Candace Singh leaves Wall Street for filmmaking

Former Goldman Sachs Vice President Candace Singh has gone full time into filmmaking, launching Emerald Tree Filmworks and debuting a short film rooted in her Guyanese family history. Her move reflects a bigger push to tell stories about caregiving, culture and adulthood that she says Hollywood often overlooks.

Why it matters: - Candace Singh is using film to spotlight family caregiving, cultural identity and the realities of adulthood in immigrant households. - Her work aims to widen the kinds of stories Hollywood presents about independence, responsibility and aging parents. - Singh’s leap from finance to filmmaking also shows how creators are building new careers around personal experience, not just industry access.

What happened: - Singh left a finance career that included roles at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan to become a full-time filmmaker. - She founded Emerald Tree Filmworks, a production company focused on family, culture and modern adulthood. - Singh’s debut professional short film, Once a Man, Twice a Child, centers on a young adult taking an aging parent to a doctor’s appointment. - She is now submitting the short to international film festivals and developing a feature that expands the same story world.

The details: - Singh spent more than a decade on Wall Street before moving into filmmaking. - She first left Goldman Sachs in 2021 to start Emerald Tree Filmworks, then later returned to corporate work at JPMorgan. - While still at JPMorgan, Singh wrote, directed and produced Once a Man, Twice a Child around nights, weekends, holidays and personal days. - She left corporate work again in March 2026 to pursue filmmaking full time. - Within weeks, a friend asked Singh to help on a feature film set, and that production wrapped in May. - Singh grew up in Queens with parents who immigrated from Guyana. - The film draws from her Guyanese heritage and family experiences she says were rarely represented on screen. - Singh initially tried conventional casting, but she could not find actors who matched the story’s cultural specificity and chemistry. - She cast her father and uncle as brothers and cast herself opposite her father so he would feel comfortable on camera. - Singh held months of improv sessions with her father and uncle before filming and reshaped scenes around their natural rhythms and humor. - The production became both a creative project and a snapshot of her family at a specific moment in time. - Singh said the film was meant to show the role-reversal experience of a young adult caring for a parent. - She has also said dark humor helps her confront difficult subjects without stripping them of humanity or joy. - Her finance background taught her how to evaluate risk, spot patterns and make decisions under uncertainty. - Singh said exposure to ambitious founders at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan reinforced her belief that conviction turns vision into reality. - Her work has already drawn attention from New York Weekly and P.O.W.E.R. Magazine. - Audiences can follow Emerald Tree Filmworks on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. - Singh also has an Influential Women profile.

Between the lines: - Singh’s story reflects a broader creative gap she sees in mainstream media: families that operate through collective responsibility are often shown as abnormal instead of ordinary. - Casting family members was not just a budget or convenience choice. It was part of Singh’s effort to preserve authentic chemistry and lived experience on screen. - Leaving finance for film carried personal risk because Singh also took on financial responsibility for retiring her parents early after her grandmother died. - The move also reflected a time tradeoff. Singh said continuing to split her life between two demanding careers risked delaying both filmmaking and future family plans.

What's next: - Singh is building a feature project based on the world introduced in Once a Man, Twice a Child. - Emerald Tree Filmworks will continue documenting the process across social platforms as Singh seeks festival exposure and broader audience attention. - Singh wants future projects to preserve culture, challenge assumptions and create shared cultural moments for mass audiences.

The bottom line: - Singh is betting that personal, culture-specific stories can travel farther when they are told with honesty, humor and a clear point of view.