How CA in LA Built a Multimedia Empire from Friendship, Twitch, and a Whole Lot of Heart

What started as a cross-country move and a Tumblr blog turned into a full-blown creative movement. Best friends and creative partners Courtney and Ashleigh, known together as CA in LA, have spent the last several years transforming their deep bond into a vibrant multimedia company spanning film, music, live broadcasts, and fine art. From producing five weekly Twitch shows and educational streams with Adobe to crafting immersive short films and recording their debut studio album, the duo leads with collaboration, symbolism, and heart. In this exclusive interview, they share how being best friends first shaped every project since, and why community—especially their beloved “Ohana”—is the secret ingredient to it all.

Ask ChatGP

PH: You’ve been creating together since 2013 and officially founded CA in LA in 2017. What inspired the two of you to formalize your partnership into a full-fledged multimedia company?

We moved from Maryland to Los Angeles in 2017 and were documenting our first year living here on Tumblr and YouTube. We were networking like crazy, met someone who was enamored with our best friendship, and encouraged us to think of ourselves as a brand. We instantly thought, how clever is CA in LA, Courtney and Ashleigh in Los Angeles?

We kept making vlogs and films through 2018, when we started streaming on Twitch. Twitch really defined us as CA in LA, producing and starring in 5 live broadcasts weekly. Since we were performing music live on stream, we started releasing covers and originals on YouTube and streaming platforms, which really turned CA in LA into a full-fledged multimedia company.

PH: Your creative output spans film, music, broadcast, and fine art. How do you decide which medium is best suited for a particular story or idea?

This is such a great question. As we hone our skills in different mediums, we’ve found they inspire and enhance one another. We’re also neurodivergent and hyperfixate on different areas in our lives, so sometimes those hyperfixations dictate our medium. We allow ourselves the freedom to explore the message we are being inspired by and usually talk about it on stream with our community, The Ohana. From there, we usually can feel where the inspiration is leading us, from a song to a film or fine art.

PH: Collaboration is a central pillar of CA in LA’s philosophy. How do you foster inclusive creative communities, both through your content and behind the scenes?

Our ethos of collaboration has to start with us. It’s powerful to see two women standing next to each other! To foster inclusive creative communities, we lead in-depth conversations on our live broadcasts, creating a collaborative and supportive energy. We lead our community with kindness and respect, and welcome home each person, every stream. Even during community gaming nights, we stay away from overly competitive games in lieu of collaborative-based games.

When it comes to live events and film settings, it’s incredibly important to us to lead with kindness. We encourage a sandbox approach to collaboration, inviting our teammates to bring a sense of play and curiosity to each project. We strive to have diversity on our sets and in show lineups, and take pride in blending backgrounds and experiences amongst our team, which Production HUB makes it easy to find creatives to collaborate on our films. By leading with love and passion, it’s easy to remember that while all these things are work, this is all meant to be fun and expressive.

PH: Your work is known for its rich symbolism and immersive storytelling. Can you talk about your creative process? Where do you begin when crafting a multi-layered visual or audio experience?

We love our symbolism and immersive storytelling! Our creative process starts with immersing ourselves in ideas. We spend our daily lives being inspired by the world around us. We allow ourselves to feel deeply and be moved by anything. Sometimes it's a line in a poem, a piece of art in a museum, nature, or in a hypothetical scenario. From there, we experiment with the best medium to explore the story we’re creating.

We remove ego from the process, allowing what's best for each story to come to the surface - as there is truth in every note. With film in particular, we have a rule that each individual element has to stand alone and tell the story by itself. Our biggest breakthrough this year has been giving ourselves time to obsess over the small details to make the bigger piece more powerful. It’s helped give us peace in knowing when a project is complete and ready to be released into the world.

PH: You've worked closely with Adobe to deliver educational live streams on new product features and creative workflows. How did this partnership come about, and what has made it a successful collaboration?

Working with Adobe has been such a dream come true. Our friend, Ashley Woods, recommended we come to one of their community events in Los Angeles. We met a bunch of the team, who are extraordinary creatives. A few months later, we became a part of their Odyssey Program and started doing educational live streams. This year especially, we’ve loved helping grow their Twitch presence through exclusive live streams.

The most successful collaborations define expectations, communicate goals, and make sure both parties are informed through the process. We’re really passionate about being prepared through planning, and we’re visual learners, so making sure we incorporate photos and videos, as well as breaking down barriers of entry to our audiences. These goals align with Adobe, which makes our partnership serendipitous.

PH: Many live streams focus on tutorials or tool breakdowns, but yours incorporates a very active community presence. How has your Twitch background influenced the format and tone of your Adobe Live broadcasts?

Twitch has helped us in so many areas, from public speaking to being comfortable with rolling through unexpected emergencies, like tech issues, on the fly. The community presence is what makes Twitch so magical, being live with people around the world, spending time with us, and interacting in real time. On our Adobe Live broadcasts, we get to bring our seven years of live broadcast experience, along with our film experience, and share it with people who are curious. Engaging with chat is second nature and helps drive the direction of fun of each Adobe Live we lead.

PH: What are some of your favorite Adobe tools or features you rely on most in your creative workflow, and how do they enhance your storytelling or production efficiency?

