Check Out Sarai Murdock’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarai Murdock

Hi Sarai, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
December 5, 2004, I was born in midtown Manhattan in New York. My mom had been pursuing a creative career in acting and modeling in New York but realized that wasn’t the path for her. We often joke and say that I’m finishing what she started. Almost a year after giving birth to me, she decided to move back to Cleveland (her hometown) where we would live with her mom and sister (my grandma and aunt).

Growing up, I had a very entrepreneurial mindset. As a young kid, I had many lemonade stands, sold some sandwiches I made with my grandma, sold story books I wrote out of stapled notebook paper, and had a lip and body scrub business in middle school.

As a multidisciplinary artist, I knew since I was a young girl that I would take on multiple careers. I always felt that my purpose in life was to create and inspire, two goals I still hold in my heart. While many people know me for my role in fashion, working as a model and creative director, my first loves were art, writing, and dance. These are all things that I began doing as a toddler.

Art: Growing up, I wanted to be a famous artist. I wanted to have my work featured in a museum and possibly own an art museum. I went from drawing cartoons to comic strips to anime characters to portraits to abstract art. As a graduate of Cleveland School of the Arts High School (CSA), as an Integrated Arts major, I took many visual arts classes.

While in high school, I discovered how much I admire art activism. I’ve performed this in multiple ways including film, poetry, music, and drawing. When I first found out Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022, I made a poetry film and drew a sketch that represented my thoughts about the matter. This can be found on my Instagram account: @siriz_world_
Now, as a young adult, art is a hobby and a way for me to vent. Many times that I’m stressed, I draw. I still have some hope to have my work featured in an art museum one day.

Dance:I took my first ballet dance class when I was five years old. From the age of 7-12, I took ballet on and off and hip hop. I fell in love with hip-hop. I always wanted to take jazz and tap, but eventually, dance classes became very expensive so I became self-taught. Now and then I would attend drop-in classes. I was introduced, a bit, to other forms of dance such as salsa, African dance, jazz, and ballroom (vogue).

Growing up I idolized people like Zendaya, Beyonce, and Teyana Taylor for their dance moves and shows like Dancing with the Stars, America Got Talent, and World of Dance. I dreamed of being on those shows and I would learn moves from music videos and dance movies. Attending CSA gave me the chance to participate in some performances that allowed me to have that momentum with my dance. After high school, I had opportunities like working at a dance studio for kids and performing at a fashion show. I still post clips of me freestyling on social media, and every now and then I’ll choreograph a dance and make a film of some sort for it. My goal is to slowly strengthen my skills while also learning other dance forms. My long-term goal is to be featured in a commercial, movie, or music video as a dancer. As well as either perform with or choreograph a celebrity performance.

Music: Music is one of those things that I feel is always in a lot of people’s lives because most of us hear music everywhere we go. Growing up music was important and cultural. Growing up with an African American mother; my mom taught me the importance of knowing black artists throughout history. I grew up listening to different genres such as r & b, old-school hip hop, pop music, and some alternative artists as well. The older I got the more my music taste expanded, but I always admired and appreciated older school artists because of their style and impact.

I come from a very creative family. My cousin and dad are both in a band, separate from each other, and my mom grew up learning piano with her sisters, so the skill was passed on to generations. I briefly took piano lessons when I was in k-2 but my teacher stopped working not long after my classes. However, regardless of my lack of training, I loved music and I loved instruments and writing songs. I started writing songs for fun when I was young, and I dreamt about playing the drums, I thought it was so cool. I would make songs with my best friend on my piano when they came over, and in middle school, I started making my own raps. However, most of the songs that I wrote were of me singing to beats I made up or looked up on YouTube.

In my freshman year, as an integrated arts major at CSA, my class was introduced to guitar lessons. I loved taking these classes and decided to continue taking lessons even after the class ended that year since it was available to any student attending the school. I continued to take classes until my junior or senior year. Shoutout to Adam and Kevin, my guitar teachers throughout the years.

In my sophomore year of high school, I created an art account on Instagram, separate from my main one, where I posted my creative projects. I began recording rap videos of songs I made and posting them on there. I also recorded music videos in my house and on my street and would post them there as well. The next year after quarantine began to slowly end, I became more comfortable posting on my main Instagram page.

