About Women Rocking Hollywood
I started this website following the creation of the Women Rocking Hollywood at San Diego Comic Con. The origin was, "I've done panels before on subjects I know and want to shine a spotlight on. Why not shine a light on women changing the status quo in Hollywood?" With SDCC 2016, we introduced our inaugural Women Rocking Hollywood panel!
I started adding panels at WonderCon, the sister convention to SDCC, starting during the pandemic, and in 2024, moved it to Anaheim permanently.
Women and their position in the pecking order in Hollywood have been in the news for years. When I started Women Rocking Hollywood a groundswell had started to get better numbers for women working in the industry. Still, the work to realign how women are seen and hired in Hollywood is only starting, since the numbers continue to move up at a snail's pace.
Women representing 50 percent of the film directors and creatives, as well as women in front of the camera being paid equally for their work, talent, and star power will only enhance the body of work being left for film historians and movie lovers…shift happens, and it’s happening now. So many powerful, talented women are at the forefront of changing Hollywood from the inside. As creatives, directors, and producers, they are breaking box office records and showing Hollywood that altering the status-quo makes for better movies.
They are my heroes.
These brave women are working to bring equality to tinsel town, and I am working to help them any way I can. With Women Rocking Hollywood, I hope to highlight those doing good work in support of these changes, as well as those actually doing the craft. As Cinema Siren and as a lead contributor on the Alliance of Women Film Journalists website, I amplify female filmmakers and provide movie criticism for indie and studio films, with a focus on women in film. My work with the Motion Picture Associations's The Credits involves interviews with below the line artists, directors, and performers, and I try to pitch and amplify women as often as I can, especially female composers and directors of photography. Those are two career paths in which women have the hardest time getting hired in the film industry.
I work to write about or post anything that enlightens those looking to help create a better world for all artists working in cinema.
Leslie Combemale
Leslie is the founder and moderator of Women Rocking Hollywood. She facilitates the Women Rocking Hollywood panels at San Diego Comic-Con and WonderCon, interviews important female and LGBT+ figures and diverse voices in the film and television industry, and she advocates for the recognition and advancement of women in the media world.
In addition to her work with Women Rocking Hollywood, Leslie writes movie reviews and conducts filmmaker interviews for her website Cinema Siren, and for the MPAA's TheCredits. She has owned the ArtInsights Gallery, which represents and sells film art by the filmmakers.