Stories at Founders Square: Hollywood to Tacoma with Derek Nunn

A Hollywood director comes home to build Tacoma's film industry — free, in-person, open to all.

Stories at Founders Square is a free, monthly speaker series where one founder or community leader sits down for a live, in-person conversation — one story, one room. Hosted in partnership with Tacoma Rising and UrbanWork, it takes place at the corner of 11th and Broadway in downtown Tacoma.

This month, we're talking with Derek Nunn.

Derek left Tacoma for Hollywood and spent nearly two decades building a career in film and television, cutting his teeth at award-winning independent production companies and working alongside major studios and networks including Warner Bros., Paramount, Sony Pictures, Viacom, BET, Comedy Central, and 20th Century Fox. Behind the scenes, he became known as a sharp hand on story: a consultant, script doctor, and ghostwriter trusted in the rooms where film and TV actually get made.

Fifteen years later, he came home, and he's putting that experience to work in his hometown. Through his production company, MagnumOpus Productions, Derek is part of the core team behind a new Tacoma-based sitcom, created by showrunner Kwabi Amoah-Forson, that the team believes could be the first show ever written, filmed, produced, and cast entirely in Tacoma. Described as a mash-up of Abbott Elementary and Family Matters, it starts filming this summer. Derek also serves on the board of Tacoma's own Grand Cinema, and is focused on developing bold work that puts underrepresented voices at the center of the screen.

Derek's story is proof of something Tacoma has been waiting to say out loud: you don't have to leave to build a career like this. You can build it here.

Join us for a candid, in-person conversation about leaving, coming back, and building a film industry from the ground up, right here in Tacoma.

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