Since graduating high school I have continued to make music videos, now by collaborating with local actors, models, and videographers. I hope to collaborate with more local artists and put out more music videos. I have slowly been getting more comfortable with my singing voice which is something I’ve, transparently, hid away. I hope to one day become more comfortable and put out a few songs with me singing, and I would love the opportunity to collaborate with an artist as a rapper or guitarist. I would also love to explore the use of instruments more in the beats I make.

Writing: I started writing when I was four years old. I would take loose paper, staple it together, and make fake storybooks. I loved drawing and reading. Writing gave me a way to combine my love of both. Writing allowed me to express my thoughts and imagination, while film allowed me to make those thoughts come to life physically; which I’ll get into next. Because of that my writing and film journey are very connected. Some of the different forms of writing I’ve done over the years include storywriting, playwriting, screenwriting, songwriting, and poetry. I currently work as a journalist for Cleveland Observer so I’ve most recently been exploring journalism. That said, I’ve done a lot of writing throughout my life. I’ve won some awards such as winning 2 honorable mentions and a golden key for the Scholastics Art and Writing contest in high school, and having my poetry featured in the Gordon Square Review magazine.

When I was seven years old, my mom bought me my first flash drive. It was a Hello Kitty flash drive and I fell in love with it. I would take her computer or go to the library and type my stories saving them onto my flash drive. I received a lot of support from adults who admired my typing skills and the ambition I had for my writing at a young age. As a child, I told both of my parents that I knew I would be an author. My dad was an author, and always supported me following that path.

When I was eleven years old, my mom got me a pink journal. I fell in love with it. I promised myself I would ONLY use it for my writing. I wrote stories in there every day, taking it to school with me, the store, the car, etc. One day my mom went to the car shop and I brought my journal with me. I was writing a story in which each chapter was about a different fictional character getting bullied in some way and standing up to their bullies. During this time I had been experiencing bullying in my school. It was something I had experienced for years and after going to a new school in third grade I thought things would improve but they only got worse. As I was writing I stopped and thought, ‘hmm, why am I writing a made-up story when I could instead write about my reality and serve as a young mentor to other kids who are also being bullied in school?’

From that day forward I began writing my story “Bully Free Zone: How to Stand up for Yourself” which originally was “Bullies are Cowards without Wings”. I tried to publish it when I was 12 years old but unfortunately was set back without an editor, which made me have to unpublish the book and replan my next steps. My mother was a hairstylist, she currently works as a barber, and one of her customers was a writer. The customer gave her the number of an editor named Jean. Jean was extremely supportive of me and from there forward became the editor of my book. We would meet at a coffee shop and work on my book. A year later, in 2018, when I was 13 years old going on 14 I officially published my book “Bully Free Zone: How to Stand Up for Yourself” which is available on multiple websites. My book, to this day, is one of my biggest accomplishments. Now as a 19-year-old going on 20, I plan to continue my journey of being an author soon, but right now I’ve been allowing myself to just trust the journey and do whatever my mind and body calls for.

The same year I published my book I wrote one of my first poems. In English class, we had an assignment to write some piece of work that reflects a story about us I believe. I chose to write a poem. In the poem, each paragraph represented a different grade and the experience I had being bullied. When I performed it I got a lot of positive feedback. From there I continued writing poems about my school experience just for fun at home. I wrote about my 8th-grade and 9th-grade experiences but stopped after a while. However, it was that presentation in 7th grade that made me realize how much I enjoyed poetry.

The summer before starting 9th grade, I had a sleepover with a friend. I told her how I had been growing a liking for poetry and started watching poetry slams. To my surprise, she did the same. So we decided to watch some poetry slams and then write poems. After having that interaction I began to consistently write poems, which only became more frequent during high school. In 10th grade, my major was introduced to a program called Twelve Literary Arts, a poetry program for the youth. I decided to join the program and started as a student. During this time we were in quarantine so we would meet on a Zoom call. In this program, we wrote, performed, and learned about the art of poetry. The following year many of the previous students were upgraded to working interns. It was great, the program was held at this house that was just used for business. Most of the time they ordered us food but there were some days when someone would cook food for everyone. We would come to the house for the session for a few hours, a few days per week, and then leave. During these sessions, we learned about different writers and types of poetry. We learned how to improve our performance/writing skills and were presented with different opportunities. Unfortunately, the program ended in 2022. I don’t believe it is available to anyone anymore. I learned a lot from the program, and I will always have good memories of being a part of it. I still write poetry here and there.

