Dakota Kate Isaacs Celebrates Tribeca Win For The Abnormal Beauty Company

By Alisha Proffitt • Photos Provided By Tribeca Film Festival 

When The Abnormal Beauty Company premiered on CRAVE January 19, it gave viewers a look inside DECIEM and its best-known brand, The Ordinary. As the home market for DECIEM and The Ordinary, Canada was a natural choice for the film’s debut, preceding its broader U.S. rollout. For people in Louisville, the documentary also has a local connection. Its Executive Producer and one of the central voices of the film, Dakota Kate Isaacs, grew up here, and her experience runs through the center of the story being told. 

Isaacs spent her childhood in Anchorage, attended Anchorage School, Francis Parker (formerly St. Francis), and participated in the theater program at Walden School, which later merged into StageOne in 2014. She started interning while still in high school and continued throughout college, eventually completing more than a dozen internships. Many of those roles were in New York, where she worked inside fashion and beauty PR offices. The work gave her a close-up view of how brands are created, promoted, and protected. Over time, she began to see where she fit and where she did not. 

That process led her to DECIEM, then a small Canadian startup with an unusually direct approach to skincare. The Ordinary was built around ingredient transparency, straightforward labeling, and prices that challenged industry norms. Isaacs became DECIEM’s first U.S. employee, tasked with convincing retailers that the brand could succeed without traditional marketing or prestige positioning. Early meetings were often skeptical. 

As consumer demand increased, her role quickly expanded. Isaacs went on to lead The Ordinary’s rollout into more than 2,500 retail locations across North America. By her late twenties, she was managing a business responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. “I was 28 years old running a nine-figure business. And, I didn’t go to business school,” Isaacs explains. The pace was intense, and much of her learning happened in real time. 

During that period, DECIEM founder Brandon Truaxe experienced a severe mental health crisis that unfolded publicly. Isaacs was part of the leadership team navigating communications and internal decision-making while trying to understand the situation themselves. The lack of language and precedent made the moment especially difficult, particularly for a young team under constant public attention. 

“They would say words that we would never use now because we could recognize things differently. But at the time, this person who revolutionized an entire industry was just shrunk down to having a social media meltdown,” she recalls. Public reaction narrowed Truaxe’s story to headlines and online commentary, often misunderstanding the complexity of who he was and what he built. 

“I think my frustration as just an employee that lived through that - this was this brilliant genius entrepreneur that went through a very human experience, as did the team, and he was only remembered for such a small period of time,” Isaacs says of that time. When he died in 2019, the company entered a period of instability. Retail partners stepped back, and public trust declined. Inside DECIEM, employees faced the question of whether the business could continue at all. 

The documentary also follows the years that came after. Rebuilding required steady leadership and time. Systems were put back in place, and relationships with partners and customers were slowly repaired. The Ordinary eventually grew into a billion-dollar brand and became the largest acquisition in Estée Lauder Companies’ history. 

Isaacs remained through that rebuilding process and committed to seeing the film through. Directed by Aref Mahabadi, an early DECIEM employee, The Abnormal Beauty Company relies on firsthand accounts from people who were there. Isaacs appears in the film as both a producer and participant, reflecting on the events she experienced. 

That project reached a huge milestone at the Tribeca Film Festival, where the documentary won Best Feature in the TribecaX program. Isaacs was seated in the back row, having not originally planned to attend the awards ceremony. With meetings scheduled that day, she had only stopped by to thank the festival programmers for the nomination. Realizing the film had won from that seat was very unexpected. 

“And so then finally they say something about ‘and achieved the transparency the subject always promised its consumer.’ And when I heard the word transparency, my heart stopped because I knew they were talking about us. And so I have this video of me getting up on the stage just crying.” 

The moment gave her a sense of closure. The film had been received on its own terms. Around the same time, she shifted her focus toward advising brands and founders on growth and communication. 

She has also put significant energy into mentorship through The Big Sister Playbook and its companion podcast. The project is a perfect medium for her interest in making career paths more visible for people who did not grow up seeing themselves represented in leadership roles. She now works as an investor and advisor to early-stage consumer brands, alongside her ongoing mentorship work. 

For readers in Louisville, Isaacs’ story may feel familiar in its starting point. It is a reminder that major industries are built by people who often begin without a clear map, learn by showing up, and figure things out along the way. 

When The Abnormal Beauty Company reaches a wider audience, it will likely be received as a story about beauty and business. From Louisville, it’s also the story of a neighbor who carried significant responsibility early in her career, stayed through a difficult chapter, and chose to tell the story with honesty once there was space to do so. 

Follow Dakota on Instagram at @dakotakisaacs

On Substack at The Big Sister Playbook by DK | Substack