Cassidy Krygger is a film historian, cultural commentator, filmmaker and founder of Hollywoodland Photos, who first featured on The Raw Nerve Podcast in 2024. Living with multiple sclerosis (MS) since 2018, she draws on classic cinema and lived experience to explore identity, resilience and invisible illness through her films ‘Daisy’, ‘Love in the Moonlight’ and ‘The Last Spotlight’.
Cassidy returns to the podcast to discuss creativity, storytelling, cinema and life with MS with host Jeremy Henderson.
Since her previous appearance, ‘Daisy’ has screened at more than 30 international film festivals, won 17 awards and earned a Best Short Film nomination at the 2025 AACTA Awards—building Cassidy’s confidence and opening doors.
Cassidy reflects on Hollywoodland Photos, the classic-cinema platform she founded at 18. Now attracting more than 20 million monthly views, it combines her fascination with old Hollywood’s beauty, escapism and history with well-researched, respectful content.
Her deeply personal short film in development, ‘The Last Spotlight’, is set in 1950s Melbourne, Australia and follows Norma, a glamorous showgirl diagnosed with MS at her career’s height. Cassidy hopes to make invisible symptoms visible and examine the pressure to conceal illness while performing.
She explains how her diagnosis and considering those who lived with MS when information, support and treatment were scarce shaped the concept. Her research included a conversation with eminent neurologist and MS researcher Professor Bruce Taylor of the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, co-recipient of MS Australia’s 2025 MS Research Award.
Today’s conversation explores fatigue, brain fog and fluctuating health alongside demanding creative work. Cassidy emphasises supportive healthcare and filmmaking teams, help from her mother and friends, realistic scheduling, recovery time, openness, and self-advocacy.
For Cassidy, rest is as important to success as action.
She previews ‘Love in the Moonlight’, a classic-film-inspired romantic supernatural feature moving into production and plans a glamorous World MS Day 2028 premiere of ‘The Last Spotlight’ to raise MS awareness and funds in support of MS Australia.
Ultimately, Cassidy wants her films to offer escape, joy and understanding. Her work reminds us that even when life changes unexpectedly, the story is still being written.