The same year that I started to become more consistent with poetry (2019) I joined a program to make some extra money. This was my first internship. I worked for Youth Opportunities Unlimited (Y.O.U). At the time they had a creative department that included: journalism, videography, and graphic design. I worked as a journalist in that department which is how I met a great artist who I ended up going to school with, Ivy Raheem (@ivytheartist) who worked as a graphic designer. In this department, as a journalist, writers were assigned to interview other interns and write weekly articles on the topics. I believe these articles were published on their website at the time. Through this program I was able to interview the mayor at the time, Frank G. Jackson, twice and the creative department worked together on several projects including a magazine and t-shirts for the program. This was my first introduction to journalism.

In my junior year of high school, after returning from quarantine, my school began having special school days on Wednesdays. Everyone would be assigned to a different classroom and we would have a school meeting over Zoom but that would be projected in each room. They had a news segment. During February of 2022, I noticed that even though it was black history month there had been so many police brutality cases, black women going missing, and a lot of violence black people were enduring. Me and my friend began to talk about this because we wondered why it wasn’t being talked about on the news segment. I went to our assistant director/principal of the school and she, to my surprise, suggested I talk about it. I didn’t realize other people were able to create their own segments for the meeting but I went to my friend and we decided to create our segment “ Learn ya flavor, Learn ya roots.” In this segment, we started off making presentations with pictures that represented the different black culture and history topics we spoke about. People loved our first episode which was about the history of black hairstyles. In our second episode, we decided to talk about black entrepreneurs. Except this time, we decided to interview four black entrepreneurs in our school and we created a YouTube channel for our segments. This became a series that we would release through the school meetings every week. People became inspired and engaged from our segments to the point that students we didn’t even know knew our names, would come up to us complimenting our episodes, including staff members and teachers. Some people would ask for us to interview them. The following year my friend graduated and I found a new partner to continue the series but it was more complicated because we had new staff and no longer had the meeting. Because of this, we had to do it during people’s lunch period when not as many people were engaged. Eventually, my new partner had to focus on school and I was left on my own. I held it for as long as I could till the last few months of my senior year when I had to focus on graduating. The videos are still available on YouTube (princess power learn ya flavor learn ya roots). This segment taught me how impactful we can be and it taught me how much I love interviewing and educating, which contribute to journalism.

After graduating high school, I quickly started interning at the Greater Cleveland Film Commission (GCFC). Through that internship, the workforce development manager Maria Rouzzo introduced me to Tiffany Alexander. She previously worked as a screenwriter and journalist for a good amount of time before becoming a teacher at Cleveland State for the film department. Alexander brought me into the school, gave me a tour, and answered the questions I had about her work experience and film. Some weeks later she emailed me about another internship opportunity where I would intern at The Cleveland Observer as one of their writers alongside some other interns who would take care of the filming/editing portion. The other interns and I started by taking some classes held by her to teach us about journalism. Then we were able to attend a local conference on mental health by two experts where we took notes. Afterward, the other writer and I wrote our first article. Mine was “Is Social Media Bad For Teens”. Unfortunately, the internship program shortly ended for everyone but The Cleveland Observer liked my work and offered me a job position. I have been working for them as an official member of their team ever since, which is now going on for 10 months.

