as both a personal growth strategy and a safeguard for the creative economy.
“My colleagues and I see this as the affordable, scalable future of entertainment,” she says. “Vertical microdramas keep our crews working, our actors visible, and our producers producing, at a time when so many traditional projects are stalled by strikes, Ai threats, or cost. It’s creative resilience in action.”
Read treats the model like a development hub, a way to keep skilled technicians, performers, and storytellers active and inspired while the larger industry recalibrates. She’s using her opportunity not only to accelerate her own career but also to build stability for the people around her.
The Rise of Vertical Microdramas
Once dismissed as disposable content, mobile-first microdramas have evolved into a full-fledged marketplace. Audiences live on the scroll, ad dollars follow attention, and serialized storytelling thrives on immediacy.
From Hollywood to Vancouver, casting offices now audition for microdramas alongside commercials, network television and major studio films. Production teams skilled in 9:16 workflows are in demand, and sound stages that once sat dark mid-week now buzz with short-run shoots. What began as side work has become a steady employment engine.
The Reinvention
A rising Vancouver actor in the late ’90s, Read stepped away to raise her daughter and built a two-decade career in luxury beauty, founding the boutique agency KALOSOPHIE and guiding indie brands into Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, goop, Nordstrom while brokering international distribution deals.
Returning to acting in her late forties, she found an opportunity in a new direction: “verticals”. Now, after starring and co-starring in more than 15 microdrama projects, she’s helping flip a once-tropey format into something richer. From villains with heart to midlife leads with grit, her characters are being watched by hundreds of millions, visibility few traditional projects can match.
“In vertical microdramas, momentum is everything,” Read says. “You can shoot a series in ten days and see it reach tens of millions of viewers within weeks. The analytics and monetization are immediate, and the audience connection is direct. It’s a faster, and potentially incredibly profitable, ecosystem for everyone involved.”
Professionalizing the Space
Performance is only one layer of Read’s mission. As actor, writer, producer, and co-founder of the Vertical Film & Short Series Alliance (VFSSA), she’s helping to formalize the industry’s standards.
VFSSA advocates for fair pay, safe sets, and transparent workflows; convenes crews who cut their teeth on top network shows; and translates established best practices to the pace of microdrama production. The alliance is collaborating with government agencies on tax credits and permits, working with unions, hosting standards workshops, and preparing an international Vertical Microdrama Expo in Vancouver for 2026.
“We’re making feature-length stories in eight to ten shooting days,” Read says. “It’s demanding, but it’s also democratizing. If we protect our people and our processes now, we ensure the economic foundation of both our region and other international centers, and our growth stays sustainable.”
The New Entertainment Pipeline
Across the globe, vertical microdrama’s maturity is undeniable. Casting directors now assess “vertical chops,” from an actor’s view count and platform reach to their fan engagement. Camera and lighting crews are adapting big-show discipline to micro-budgets. Boutique stages are booking back-to-back vertical shoots between longer features.
The outcome: more work, more opportunity, more momentum at a time when traditional production faces headwinds.
What’s Next
Expect major studios to follow suit with vertical microdrama incubators such as Disney’s collaboration with DramaBox, alongside new microdrama apps founded by seasoned Hollywood executives and emerging festival categories dedicated to 9:16 storytelling.
VFSSA’s roadmap includes consultation, education, safety, and ethical storytelling initiatives.
For Read, the mission remains clear: use business acumen to keep the art alive.
“We can’t control every disruption,” she says. “But we can control how we respond, from supporting our casts and crews in knowing their rights, to helping the industry adopt formats that are agile, affordable, and profitable. That’s how we keep people working, and that’s how we keep storytelling thriving.”
About Alicia Read
Alicia Read is an actor, writer, and producer whose screen work has reached more than 200 million viewers across leading vertical microdrama platforms including ReelShort, GoodShort, and DramaWave. Known for her emotionally intelligent performances and creative range, she is co-producing and co-starring in the first ReelShort Original developed in Canada under Executive Producer Sammie Astaneh’s Service Street Pictures Inc.
A former beauty-industry executive with two decades of experience leading campaigns for luxury independent brands, Read now applies her strategy expertise as co-founder of the Vertical Film & Short Series Alliance (VFSSA), championing a sustainable, innovative entertainment ecosystem that bridges artistry, technology, and opportunity.
Website: alicialoveread.com · IMDb: imdb.com/name/nm0713790 · VFSSA: vfssa.org
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