ADVISORS

Jen Goyne Blake is a Partner at DIVERSITY HIRE LTD, a production company currently under a television overall deal at FX, alongside April Shih. Prior to this partnership, Jen was the Founding Director of the Episodic Lab at the Sundance Institute, where for nearly 7 years, she headed the program dedicated to nurturing television writers from underrepresented communities. Blake shepherded over 200 writers and produced over 20 Labs during her tenure. She currently serves as the Board Chair of New Market Discovery. Diversity Hire's first feature film, JOYLAND, was an official selection for the 2022 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize. JOYLAND had its North American debut when it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was selected by Pakistan as its official submission for Best International Feature Film for the 2023 Oscars - where it has now advanced to the 15-film shortlist.

Zara Meerza is an Emmy award-winning British - Indian filmmaker, journalist, and screenwriter. A staff writer for season two of acclaimed HBO series INDUSTRY, she’s worked on projects across documentary and narrative for HBO, Vice, Sky, the BBC, Jigsaw, TIME Studios, First Look Media, The Intercept, Conde Nast and Warp Films. Zara is directing the feature documentary THE TWINS produced by MIJA’s Tabs Breese and Yesenia Tlahuel, executive produced by FIRE OF LOVE’s Academy Award nominated director Sara Dosa and editor Jocelyne Chaput. Zara has served as Director of Film Acquisitions at Vice News and has consulted for BAFTA, the Camden International Film Festival, Catapult, Women in Film, True/False, the Black List and Doc Society advising on their festival programming, awards and fund allocation. She has a background in the music and journalism industries and holds degrees from Cambridge University, University College London and the University of Manchester. 

Vera Santamaria is a feature and television writer whose career spans multiple genres and two countries. She is the Executive Producer / Co-Showrunner of HOW TO DIE ALONE, Natasha Rothwell’s (THE WHITE LOTUS, INSECURE) upcoming series for ABC Signature /Hulu / Onyx Collective. Previously, she was Executive Producer / Showrunner on Hulu's much-lauded second season of PEN15, sharing in its 2021 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy and WGA Award nomination for Best Comedy. In addition to writing for Marvel Studios’ MS. MARVEL and Apple TV+’s star-studded anthology series, ROAR, in 2021 she also penned her first feature, a sought-after original comedy sold to 20th Century Fox. Her other television work includes the critically acclaimed ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK, BOJACK HORSEMAN, PLAYING HOUSE and COMMUNITY. In Canada, she wrote for DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION, LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE and her own series loosely based on her life, HOW TO BE INDIE.

Jörg Winger is founder and Managing Director of Big Window Productions, an UFA Fiction/Fremantle label based in Berlin. He co-created and executive produced the spy series DEUTSCHLAND83/86/89 (RTL/PrimeVideo) which garnered numerous accolades, including the International Emmy Award for Best Drama Series, the Golden Camera as Best German Miniseries, the Grimme Award, and the Peabody Award among many others. Before that, Jörg Winger produced more than 200 episodes of the award-winning prime time crime series SOKO LEIPZIG (ZDF) of which he made 14 episodes in feature length and set in Moscow, Istanbul and Santo Domingo. He also created and executive produced German-Romanian cybercrime drama HACKERVILLE as an international coproduction with HBO Europe and TNT Series, for which he won his second Grimme Award. Jörg Winger's current projects are SAM - A SAXON, Disney+’s first original series in Germany about the rise and fall of East-Germany’s first Afro-German police officer and OUIJA, a French-German coproduction for France Télévisions. He's regularly giving lectures at different German film schools. Before becoming a producer, Jörg Winger got a masters degree in Economics and worked as a journalist.

Graham Yost began writing for television in 1989 on the Nickelodeon series HEY DUDE. Next, he briefly worked on FULL HOUSE, soon after selling the script for SPEED. His feature credits include BROKEN ARROW, HARD RAIN, MISSION TO MARS, and THE LAST CASTLE. He wrote and produced for the Award-winning HBO miniseries FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON, BAND OF BROTHERS, and THE PACIFIC. In 2002, Yost created the NBC series BOOMTOWN, and in 2006, he created RAINES for NBC. He was the showrunner on JUSTIFIED, the Emmy winning FX series based on the books by crime novelist Elmore Leonard. He served as an Executive Producer on THE AMERICANS, and was the showrunner on seasons one and two of Amazon’s SNEAKY PETE. Since 2019, Yost has been with AppleTV+, where he is executive producing SLOW HORSES, and showrunning SILO, based on Hugh Howey’s SILO series of novels.