Film (videography/acting): Whenever I wrote my stories I always could picture them visually. Not just with the stories I wrote but with music and the things I saw throughout my day. When I looked out the window at the world I saw a movie. My eyes have always been camera lenses. When me and my mom watched movies I often would tell her how I would’ve filmed the scene differently.
Around third or fourth grade I started turning some of the stories I wrote into plays, which introduced me to theater. It became my dream to direct a school play and be apart of one. In fifth grade I had this one play I wrote about a group of orphans saving their city from an alien/monster invasion. I presented it to my principal and told her how I would love to produce it into an actual play. She supported it and recommended me to a teacher who had some experience with theater. Unfortunately, the process was taking too long because I had to wait on this teacher to get me things and by the time he did it was the end of the year and he ended up not coming back the next school year. While I was disappointed I did participate in some plays.
Around this time I had started to make short films with my middle school best friend, Moth Teets. We would have sleepovers and hangouts all the time. Pretty much all the films we made were improvised with a specific theme. We could say something like “okay let’s make a film about two spy’s on a mission but when we get to our secret location, one of us gets kidnapped”. And so we would film it with that theme in mind but we would have no script. During this time as well we just had tablets. So we never edited our films we just pressed play and pause.
In the seventh grade we had a cool assignment in English class. It was a story writing competition. Everyone was assigned to write a short story. Afterwards each student would read their story to the class and everyone would vote on whose story they liked the most. The winners story would then be turned into a short film with the help of the class.
Most peoples story was not any longer than 3 pages, however when it came to certain projects I often ended up doing my own thing. My story ended up being over 30-40 pages long, and it took me 2-3 days to finish reading it to the class ( we were only given a limited time). Nonetheless, even though my story was not short, everyone loved it and voted for me to win. Shortly after, I became the director, main actress, screenwriter, casting director, and one of the videographers. Some people were really excited because they liked my story, while some people were really excited because we were allowed to skip class to go around the school to film. I found that this experience brought me a bit closer to my classmates. This experience served as a huge part of my film journey because I will never forget when we were filming and two of my actors came up to me and said “ Sarai, when you become a big famous director make sure to cast me in your movies.” I remember zoning out after the conversation for a few minutes because the word director really hit me. ‘Me? A director ?a filmmaker? Wow, I guess I have been making films for a while. I never even realized how much passion I have for it? Maybe I am meant to be a filmmaker in the future ? Could this be a sign?’ I thought in my head. Unfortunately, after injuring my hand the last day I had to film and edit, the film never was able to be edited or presented. However, from then on my passion for filmmaking only grew.
In 2020, after quarantine hit me and me and Moth couldn’t see each other to make films anymore, I made my first independent film on my moms ipad. It was about self esteem issues and society’s crazy standards for womens bodies. I never posted it but still have it on google photos. Later on in the year when I became a sophomore, I had an assignment in my major to take an old project and turn it into a different art form. I decided to take a comic strip I made about fake friends/negative people and turn it into a short film. This was the first film I showed anyone. I posted it on my art account at the time which is still up (@siristakingover). I developed a more thought out concept that still had the same theme as my comic strip, and wrote a mini script. It was entirely produced, filmed, and edited by me. I was the main character, my mom played the toxic aunt, and some friends of mine played the other roles including Moth. Because we couldn’t meet in person, the characters that they played came in when I pretended to be on the phone with them and had them read the script through the phone. I received a lot of positive feedback. From there I continued to produce short films and other video projects such as poetry visuals, dance visuals, and music videos.
In the spring of 2022, my major was introduced to new class options including film. Whichever class you chose lasted one full semester (there were 2 in the year). Greater Cleveland Film Commissions (GCFC) hosted the film class. After taking a beginners level hip hop class for the first semester I decided to give GCFC’s class a try. I strongly enjoyed the class. After the first day, I sent a long list of questions to Maria Rouzzo, who was one of the instructors for the class. During the time I also shadowed their building and was one of the main participants in class. It allowed me to network and learn a lot about film and even myself. My ambitious and curious energy in the class allowed me to form a great relationship with GCFC which led me to become an intern for the summer of 2023 after I graduated high school.
Finally, it was senior year. This was a very busy year for me. Continuing my black cultural segment, working with CMSD board members on changing dress code after I attended a meeting and successfully presented me and others concerns about the dress code (I also did an interview with different students about it and sent it to the CMSD board. This video is still up on my youtube channel Sirizworld). As well as becoming a director and producer for a potential student led tv show for my school. I was constantly working with the principal, attending meetings and organizing productions to produce different episodes with a team we created. Unfortunately we had a lot of technical issues that prevented this show from being produced, however the opportunity taught me a lot about myself. At this time, there was a videographer hired for the school named Eric who worked with us a lot. I had worked with him during the second semester to edit videos for the schools social media page, this was near the time as well that I had created my business @siriz_designs a few months prior where I offered video editing and graphic design services.
The second semester of my senior year, all the seniors had a senior project. For most people if you were a dancer you had to choreograph a dance number, if you were in choir you had to create a song, if you were in theater you had to direct and produce a play. Because I was in Integrated Arts, I fortunately had the free will to choose the project and art style I wanted to do. During this time, I felt a lot of emotions towards my major because throughout the years the support for the major became smaller and smaller. During that year, many people didn’t even consider it a real major. This became very stressful for me as a passionate artist because I wanted the same level of respect as my peers. I decided to create a short film that integrated multiple art forms. At first that was really all I wanted, for my film to prove that integrated arts majors are REAL artists too. But I realized that that wasn’t a good reason to produce this project. I wanted it to tell a story and be deeper than that. Eventually, with some reflection and the support of my previous teacher Ms. Quinn, I was able to figure out how I wanted to take it. I named it “Evolve.” It represented the evolution of finding yourself as an artist, which is what I had been going through that year, and served as a message to other multidisciplinary artist that you don’t have to put yourself in a box for anyone. I also wanted to allow other artist to be seen by being apart of my project. Because of quarantine I was so use to having to do everything on my own. It was a bit stressful figuring out how to integrate other people into it, and I even had a dance number that I had to turn into a solo because I couldn’t find enough dancers. Fortunately, Eric helped me film the project and I was able to find other models and actors. Some of the different art forms included in the film was: Poetry, a song I made on my guitar, acting, fashion styling, dance, and cinematography and editing. I was supposed to present it during a showcase but unfortunately due to technical problems I had to cancel, which was very disappointing. However, the film was put out on my youtube channel: Sirizworld, so people were still able to watch it, and still can to this day. This film means a lot to me because I feel like it represents who I am as a creative, and adds to my journey. It also was the first film I directed that physically involved people since before quarantine. Even though I had some set backs throughout my journey, each moment has taught me something.
Since then I have continued to film visuals. I more so have stepped into videography, which Eric contributed to because he’s helped me find my path with that. So videography became a service this year that I offer with my business and I currently work with a food organization as well where I do videography/video editing and social media management for them. I’ve stepped a lot into content creating for myself as well. Then I also have found that I really enjoy the commercial/editorial side of film. For a lot of the photoshoots I direct I love making visuals or even short films to promote the photoshoot similar to commercials but in a more fun way. I still love filmmaking and plan to collaborate with more filmmakers on film projects.

