Julia Carias-Linares

I'm at heart a storyteller who started in this industry as in front of the camera talent and worked in many different capacities - everything from PA, production assistant, to casting, to producing commercials, to independent films and short films, both in front and behind the camera. I really focused on the production aspect, sometimes executive producing which brings in the funding. Then I started working at a big network where I learned how to create unscripted content and reality television, working across three of their different brands for 5 or 6 years. I was doing home shows and lifestyle content at this network and grew a passion for spaces and creating beautiful spaces. I realized there was this whole industry called staging, working with real estate agents to prepare homes about to go on the market. The media storytelling side of me was always prevalent because it is like telling a story when you curate products and furniture and artwork for a space. I was recording all the work I was doing, didn't know how I was going to use that content, but I knew I needed to capture it and document it. When the pandemic hit, we had to shift because there was a huge exodus from New York City into the suburbs. We were staging million-dollar apartments in New York City and building our company, but everything came to a halt. I started developing a show around women in real estate, multicultural women in real estate, and met with buyers like Amazon and Netflix. We started helping our friends redo their spaces, beautify their spaces, reimagining their spaces, and that's how we shifted from staging into renovation. Freedom Studios was born out of the need to tell our stories as women, as storytellers, as women of color, taking control of our narrative. One of the shows recently on the air was Fixed Mi Casa, the show around me and my husband staging and designing homes in the tri-state area in New York City. We're going into Season 2. We also did a documentary called Dear America, A Letter from Black Women about Black women and the history of their contribution to the political system and how often these women are not taken into consideration when it comes to policymaking. We toured over 10 states, 16 cities showcasing the film. We're also working on another documentary about children who are abandoned in Latin America. It's been a journey, and now we're trying to build two companies, which is not easy, but we wake up and give grace and gratitude for the health that we have and that we live in a country that allows us to do multiple things, and we're changing lives in the process.