A former sex worker has revealed how she overcame sexual harassment in Hollywood to turn her personal story of life as a 'camgirl' into a hit horror film.
Award-winning screenwriter Isa Mazzei, 27, wrote the film Cam based on her own experiences of being harassed and threatened while working as an internet star.
But Mazzei said that her transition from sex worker to Hollywood was anything but smooth - with executives belittling her because of her past.
'I've worked in retail, I've worked in the tech industry, I've worked in porn, and I have never been more sexually harassed than trying to sell this film in Hollywood,' Mazzei told
Isa Mazzei, 27, wrote the Netflix film Cam, based on her own experience as a sex worker 
A scene from the movie Cam shows the protagonist Alice, who works as a webcam girl for a porn site 
The film Cam will debut worldwide on Netflix later this month. Mazzei, a Colorado native, won Best Screenplay at Fantasia Festival, where the movie also won Best First Feature.
It follows the story of Alice, played by Orange is the New Black and Handmaid's Tale star Madeline Brewer, who makes a living as a webcam model on a porn site. 
The film Cam will be available worldwide later this month
As her career becomes wildly lucrative and compliments from men pour in, Alice feels like she has the world at her fingertips.
Her online views skyrocket the more extreme her behavior gets in her videos- something that mirrors Mazzei's own life working as a camgirl.
'I made the most money and had the most viewers when I did BDSM and kinky shows,' she said. 'The more extreme you go the more you get the reputation ''oh, she's crazy,'' the more people want to come in and see that spectacle.' 
But in the film someone suggests Alice perform a dangerous and gruesome sexual act, saying: 'I want you to bleed. Go ahead, kill yourself'. 
'These are the risks we all make when we agree to be online,' Mazzei told The Daily Beast. 'We have no privacy, but we all take that risk to be able to participate in this magnificent thing that we've created and we kind of just accepted it very nonchalantly.'
While trying to get her movie made, Mazzei says she endured film executives who thought they could take advantage of her for her sex work.  
Mazzei revealed she was belittled and harassed by Hollywood executives because of her past
Mazzei, a Colorado native, won best screenplay at Fantasia Festival, where the movie also won Best First Feature.
She said some refused to take her seriously, while others would ask for personal details from her previous career.
One Hollywood agent wrote an alternate ending to the film - a fantasy that included himself and Mazzei in the script.
'It was basically erotic fan-fiction of me and him,' said Mazzei. 'And he was a pretty powerful person.'
But Mazzei said that motivated her even more to get her story out there.   
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Now she says she wants the attitude toward sex workers to change.
'There exists this idea that sex workers have to be either victims or empowered. They can't just have a job,' she said. 
'There's always this dichotomy: it's either super glamorous or it's super seedy. In reality sex workers are normal, professional, intelligent people.'
Mazzei said: 'The film could very easily be about a YouTube star or an Instagram celebrity or a Twitch streamer. But it's a cam girl because it kind of is the furthest you can push this expression of digital identity.'
The film  follows the story of Alice, played by Orange is the New Black and Handmaid's Tale star Madeline Brewer, 




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