Glen Basner is founder and Chief Executive Officer of FilmNation Entertainment. A leading distributor, financier and producer of independent films and television, FilmNation has worked with many of the world's most renowned filmmakers and storytellers including Steven Soderbergh, Armando Iannucci, Pedro Almodóvar, Emerald Fennell and Denis Villeneuve. Consistently ranked as one of the highest-grossing independent international distributors, FilmNation has produced award-winning box office hits that include ARRIVAL and THE BIG SICK and released the Academy Award winning THE KING’S SPEECH, ROOM and THE IMITATION GAME. Coming soon is Christos Nikou’s FINGERNAILS for Apple Original Films. The studio’s series I Know This Much Is True for HBO garnered Mark Ruffalo an Emmy Award. FilmNation was a producer on the Tony winning The Band’s Visit, The Sound Inside, True West and Prima Facie. The company produced podcasts SNAFU, Hyper-Thetical, Murder on the Towpath, and Torched.

Camille Bertrand is an experienced French American film and TV executive, currently the Head of Development at French TV studio TOP – The Originals Production (THE BUREAU), which specializes in developing and producing premium scripted drama with international appeal. At TOP, she is working across a wide slate of TV projects, for traditional broadcasters as well as global platforms. Moving back to Europe after 10+ years in the USA, she first worked with UK producer Sarah Brocklehurst (BrockMedia) on TV development and packaging. Previously, Camille worked as a senior acquisition and development executive for NYC-based studio Bleecker Street Media. There she worked on Sebastiàn Lelio’s DISOBEDIENCE, Riley Stearns’ THE ART OF SELF-DEFENSE, Kitty Green’s THE ASSISTANT, Joe Penna’s ARCTIC, Debra Granik’s LEAVE NO TRACE, James Gray’s THE LOST CITY OF Z, Jim Jarmusch’s PATERSON among many others. Previous positions include Wild Bunch, Cinetic Media and the San Francisco Film Society
 

Born in Rome in 1970, Mario Gianani is one of the Founders of two important international production companies: Offside (with Saverio Costanzo), born in 2001, and Wildside (with Lorenzo Mieli), founded in 2009, which merges Offside's professional experience with Wilder's television experience. In January 2020, Gianani became sole CEO of Wildside. The company is well known both for its successful films with directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Marco Bellocchio and Saverio Costanzo, and in the television field for having produced, among others, three seasons of the local adaptation of IN TREATMENT, “1992”, “1993” and “1994”; THE YOUNG POPE and THE NEW POPE by Academy Award director Paolo Sorrentino; THE MIRACLE, the debut in television of the writer Niccolò Ammaniti; MY BRILLIANT FRIEND directed by Saverio Costanzo, based on the Best Seller quadrilogy by Elena Ferrante, WE ARE WHO WE ARE by Luca Guadagnino and ANNAby Niccolò Ammaniti.

Dante Di Loreto serves as Fremantle's North American President of Scripted Entertainment.  He oversees the company's scripted slate & develops new series for its pipeline, underlining the growing commitment to producing high-quality original global content.
 

Sarah wrote the feature SHIRLEY directed by Josephine Decker which premiered at Sundance. Her television work includes being the Co-Creator, Writer and Executive Producer of I LOVE DICK for Amazon, a Co-Executive Producer on the FX television show BETTER THINGS season three, and a Co-Executive Producer on the Hulu limited series, PAM & TOMMY for which she received an Emmy, PGA, and WGA nominations. She is currently developing a feature with Working Title and a limited series based on Joan Didion’s The White Album.
 

Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo has worked on a wide variety of film & tv projects with an array of talented directors and actors. From Artist / filmmaker John Maybury’s debut feature, LOVE IS THE DEVIL, starring Daniel Craig  (Un Certain Regard nominee, Best British Feature Edinburgh International Film Festival) to  TOP BOY, a ten-part  series for Netflix with award-winning directors Yann Demange, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Nia DaCosta and Aneil Karia. Through her company Turnover Films, Yvonne  is developing  a feature film set in Burkina Faso with DNA/Film4/MGM;  a TV series with 101 Studios;  and two debut features with Film4. Completed projects include TWO SINGLE BEDS, a short film written and starring Daniel Kaluuya for Film 4;  A STORY OF BONES, best documentary feature nominee at Tribeca Film Festival due to be broadcast on PBS; and RYE LANE, Raine Allen Miller’s critically acclaimed feature film which premiered at Sundance. 

