Claudia Gray

Basically, I always wanted to be an author but went through all these other jobs while getting up the nerve to finally go for it with my writing! Thank goodness it worked; who knows what I might have done next?

'Star Wars' is very black and white, and honestly, I like it that way. But fantastical settings like that work best when the characters within them feel real. Real people have conflicts and make mistakes and get it wrong sometimes.

Working on 'Austin and Ally' has been an absolute dream! We literally have fun every single day! Whether it's scaring each other or singing together or just hanging out in each other's dressing rooms, the cast and I are super close! I feel really lucky to be with everyone on our set!

When a place comes across vividly in a novel, it's often compared to a character. I can remember writing teachers who encouraged me to treat setting as if it were a character, to give it three dimensions, to make it come alive, jump off the page.