Welcome to Unstyled. I'm your host, Christine Barberick, co-founder and global editor-in-chief of Refinery 29.

Each week, I invite a notable person to come in and talk with us as we explore the funny, inspiring, sometimes heartbreaking tales of life, work, and love, as told through the things that we wear.

Katia Blickfeld just gets people.

It's one of her most notable gifts, the ability to recognize potential and see beyond the surface of a person to identify their truest selves.

It's an unusual talent and one that served her very well professionally.

Katia spent the first half of her career working in film and television casting, and even won

an Emmy for her work on 30 Rock in 2013.

Two years later, she co-created the beloved series High Maintenance with her then-husband, Ben Sinclair.

There, too, Katia's preternatural empathy made for spectacular television.

The show explored, in brief but intimate detail, the lives of New Yorkers with nothing in common,

except a weed dealer played by Ben.

Despite its central character, this was no dumb

stoner comedy. With Katia and Ben at the creative helm, the show perfectly captured that ineffable

feeling one has while walking the streets of New York, that behind every apartment door

lies a fascinating tale of life, love, and everyday absurdities.

After two seasons as a web series, high-maintenance had amassed a cult following and such huge critical praise that the show moved to its current home, HBO.

Soon an even wider audience fell in love with this deeply resonant, sweet, and sometimes

heart-rending series.

Katya's career was flying high, and that's when she hit a wall.

In 2016, after a lifetime of repression and denial, Katya finally came out to herself, her family,

and her husband.

Though she'd always been romantically drawn to women, only then did she recognize herself as gay.

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