Fashion: As a child, I loved dresses, skirts, playing dress up, and Barbie/Bratz dolls. I took a sewing class when I was about eleven, but I didn’t learn as much as I would’ve liked to. It wasn’t until going to high school that my style began to develop.
Going to an art school; self-expression was a very big thing. People expressed themselves in different ways, and some people had amazing styles. It was motivating being around people who were able to use their clothes as an identity because it encouraged me to do the same. Quarantine in 2020 is when I first started experimenting which I can thank social media trends for. I have a clear memory of this trend where people would try on different clothing styles labeled “indie” “skater kid” “y2k” “alternative” “old money” and more. Aesthetics were really popular during that time. Then, the next year when I went back to school in person I saw improvement in my style. I started learning a bit about layering, accessorizing, and color techniques. This is when I first started gaining an interest in fashion, and I began to like the idea of styling other people. I loved the idea of being a celebrity stylist and turning fashion into an income.
When I became a senior in high school, my major was presented with an opportunity for new class options including fashion design. I took these classes for my entire senior year. The second semester of taking design is where I really saw improvement. My main teacher that year was Tiffany Carpenter(founder of LivNArt) and the assistant teacher was Janelle Ariona (founder of J. Arizona the Label). They were great teachers. That year we had about two fashion shows, and at the end of the year, we had a large project where all the students would present three looks. The first look would be to show an old garment we made, and then the other two looks would be new garments to show the improvement. We would be able to model one of the looks and then we’d have to have somebody else model the other look. We would all choose a time era and put our own spin on it. I chose the early 2000s. Some pieces of my garments were upcycled and some pieces were handmade. All of the looks from the students were shown in a fashion show we had at the school. I then had a photo shoot with a friend of mine who did photography so that I could add the look to my portfolio.
A few months after I graduated I had the opportunity to design an outfit that would be featured in my first magazine. These outfits can be found on my Instagram and is also available in my portfolio. Near the end of 2023, I became a fashion intern for Fashion Talks.
I still really love sewing. I want to, soon, become more consistent and eventually start sewing pieces for other people. I can see myself possibly becoming a fashion designer in the future, and it would be cool to do some type of internship where I can learn more about that side of things.
Being introduced to fashion in high school is what led me to discover my love for styling, directing, and modeling. Matter of fact, I first was introduced to Fashion Talks as a model which became my first professional runway moment and the start of my journey as a runway model.

