Writing exclusively for The Leaders Council of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Janis Levy offers her unique perspective on returning to university mid-career. Levy is currently in her second semester at Queen Mary University of London, where she is an MA student in Creative Writing. Janis Levy is the Creative Director at Hair Development UK, the longest-established human-hair replacement, hair loss solutions and extension experts in the UK.
Full time degree, full time job. I have received the same comment from a number of friends and colleagues when they find out I am doing a full time degree alongside a full time job:
‘You’re so brave Jan!’
When I tell them a little of what I am studying, and how I am being stretched, they want to know more, and they contemplate doing the same themselves.
Going back to Uni is something I have always yearned for, but my career path swept me to different directions. My career as an actor deposited me in Los Angeles, and I was signed to the network NBC (bouncing off the platform of the Cadbury’s Flake Girl), in what would be one of the last ever studio contracts. My decade plus sojourn in Hollywood was in the flickering years of the Golden Age of Hollywood, the last breaths of what was a truly exhilarating time in the City of Angels.
The late 80’s and 90’s held, perhaps the end of mysticism within the industry. The time when West Hollywood, now fondly known as WeHo, was a safe place for those somewhat forced behind the silky, seductive curtains of show business. The essence of performative art. Concealed inside clandestine costumes, unable to be free. In the days when the real Rock Hudson finally came to the forefront, emerging as his true self. How terribly sad that he was made to remain for so long inside the gossamer muffling, erstwhile stifling, shreds of Tinseltown.
My Queen Mary cohort is a culmination of creative, amazing writers, and we all share the same goal and true love of the written word. It is a rare affair to be amongst people where you all aspire to the same ideal. My class is so inclusive, they have even invited me to go to the pub with them after our evening events. Nowadays, after one social evening it is likely to take me a week to recover. I haven’t joined them, because you see, I like to be in bed by 9pm. Unless I’m doing laundry and mopping until midnight. Either that, or I can be located spark out on the kitchen table. Back in the day I pretty much closed the clubs, when we’d all fall out of Stringfellows or Tramp at 4am. Now I rise at pretty much the same time.
Last semester we produced a literary evening, culminating in a published and audio anthology of our work. Now we are working on a journal, a first for the Queen Mary MA Creative Writers. Edited by Dr Rachael and her Round Table, (of which I am one!).
Queen Mary University of London is an incredible space in a city that is über cool, edgy, incredibly, historically and constantly stimulating, and has everything one might hope for, if studying in the Capital. We’re a feisty bunch, we who inhabit the great East End of London.
Our teachers, supervisors and professors are so inspiring. Professor Brian, Dr Nisha, Dr Isabel, Dr Michael. I have devoured books since I was a tot, but always ones that I loved, yet now have so many more literary interests in subjects that are exciting and new, thrilled by novels that I would probably not have chosen for myself. My most recent acquisition from the QM library ‘withdrawn from stock’ section is, The Making of United States Foreign Policy and I now know who was the last Eisenhower Special Assistant for National Security Affairs.*
Sometimes, I can’t decide which book to read as morning beckons on the other side of midnight. Maeve Brennan or Dorothy B. Hughes? Iain Sinclair or Dorothy Parker? Kevin Killian or Robert Benchley? Oftentimes, (who am I kidding, most times), I fall asleep with books propped upon a pillow. Other times, my daughter finds me slumped across my MacBook at our table whilst devouring texts and essays.
Early morning, around 5am, whilst coaxing lashings of butter, sweet globules of garlic and piquant za’atar beneath the skin of a chicken, lovingly shoving it in the oven while the coffee machine murmurs, I wade through the Wordle, before showering and heading full throttle into the day.
I am the Creative Director at Hair Development UK. with my cousin, business partner and Managing Director Mark Burns MTTS and our amazing HD crews in East London and Chelmsford. HD’s innovative, revolutionary creative processes ultimately make people look and feel better about themselves, whether through laser hair re-growth therapy, non-surgical hair replacement, exquisite extensions or a bespoke system. The undisputed therapeutic qualities within our industry where everybody who walks through the doors at HD, leaves feeling more secure, self-esteem re-established.
Writing for TV, film and stage was something I learned earnestly whilst studying in The Writers’ Program at UCLA, yearning to be a writer, whenever I had the time between acting jobs on TV, film or stage. Having trained and worked for so long as an actor has definitely helped me as a writer, I can perform my characters as I create them. As a famous producer once said to me on a movie set, ‘thank you Janis, for breathing life into the written word.’
Chasing your dreams is an ageless process. If you want it, yes obviously go for it, but seriously folks the only person who can stop you, is you.
And on that note, my fellow Leaders Council of Great Britain & Northern Ireland members, with an HD Longwave podcast brewing in the office and my MA brimming on the sublime Queen Mary horizon, I shall wish you all a good day, with magic in the air, hope that may just fall out of the sky, and beauty in the corners of your mind. (I’m a writer, what did you expect, a mere cheerio?).
*Gordon Gray
Photo by Piret Ilver on Unsplash
