A Little Magic, a Lot of Heart, and One Episode I’ll Never Forget

Directing an episode of Just Add Magic for Amazon Studios was a full-on joy from start to finish. Not to mention, coaching on every episode of their 4 seasons! There is something so beautifully crafted about this show — the way it takes a magical cookbook and turns it into a story about friendship, legacy, and the things we pass down through generations. It’s quietly one of the most thoughtful family series out there.

The creative vision behind this show — executive produced by Joe Nussbaum, who also directed, alongside Andrew Orenstein, Pixie Wespiser, John-Paul Nickel, and the book’s author Cindy Callaghan — is meticulous and warm in the best possible way. The stories they built across three seasons hold up because the people making them genuinely cared.

Getting to direct Olivia Sanabia (Kelly), Abby Donnelly (Darbie), and Aubrey Miller (Hannah) was a master class in watching young performers who are completely in sync with each other. Add in the legendary Dee Wallace as Grandma and the incomparable Amy Hill as Mama P, and every scene had layers of texture and magic — sometimes literal, always emotional. Amazon put a gem on their platform with this one, and I’m so grateful I got to add my chapter to it.