Modeling:
I remember as a kid watching the young girls in Clothing Brand commercials and being inspired. I always liked the idea of being on TV, being in an advertisement, and I also really admired the young models for the Justice Tween clothing brand back when they were super popular. I always have this random flashback of me playing “Runaway” by Galantis in my bedroom and practicing my runway walk to it in sixth grade. I also remember looking at modeling agencies growing up.
During quarantine, I saw myself being a model for social media brands. I saw so many cool pictures of people wearing these different brands on social media and I began reaching out to the designers. I looked up casting calls/advice videos and sent out emails. At the time I didn’t have any professional photos of me so I was just sending nice pictures I had. I don’t recall hearing back or receiving a confident yes from any of these brands, which I always use as a reminder to myself that what’s meant for me will find me because the opportunities I’ve been exposed to now exceeded my expectations that I had during quarantine.

2022 hits and it’s the second semester of my junior year. I came across the photographer, Rudy Duran, and we became Instagram mutuals. During the time he was having this photoshoot deal for $250, I believe. You would get styled in 10 different outfits, a good amount of shoot time, and some nice edits. I had this positive intuitive feeling that told me to book. He had a stylist booked for the models, and I ended up being able to keep all 2000-4000 raw photos that he took of me. It was a great opportunity and I was able to use these professional pictures as the start of my modeling portfolio. During this time I had a friend, Zero, who went to my school who was getting into photography. They often would be looking for a model to practice with. Zero and I helped each other a lot at the start of our journey by working with each other. This same time I had heard about Fashion Talks, a Cleveland fashion organization founded by Aimon Ali who travels a lot and does work in New York as well. Fashion Talks would be having their annual fashion show but it was for people 18+ and I was 17 at the time that I heard about it. I signed up for their newsletter and kept up with them on Instagram. In the meantime, I continued looking out for modeling opportunities, watching advice videos, and reaching out to models on Instagram to ask them for advice.

2023 spring came and I was now an 18-year-old senior in high school. I received an email about a casting call for Fashion Talks 2023 Fashion Show and I felt that positive intuitive feeling again. I decided to attend, making it my first modeling casting. It went really quickly. Lucky for me, a few months later I heard back and was able to model for them in June.
From there, as I mentioned later on I was featured in a magazine. This was for the Violet Edge Magazine, owned by Denyce Renee who is also a photographer. I met her through a cousin of mine. We talked a bit about our creative interest and she presented the opportunity to me to not only sew an outfit for her Fall Issue but also be a model. I modeled the outfit I created, an outfit she created, and some pieces styled by Recollection Cleveland. I had a great time during the photoshoot, it was great energy and from there things became consistent. The Fashion Talks show allowed me to network so some of my next photoshoots and fashion shows included people I met from that show such as a beautiful photography event I was a featured model at hosted by Michael Marhefka and the Uncovered Production fashion show hosted by Stella Stevens, a model I met at fashion talks.

I just continued to meet people, hear about casting calls, have people reach out to me and I’ve been working ever since. I’ve now been a part of several photoshoots and fashion shows including Frisk Me Good, Indie Fashion, the Cleveland Gala, Ohio Creatives United, and more. This year I had the opportunity to be on the Kicking it with Kenny show on Fox 8 News to promote some summer fashion shows where I worked the camera wearing a beautiful dress by Darryl Darby, one of my favorite Cleveland designers’.

My goal is to soon have modeling as an income and become an international runway model as well as a commercial and editorial model. I would love to work for beauty/fashion/and self care brands.

