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Cynthia Neely, head shot, column mug,

Cynthia Neely

Arts/Entertainment

Cynthia Neely is a veteran of the Texas motion picture industry as a writer/producer and helped found the Texas Motion Picture Alliance. Her background includes working in radio and regional television, among them ABC and NBC network affiliates, for which she produced over 1,000 live or pre-recorded program episodes. That was exhausting, so for the latter part of her career she has been a freelance writer and avid promoter of the Texas production industry. She is a partner in Black Gold Productions, a Houston-based company with two television series and a feature film in development. An occasional actor, she really does have an agent.

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All articles by this author.  59 Results. Showing 1 to 20
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A victim's best friend

Brutally raped and nearly murdered, this superwoman becomes a crime-fighting sketch artist

By Cynthia Neely

Viciously, the rapist strangled the young woman until she blacked out. The whites of her eyes began to turn an angry scarlet as they filled with blood from the pressure ...


Who needs a Kardashian?

Action-packed reality TV series is headed to Houston, thanks to producer Jerry Bruckheimer

By Cynthia Neely

A new reality series is heading for Houston and it comes with a darned good pedigree. Deadline Hollywood reports that Marshal Law: Texas has been greenlighted for six episodes on ...


Starring Texas

The sushi craze's dark side: Texas film shows how foodies threaten to make tuna rarer than oil

By Cynthia Neely

Hut one! Hut two! Hut Sushi? Have you heard the one about the Texas high school that sells sushi at its football games? Me either, but it’s no joke ...


Starring Texas

Remains of the day: The woman behind TV's Bones redefines the art of scary, multi-tasking

By Cynthia Neely

Some little girls dream of becoming a ballerina or a fashion designer or a princess. But not all little girls are so starry eyed, thank goodness. Some want to be ...


Starring Texas

Mad Men, Good Wives, Dog Days & Cool Hands: Screenwriter Frank Pierson's words live on

By Cynthia Neely

Sometimes the best career advice is for someone to tell you your work sucks. Years ago, when I first met writer, director and producer Frank Pierson at the Austin Film ...


Starring Texas

Ten years after vicious attack, "Beautiful Warrior" marries TV producer who covered her story

By Cynthia Neely

An ABC News producer met the girl of his dreams while covering the story of her nightmare. If ever there was an example of something good coming from something bad ...


Starring Texas!

The craziest thing about Comicpalooza? Weird people watching & ghost hunters cede to serious networking

By Cynthia Neely

Whoo hoo! I just had a two-day blast at the George R. Brown Convention Center meeting some of the most unique, talented — and yes, sometimes weird — people on the planet ...


Starring Texas

Dennis Quaid goes Vegas, Wes Anderson wows Cannes, Kyle Chandler turns FBI with Scorsese & DiCaprio

By Cynthia Neely

This has been a grand week for Texans in the film and television industry — as well as for some who only act Texan. Native Houstonian Dennis Quaid, a bona fide ...


Not With Our Taxes

The real hidden tragedy of the Astrodome: Taxpayers pay big for failures of icon's caretakers

By Cynthia Neely

Houstonians are being rooked. Their attention is being diverted from the colossal waste of their taxpayer money, the real issue, to talk of what our Astrodome could become  — even if ...


Starring Texas

Texas A&M's Greg Carter brings filmmaking back to H-Town with multiple movies & reality shows

By Cynthia Neely

Back when Greg Carter was studying engineering at Texas A&M, he happened to take a course from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Charles Gordone. The result was sort of like what ...


The wait continues

The saddest Eighth Wonder in the world: Why was the Astrodome allowed to fall apart in first place?

By Cynthia Neely

My how time flies. It is approaching two years already since Harris County residents were presented a trio of options in which to vote for the future of the Astrodome ...


Starring Texas

George Zimmer guarantees it: Houston is perfectly suited for Men's Wearhouse national commercial shoot

By Cynthia Neely

He puts his pants on like the rest of us, one leg at a time, but George Zimmer probably knows better how to sell them than anybody in the country ...


Starring Texas

Houston gets a little love at Sundance as Reality Bites — again

By Cynthia Neely

Do you remember where you were in 1994? While I may have trouble remembering what I had for lunch yesterday, and especially where I put my car keys, I can ...


Introducing the Merry Adoptable Dozen

Abandoned in a kennel for years, these dozen animals need a permanent home for the holidays

By Cynthia Neely

One couple is fluffy, white, and pet calendar gorgeous! You’d think this cat sister and brother named “Snow” and “Flake” would be shoo-ins for adoption. People should be fighting ...


mile-high tv

Southwest Airlines reality TV series takes flight, but will it shun the Texas home base?

By Cynthia Neely

Cable network TLC has ordered 13 episodes of a reality TV series that will take viewers behind the scenes of Southwest Airlines. According to an exclusive report in The Wrap ...


Big Surprises, Small Sculptures

Whistle while you watch: Ethan Hawke & Cinema Arts Fest guests receive unique gift

By Cynthia Neely

I wish I could be a fly on the wall when actor Ethan Hawke opens his thank you present for participating in this week’s Cinema Arts Festival Houston. How ...


Be Afraid, very afraid

Close Encounters of the Zombie Kind: Three near-misses in one day in west Houston

By Cynthia Neely

Truth is often stranger than fiction and I swear every word of this is true. By lunch time on Halloween I had run into three zombies.  In broad daylight! Mind ...


Happy Haunting

The real history of Halloween: From pagan rituals to candy carnage and a ghoulish industry

By Cynthia Neely

When filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s E.T. wanted to phone home to his home planet, the little alien just repurposed the innards of various electronic equipment, like telephones and a ...


Starring Texas

The Houston secrets of Puncture: How Captain America came to star, why Bono jumped in & local locales

By Cynthia Neely

Houston attorney Paul Danziger had a true story to tell. An urgent, life and death true story. He wanted to honor the vigilant efforts of his friend and former law ...


Starring Texas!

Page Parkes: A model of success for 30 years

By Cynthia Neely

    How did a poor little Texas girl, born in Denton and raised with two younger sisters in Clear Lake by a hardworking mom, grow up to co-own the largest modeling ...


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