Vivian Leigh

Like, what were your thoughts when...

This is Nikki Smedley.

She produced a handful of karaoke videos for Pioneer in London and has had a long career in entertainment.

I started out as a...

And that's me.

You did hear that correctly.

Nikki was one of the original Teletubbies.

She played Lala, the yellow one.

At the time, Nikki had very little to no production experience.

Her friend Neil was hired to direct some videos and brought her on as a producer and choreographer.

I found her name on the credits for Pioneer Laserdisc Volume 307, which I was actually holding in my hand during our Zoom call.

Nikki instantly clocked the Laserdisc volume in my hand.

It had a song for a video she worked on called Ain't Nothing Going On But The Rent.

If you've never heard it, it's an R&B song by Gwen Guthrie about a woman looking for a man who's, at the very least, financially stable.

No romance without finance is the refrain.

Nikki and her director Neil, on the other hand, plotted out a different story for the video.

It was about a couple who throw a house party in order to come up with money for rent.

It's definitely a different interpretation of the song's original meaning, but it works.

She broke down the process of how that video was planned.

And then voila.