Creative Directing:
As a filmmaker, I always had a visual eye for things. I also have a photography background which contributes to my visual eye. Growing up I was in photography clubs in 3rd, 4th, 6th, 9th, and 10 grade. During quarantine, I did nature photography on my phone. So photography has always been close to my heart and something I admire. The more I got into modeling the more I would have ideas about photoshoots, and sometimes through a filmmaker perspective, I would have ideas about different advertisements and campaign ideas for brands. I remember having this mutual on Instagram who did creative directing and I thought her work was so cool. So many times I tried to push myself into some of my ideas as the model, not considering that I could be a director instead. I remember asking her for advice on how she got into creative directing, and I started watching day-in-the-life videos of other directors. I started seeing more people’s work and I would write down different ideas I had but I was a bit anxious. I always worried that people wouldn’t work with me because I didn’t have much experience, and then figuring out the location and other things. It came to a point that I just kept having the same idea reoccur in my head and I thought ‘Imagine if someone else does the same thing before you all because you were too fearful to just go for it’. I was nervous to reach out to people, but I decided to take the leap of faith anyway.
I told myself, okay if you’re going to reach out to people make sure you’re professional and organized about it. So I made sure to decide on my theme, create a mood board, and organize things like time, location, cast, props, and things like that. I then decided who I felt like fit the theme best and reached out to models and photographers. While there was a minor setback, like the location I chose not feeling very comfortable with us shooting inside, the photoshoot still went amazing and we were able to work with the location as best as we could. Everyone showed up, and the results were amazing. It felt great seeing my idea come to life knowing I organized everything myself and that so many people had my back and supported me. Along with that, I filmed a visual with it as well. All of which can be found on my main Instagram and fashion Instagram account, and portfolio.
After this photoshoot, which took place in late December of 2023, I created my fashion account- @siriz_fashionworld which I would use to promote my work as a creative director, fashion producer, and stylist.
After the first photo shoot, I just became consistent. This year I’ve been doing a lot of collaborations with other photographers instead of organizing everything on my own which has been a great way to network and learn how to work with others. I’ve had some photoshoots that have been up to 9 or 10 models.
Sometimes it’s crazy to realize that it’s been less than a year of creative directing because it came so naturally to me. I appreciate how many people have been supporting me through my journey, and the great thing is I genuinely enjoy what I do. My goal is to be able to direct different fashion campaigns, advertisements, and photoshoots. I also would love to do projects outside of photography and fashion such as music videos and film. For the majority of my shoots that I direct, I also work as a stylist. I eventually would like to put out a price list and website where people can book me. I also would love to join an internship that can help me develop my skills.

Because I am so versatile and have so many ambitions, I often feel a bit misunderstood. This is why I love mixing art forms because it’s my way of showing the world that it’s okay to be more than one thing. It shows that you can be passionate about more than one career. Sometimes it can be mistaken as confusion. Some people believe that if you don’t settle down on one career it’s because you don’t know what you want to do. The reality is that everyone is on a journey of self-discovery whether you’re pursuing one career, two, or more. What I have learned though is that it is okay to change your mind. It is okay to make mistakes. It is okay to be confused. It is okay to be misunderstood. But it is never okay to lose yourself in your work or because of other people.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I didn’t grow up rich. I did what I could with the resources I had. There were times where the lack of money me and my mom had impacted me mentally and physically. It was stressful knowing I had big dreams but was limited by my finances. Even to this day, I work with what I have because I know hard times don’t have to be permanent. My mental health and confidence also came into play. When I was younger I really struggled with my confidence, which I think came from my experience being bullied. Transparently, I think being a kid writing about my experience as I was still processing it in my book didn’t really reflect on what it was like versus if I wrote about my experience as an adult who is looking back at the things people did to me. Don’t get me wrong, I provided an outlook from someone experiencing bullying first hand. However, when I read my book, I realize I still had a very innocent and empathetic perspective. Because I was a very nice girl, and all I really wanted was to be friendly with people. That said, I didn’t realize how much the bullying had emotionally hurt me. The older I got the more I could identify my feelings and see the impact bullying had on me. Especially since I was bullied pretty much from preschool to the end of middle school. I remember posting a video of me dancing on instagram when I was in middle school and some kids reposted it making fun of me on their accounts. I told myself I wouldn’t ever dance in front of anyone again until I became an adult. In 2020, I created a art account on Instagram separate from my main. I began posting different posts on there such as: drawings, photography, poetry, videos of me rapping, and then eventually freestyle dance videos. I posted my first freestyle on there and was so nervous. I ended up getting a lot of support in my comments which was really motivating and I continued to post different freestyle videos over the next few months, as well as short films. I posted one of my first independent films on there which I also got a lot of support on. Making that account and going to an arts school helped me build my confidence and heal from those past experiences. I’m not perfect but I’ve definitely come along way, and my perspective has changed a lot. I learned the importance of confidence, networking, not comparing yourself and trusting the journey.
Another thing is, in some of my experiences, I had setbacks where things didn’t work out. It felt like, especially with film, something was always getting in the way. My hand was injured in seventh grade, me not being able to present my film “Evolve”. There were a lot of moments I could’ve just given up, but I didn’t.