Text-based editing has been the number one tool that has revolutionized our workflow. Especially when we are watching through 80+ hours of footage a month from our livestreams, we can type in a specific word and be immediately taken to that moment in our timeline. Text-based editing has given us assembly time back to be able to add better text, graphics, and transitions, ultimately making our videos better.

PH: During your livestreams, you break down creative work in real time. What kind of feedback or questions do you most often get from the community, and how does that shape future content?

Breaking down creative work in real time in front of an internet audience can be very daunting. Something we have to remember is that most creatives do all these things differently. We all have different workflows, different tips and tricks.

Early on, the feedback we got from the community was to simplify our workflow and explain it in more beginner terms. This initial feedback piece helped us reimagine our lesson plans and helped us take our time explaining things with beginners in mind. This led us to lean into an educational and explanation-based opener with visuals, transitioning into the demo for the second half of the broadcast. Reminding audiences that there are no stupid questions empowers them to speak up and ask about things that may not be clear, which inspires us with new ideas for things to showcase. We love curiosity!

PH: You’re trusted by brands like Blackmagic and SanDisk. How do you bridge the gap between technical precision and artistic vision in your work?

It’s been so cool working with Blackmagic and SanDisk this year. We’ve been using Blackmagic gear in film and broadcast, and using SanDisk for over a decade in memory cards and hard drives. Blackmagic and SanDisk have great, reliable products, and make it easy for us to use daily.

We’re able to bridge the gap between technical precision and artistic vision in our work by understanding our individual needs in each area and finding the best tools and technology to support our needs. Instead of going for the biggest or most popular technology, our tools have to work in our workflow and support our art. Each project has different demands, and by allowing ourselves to continue learning about new technology in our industries (through trade shows like NAB and CineGear), it allows us to stay inspired and educated about how we can best support our artistic vision with the technology available to us.

PH: Can you share a recent project where pushing the boundaries of multimedia helped unlock something new in your storytelling approach?

Our latest short film, Mommy Issues, instantly comes to mind. Mommy Issues is an absurdist comedy that ended up unlocking new workflows, processes, and inspirations. Shot over two days in August 2024, we forced ourselves to film in one location with two characters. We allowed ourselves to experiment with lenses, drones, transitions, lighting, and visual effects. We were ecstatic to hire our friend, Talia Ellis, to create hand-drawn ending credits. We had the largest crew we’ve had in several years and took so many risks, simply to tell an absurdist film with a meaningful message.

Our Ohana funded the film (thank you so much, Ohana), and as we were in edit, we would host screenings for them to give us feedback about each cut. We were able to discuss changes in real time, as well as have an engaged critique from many different perspectives. This part of the process was brand new for us, as we usually edit our films without sharing for critique. Giving ourselves time as well as trusting our audiences to help shape the final film was powerful and made Mommy Issues the best film of our careers.

PH: As immersive technologies evolve and platforms shift, what do you see as the next frontier for multimedia storytelling, and how is CA in LA preparing for that?

We love exploring new technologies and mediums, which has been a blessing and a curse. We’re fascinated with the evolving medium of immersive art. Back in 2021, we started incorporating sound-reactive AR (augmented reality) into our live stream with Lightform’s LFT2+. It created a mappable projection behind us that was fully customizable, which set our Twitch stream apart. While the product stopped providing support, it unlocked a curiosity in projection and immersive technologies.

We’ve been hoping to explore immersive storytelling in film, and later this year, we’re so excited to work with Blackmagic’s URSA Cine Immersive camera and Apple Immersive Video to develop a dramatic film. In conjunction with our debut studio album coming out later this year, you might also see us trying out a live concert with immersive cameras? You’ll have to stay tuned!

PH: Finally, we know you're currently in the studio recording your album (AHHH!). Can you give us a hint of what we might expect from this new creative chapter?

It’s finally happening! We’ve been writing original music together since 2019, and have since written dozens of songs. We’ve had years to let our musical style and skill develop, and we finally felt ready to fully realize our full band sound into an album. As of writing, we’re wrapping up recording in the studio, which has been such an empowering experience. While this process has been scary, revolutionary, and inspiring, our producer, Marc Nieto, has been our biggest advocate. We love you, Marc!

This new creative chapter is our central focus to finish out 2025. We’re developing an entire identity around this album, complete with a release strategy. We’ve given ourselves time to think through exactly what it is we want to say and how we want to say it. Courtney has been deep in exploring and experimenting with the cover art. We’ve been putting together mood boards to help us visualize the overall vision.

We can’t wait for you to see everything we have planned, from the release show to the photo shoots, CD, vinyl, lyric book, fine art drop, live listen party on stream, visualizers, and beyond. This new era will continue to define us as best friends and individuals. We’re beyond blessed to be living our dreams.

We’d love to use this last moment to thank our Ohana. Over the last few months, we’ve been funding our studio album on stream, and recently, they absolutely annihilated the goal, and even exceeded it, for Courtney to get a new guitar! This group of humans around the world rallies around us to remind us that not only are we never alone, but we can accomplish the goals we set for ourselves. Ohana, you make it possible for us to fly. You make our story feel so unbelievable. Thank you for always being our home, you low key philosophers.

Production HUB, thank you so much for your very thoughtful questions. To you, the reader, thank you for your time in learning more about us and our story. We hope to leave you inspired and empowered. Come hang out with us and the Ohana on Twitch; we’d love to have you!

For more on us, please check us out here.