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When Maryam Mehrtash walked onto the Disney lot for her first day as a Hollywood executive, she wasn’t just arriving at a new job. She was stepping into a dream that began decades earlier when a little girl who had fled Iran learned English by watching Disney cartoons. Today, Maryam is a former Disney executive, former Vice President at Paramount, author, entrepreneur, and mother of two young children. But behind the impressive resume is a story of resilience that started long before Hollywood. “I actually started learning how to speak English through storytelling and watching Disney cartoons,” Maryam shared. “It was a full circle moment for me when I started working at Disney because so much of how I was introduced to American culture and American storytelling was through Disney.” A Family Built on Sacrifice Maryam’s story begins in Iran during one of the country’s most turbulent periods. Her parents fled following the Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War in the late 1980s, searching for safety and opportunity. During their escape, Maryam and her mother were accidentally separated from her father and ended up in a refugee camp for months before he was able to find them. Her father had one overriding goal: to create a different future for his daughter. “He didn’t know at the time what gender I was going to be,” Maryam recalled. “But he had this feeling that he was going to have a daughter. His goal became getting us out of Iran so that his daughter was going to have a life where she wasn’t silenced and she had opportunity in life to become who she wanted to be.” The family eventually settled in Canada, where her parents built businesses from scratch despite speaking little English. “I watched my parents hustle,” Maryam said. “That’s what, from such a young age, ingrained in me the ethics of hard work and the ethics of really going after your dreams.” Those lessons would become the foundation of everything that followed. Chasing Hollywood Like many children of immigrants, Maryam grew up balancing practicality with passion. She loved storytelling and theater, but her parents encouraged her to pursue a stable career. Rather than choosing between creativity and business, she found a way to embrace both. After graduating at the top of her business school class, she began working in creative agencies in Canada. Eventually, she realized she had reached a ceiling. If she wanted a career in entertainment, she would need to take a leap. Thirteen years ago, she packed up her life and moved to Los Angeles. That decision led to leadership roles at KTLA, CBS Interactive, Paramount+, and eventually Disney, where she oversaw global marketing promotions and partnerships for major franchises including Marvel Studios and 20th Century Studios. Yet one of her most meaningful moments wasn’t a promotion. It was simply arriving. “I remember walking on the lot about a year ago,” she said. “I was just completely entrenched in the magic of Disney.” As she toured the historic studio, she found herself reconnecting with the child who had once dreamed of being there. “It was a surreal moment,” she said. “I felt that little girl again.”  Motherhood Arrives Alongside a Pandemic Maryam became a mother in 2020, just months after the world shut down. Her daughter was born during the height of the COVID pandemic. Her son followed two years later. Like many mothers, she was navigating career ambitions and newborn life simultaneously. Unlike most, she was also helping launch Paramount+, one of the largest streaming platforms in the industry. Despite having six months of maternity leave available, she chose to return after ten weeks. “I felt that I had a big responsibility on my shoulders as an executive,” she explained. “I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to be there for this big moment in my career where we were launching a streaming platform.” The pandemic created challenges, but it also provided flexibility that previous generations of working mothers never had. Maryam could breastfeed between Zoom meetings, work from home, and receive support from her mother, who temporarily moved in to help care for the baby. Looking back, she sees both sides of the experience. “The blessing was that I had a lot of time at home with my child even though I had a very demanding job.”  From an Iranian refugee camp to becoming a Hollywood and Disney executive, Maryam Mehrtash’s story is one of resilience, courage, reinvention, and the power of storytelling. In this episode of Trust Me Mom (Season 2, Episode 43, available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify) Maryam Mehrtash, a mother of two, writer, and former Disney leader who most recently led global promotions and partnerships at Marvel Studios Theatrical & Disney+, shares her incredible journey of fleeing Iran as a child, growing up in Canada as the daughter of immigrant entrepreneurs, building a career in entertainment, and balancing motherhood with ambition, creativity, and personal growth. Maryam opens up about her family’s sacrifices, her grandmother’s life as a Kurdish Iranian actress and singer, the impact of Disney storytelling on her childhood, and the full-circle moment of eventually working at Disney. She also shares practical advice for working mothers, including how she manages demanding work, young children, invisible labor, partnership, self-care, and the courage to keep building the life you want. The Myth of Doing It All
Ask Maryam how she manages a demanding career, motherhood, writing, and a growing Substack community, and her answer is surprisingly simple. She doesn’t believe anyone truly does it all. “I think the secret to being able to do it all, because I actually don’t think that exists, is relentless prioritization.” Her system centers around identifying the three most important tasks each day and protecting time for them on her calendar. Motherhood, she says, taught her to become ruthless about where she spends her energy. “Life is about trade-offs and you can’t have it all.” That mindset extends into her marriage as well. Rather than silently carrying the invisible workload many mothers shoulder, Maryam and her husband regularly discuss responsibilities, schedules, and mental load. “I’ve sat down with my husband and I’ve done this,” she said. “I said, this is all of the invisible work that I do. What part of this list can you take off of my load?” The exercise brought visibility to work that often goes unnoticed and created a stronger sense of partnership. Courage Is a Muscle A few years ago, Maryam faced a major professional setback when she was laid off from Paramount. She had two young children, an uncertain future, and plenty of reasons to doubt herself. Instead, she chose to build something new. Today, she is writing her first book and growing her Substack newsletter, This Is Not a Memo, which has attracted thousands of subscribers. What changed? She started taking small steps. “Courage is a muscle that takes practice,” she said. “You develop it through doing more and more reps.” Rather than waiting until she felt confident, she committed to writing for twenty minutes a day. Those daily sessions eventually became articles, a newsletter, a literary agent, and a book project. “I just started writing every day for 20 minutes,” she said. “That really built momentum and gave me the confidence.” The Legacy She Wants to Leave When Maryam talks about success, she rarely focuses on titles or achievements. Instead, she talks about example. Her mother modeled resilience. Her father modeled vision. Together, they showed her what was possible. Now she hopes to pass that same lesson to her children. “I want her to see that I’m following my dreams,” Maryam said about her daughter. “She can do whatever she wants, but I just want her to see me continue doing it even after having two kids.” Perhaps that is the thread connecting every chapter of Maryam’s journey, from refugee camps to Disney, from executive boardrooms to bedtime routines. Dreams don’t stop when life gets complicated. They evolve. And often, the courage to pursue them begins with a single small step. As Maryam reminds mothers who feel overwhelmed or stuck: “Just start doing it. Don’t overthink.”
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