Some things I have learned are:
1. People treat others how they treat themselves. Projection is real. Insecure people can sometimes project their insecurities onto other people. People will be mean to you even when it has nothing to do with you. When you understand that, you get rid of this guilt that we sometimes put on ourselves when dealing with mean people.

2. Boundaries are important. Kindness doesn’t hurt you, but being kind and lacking boundaries does. Standing up for yourself does not take away your kindness. The saying you have to have “tough skin” in this industry is real. People can be tough on you. However, that doesn’t mean you have to put up with it every time.

3. Beauty is versatile. If you can see the beauty in the moon and the sun, why can’t you simultaneously see the beauty in others and yourself? Stop putting yourself down just because you don’t look like someone else. The same applies to lifestyle. As creatives, we may compare our successes to others not considering the different lives we all live.

4. Sometimes we are our biggest critics. When I posted that dance video I assumed people would leave a negative comment, yes because of my past with mean people but because of how my past impacted the way I saw myself. Deep down inside I was giving myself negative comments and assumed other people would too. It starts with us. Acknowledge your insecurities and sit with them. I don’t believe in masking your insecurities. If you never confront them they’ll only linger. Realize that many times the way we see ourselves is separate from how others see us and vice versa. There are billions of people in the world, everyone will not like you or your work. That goes into your audience. You will find your audience, but don’t be upset just because someone came to the wrong crowd. Post your work, and stop being afraid of other people’s opinions, including your own.

I also think overall as a creative, especially being on social media, mental health can sometimes be an obstacle. I can transparently say I’ve struggled with my mental health on and off over the years and I always try to show up authentically on social media and not as someone portraying myself as “perfect”. I think it’s very important to prioritize your well-being over work and content. And take breaks when you need to. That’s also why it’s so important to have a support system, not just with people you work with supporting your art, but people you can genuinely rely on and trust to be there for you during tough times.

It also is important to have a way to express your feelings and emotions and for me, art is one of the ways I do that. The great thing about my work is, I’m doing what I genuinely love. So not only am I trying to make a career or income out of it, but when I’m stressed it’s something I can still go to. Often when I’m stressed or feeling overwhelmed I draw, dance, and write music, and poetry. Sometimes I’ll make film visuals, really just anything to get out of my head and just exist and have fun. Journaling is also a really good habit to release stress and vent.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I really pride myself in my authenticity, organization and maturity. I try to create a safe space for all the people I work with, I always want people to feel comfortable, heard, supported and respected. I try to handle situations presented to me in the most mature way possible while still valuing my morals. One of the biggest questions I get is how do I stay so organized and productive? I try to make my projects very clear. I love making agendas so that everyone is on the same page. I try to be very communicative with the people I’m working with as well.

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
When it comes to networking it’s just about getting over this fear or anxiety, I think, a lot of us have that tells us something will go wrong. We have to remember that:
1. A lot of us are in the same boat. The same way you might be fearful of speaking to somebody who you think is cool, other people might feel the same way towards you.
2. We are all humans and part of the human experience is connecting. I think things like quarantine have impacted our social skills, unfortunately, so we rely on technology to communicate with each other. I think this is something we need to encourage people to grow out of. Talk to people in real life.

There are networking events that you can attend to better your social skills and intentionally find potential people to work with and build relationships with. Greater Cleveland Film Commissions for example has multiple networking events every year open to all creatives, but great to meet people in the film industry.

I think another thing is, don’t feel bad to speak about your talents, and success, or advertise yourself. When speaking to somebody who has similar goals or work as you, sometimes all you have to do is mention “Oh hey that’s cool that you do XYZ, I do XYZ as well. I work as an ABC, and I’d love to work with you in the future”. Things like that can take you far. Even if you don’t have that exact position you want yet, you never know who can help you get there. Let people know what you’re interested. Ask questions, and most importantly get EMAILS, numbers, or Instagram, some form of contact. I have had some moments where I may have been too shy to ask questions in person but was able to schedule a meeting or get their contacts which has always benefited me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://saraimurdock.wordpress.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siriz_world_/ | https://www.instagram.com/siriz_fashionworld/ | https://www.instagram.com/siriz_designs/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sirizworld
• Other: https://linktr.ee/sirizworld