Welcome to E!'s Tales From the Top, our series on women who are leaders in their fields and masters of their craft. Spanning industries and experiences, these powerhouse women answer all the questions you've ever had about how they got to where they are today—and what they overcame to get there. Read along as they bring their resumés to life.
You know those group texts with your closest friends that often power you through the most never-ending of work days? Yeah, Kristen Bell turned those into her latest career act.
The busy multi-hyphenate was spending her days working with producer-directors Dean Holland and Morgan Sackett on Parks and Recreation and The Good Place and her nights "giggling on a text chain after hours," she recalled in an exclusive interview with E! News. "And I suppose it occurred to Morgan first to make something out of that. He said, 'We're all very creative people, why don't we take this to the streets?'"
And by streets, he meant studio, the trio teaming with Bell's longtime pal, agency exec and writer Benjamin Hart, and a group of other storytelling pros already in their orbit to form Dunshire Productions. Named for Parks and Recreation's fictional Cones of Dunshire board game, the Los Angeles-based creative content and production studio's aim is, as they proclaim on their website, to "make the funnies, so you make the monies."
And, yes, teaming with a group of your besties—who just so happen to be comedic geniuses—to craft literal LOL-worthy ad spots and other content for brands like Guinness, Lagavulin and Bell and husband Dax Shepard's Hello Bello line of premium baby products is every bit as fun as it sounds.
"I very much understand the hesitation people have," Bell acknowledged of mixing business with pleasure. "I get the same response when I say I love working with my husband: 'How can you work with your significant other?'" (Um, side note: Have they met Dax?)
"I haven't found a better way to articulate it other than, 'Why would I not to want to work with someone that I feel has my best interests in mind at all times and that I love spending time with and that I trust? Isn't that what you want in a business structure as well?'" the Veronica Mars alum continued. "And when you hire all strangers, you end up having a retreat organizer do trust fall exercises on a weekend with your employees to attempt to mimic what we started with."
Bottom line, she summed up, "We think it yields a better product. And I suppose we've set out to prove it." Exhibit A: The Lagavulin whisky commercial that saw them put Nick Offerman in front of a fire for 45 minutes. "Made no sense," admitted Bell, "and I think it was absolutely brilliant."
As is their entire business philosophy that largely boils down to, as Hart puts it, "You don't have to be an a--hole to find success." He and Bell detail their winning strategy.
E! News: Working with pals sounds like the way to go for obvious reasons. But do you think it elevates the quality of work?
Benjamin Hart: One hundred percent.
Kristen Bell: One-fifty, even.
BH: The reality is every single partner has been doing this too long to want to do this with folks who just make it hell. And we've all been in positions where it just feels like a slog to be creative. Creativity really starts to actually spark and become soulful and joyful and interesting and cuts through the noise when you can tell people actually enjoy making that content. And that is literally how this thing formed—at every point when this group of people had an opportunity to work together, it felt fun, easy and really great to make.
KB: I personally believe that life is too short not to work with people that spark meaningful passion. And for me that happens to be friendships built out of trust. Is this person going to be dependable? And I want someone who is going to allow us to have fun at work. I want someone who's going to put a whoopie cushion on my chair at the beginning of the meeting. Isn't that what Earth is all about? Like, Morgan loathes his birthday. And I live for every single time we go out to eat telling the server that it's his birthday. It has to be fun or it's not worth it on a personal or professional level for me.
E!: So is that what you'd advise to people looking to build a career they truly love rather than just endure—collaborate with people you actually like?
BH: The reality is sometimes it can take a long time to get to the point that you can make that choice. It certainly can be a privileged position. I would say that the younger generation is waking up to the point that you should not stay in any sort of abusive position of work. That's never worth it. Part of our big dream overall is that there are more companies that aren't a--holes, so that is less of a unique posture to take care of the people that work for you. We're not family, we are a community, which means we have shared values that we all agree to.
E!: You also worked together to launch Hello Bello. How long did that take to put together?
BH: Nine months. It was a metaphorical and literal baby we pushed through the birth canal of our imaginations and into the world.
KB: The hole we saw was accessibility and affordability. And since the moment I got pregnant, that midwestern mentality was not lost on Dax and I of going, "Yeah, we can literally go to any boutique on either coast of the United States, buy whatever we want that's totally premium and not look at the receipt. But how does that scale?"
E!: Put simply, let's make premium products available to everyone.
KB: Because we had a very clear road map, it fell together very quickly. It was like, "We need a partner with economy of scales. We want to be able to tell the story of parenting through my eyes and Dax's eyes." And Ben, who is our friend, knows our sense of humor better than anyone, so all the pieces fit together.
E!: You've each dipped your toe in various industries. Did you have a plan laid out for what you would tackle?
KB: No. I never had a road map for my career. Often as an actor, I get that question, "What do you want to do next?" And I'm sure people are looking for the answer of, "A dark indie, a Marvel movie, a thriller," and I just don't think that way. I don't know about the spark until I read something that I like or meet someone that I like and think of an idea. Every single thing has been a building block upon another foundation in my career and that has led me to a lot of happiness because I'm able to choose with my gut as opposed to following some arbitrary road map I think will define success for me.
BH: I think that's why Kristen and I work well together. We have a tremendous amount of audacity that borders on naiveté as we get into certain industries and dabble. I try to frame it up for myself as trying to be a realist idealist. The idealist part of me believes anything is possible, but then I love to be hyper-focused on how I make those things work in the real world for real people. You have to work incredibly hard to get that stuff done. You have to take advantage of opportunities. You have to have a lot of luck sometimes and be humble enough to ask a lot of questions and arrogant enough to think you can do it.
E!: Is that how your children's book, The World Needs More Purple People, came together?
BH: We were sitting around a dinner table. I was talking about the divisiveness we see in the world and I just threw out, "I want to one day write a children's book about that." That's something people say all the time and no one actually means it. And then Kristen called me the next day and said, "Hey, do you want to write a children's book with me for that?" And I was like, "No, of course not, Kristen."
KB: He was like, "How did you get this number?"
BH: That's right. "I don't want anyone to read this book, so I'll do it myself." I think we both have a wonderful amount of audacity to believe that we can do things that are probably a little bit outside of our britches sometimes.
E!: What's the career advice you've received that's stuck with you?
BH: Say yes all the time. If you feel like 70 percent you can figure it out, say yes and then you'll figure out the other bits of it. Just say yes when opportunities come and work your butt off to figure out how to do it.
E!: So, speaking of opportunities, do you have plans to branch beyond advertising and branding with Dunshire?
KB: The great thing about having a team that is qualified in all different directions is that we have this star shape and we're each better than the other person at something. So Morgan and Dean and I, from a production standpoint, have pitched shows and have shows that are in the process of being pitched. We're working on a bunch of different things and we'll hopefully branch out into television very shortly.
E!: You've created your whole philosophy around the idea that work should be fun. Was it born from an experience that was not so fun?
KB: I wouldn't say I've had a bad experience working in film and television. But I've certainly had experiences that were better than others—ones that felt as though they were sprinkled with fairy dust. As an actor, I'm always excited to work, because I like acting. But there were certain projects that felt a little bit more magical and they were all ones that I worked on with Dean and Morgan. So it was very clear to me that when I'm in production, I want those guys to be in charge.
I am an optimist, so I've tried to go into every work situation saying this is going to be great, but there were certain times I didn't necessarily feel it. And then when I met up with these guys, there was just a like-mindedness in the eye contact we made. I felt this collective goal, which is, let's do great work and have fun—they're both priorities. And I just gravitated so wholeheartedly towards staying in that workspace as often as I possibly could.