Filmmaker Barry Jenkins’ work includes the Academy Award winning Best Picture MOONLIGHT for which he also won Best Adapted Screenplay; IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK which received three Academy Award nominations as well as Best Picture at the Independent Spirit Awards; and his BAFTA-winning and EMMY nominated adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. Jenkins serves as a producer on Charlotte Wells’ critically acclaimed AFTERSUN and Raven Jackson’s ALL DIRT ROADS TASTE OF SALT.

Stephanie is an Emmy-winning director, writer, and producer. Most recently she directed Jez Butterworth’s MAMMALS, starring Sally Hawkins and James Corden for Amazon Prime. Laing is currently in production on season three of Apple TV+’s PHYSICAL, starring Rose Byrne where she has directed 24 of 30 episodes to date as well as served as an Executive Producer on the series. Some of her TV credits include, HBO Max’s MADE FOR LOVE starring Billy Magnussen and Cristin Millioti, LOVE LIFE starring Anna Kendrick and HBO’s hit comedy series VEEP, which ran for seven seasons and won over 15 Primetime Emmy Awards. Laing’s feature film FAMILY SQUARES, starring Henry Winkler, Judy Greer, June Squibb, Casey Wilson, Margo Martindale, and more was released theatrically in February of 2022. Laing wrote, directed, and produced the film, her feature writing debut. Up next, Laing is directing the adaptation of Claire Vaye Watkins’ I LOVE YOU BUT I’VE CHOSEN DARKNESS.

Joi McMillon is an award-winning film and television editor best known for her work on Barry Jenkins’ critically acclaimed film MOONLIGHT, the Best Picture winner at the 89th Academy Awards. McMillon’s efforts on the feature solidified her place in history as the first black female nominated for an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Film Editing. Her latest projects include THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, Jenkins’ critically acclaimed limited series originated from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, and ZOLA, the revolutionary, Twitter-thread-based feature directed by Janicza Bravo. In 2021, she began collaborating with Jenkins on Disney’s upcoming film MUFASA: THE LION KING. McMillon resides in Los Angeles and serves on the Academy’s Film Editors Branch Executive Committee.

Dimitris Michalakis is the COSMOTE TV Business Unit Executive Director and member of the OTE Group management board. Dimitris transformed the TV service to a fully blown standalone broadcasting unit, offering premium exclusive content through 18 COSMOTE own branded and operated channels, on demand services, producing original content (movies, series, tv shows and documentaries) and launched the first and biggest streaming service in Greece. He first joined COSMOTE TV in March 2012, as Commercial Director. COSMOTE TV, is part of the Deutsche Telekom Group currently holding the leading position in Pay TV in Greece, with more than 650,000 subscribers.
 

Talia Myers is an agent in UTA's Television Literary division. She graduated from USC's School of Cinematic Arts with a major in Critical Studies of Film and a minor in Screenwriting before joining UTA's mailroom. Talia's work involves identifying premium scripted opportunities for diverse writers, directors, producers, production companies, and musicians. She represents clients such as Alan Ball, Ann Biderman, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Bad Bunny, Brett Johnson, Dahvi Waller, Derek Tsang, Halsey, Kevin Hart, Nicholas Hoult, and Susannah Grant, Ted Melfi among others, and specializes in identifying emerging talent from diverse backgrounds. Talia is committed to making foreign television more mainstream through her deal-making, focusing on shopping foreign IP and formats. She navigates television literary deals across music crossover, traditional, and international areas. As a first-generation American, Talia is passionate about identifying singular voices from various backgrounds and bringing international voices to the US.

Sue Naegle started her career at United Talent Agency where she quickly moved up the ranks to partner and co-head of the TV Lit Department. In 2008, she became President of HBO Entertainment, and was instrumental in shepherding such shows as GAME OF THRONES, BOARDWALK EMPIRE, TRUE BLOOD, TREME, EASTBOUND & DOWN, ENLIGHTENED, VEEP and GIRLS. In 2013, Naegle left her post at HBO to start her own television and film production company, Naegle Ink. In 2016, Naegle joined Annapurna Pictures as President of their television division, and then became Chief Content Officer overseeing TV, Film and Theatre. Sue stepped down from her position at Annapurna in Spring of 2022 and is now independently producing. Among APTV’s projects were THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS, THE STAIRCASE, PAM AND TOMMY, DEAD RINGERS, I LOVE THAT FOR YOU and the upcoming NIGHTBITCH and THE CHANGELING.
 

Milan Popelka is the Chief Operating Officer at leading independent entertainment company FilmNation Entertainment.  Popelka’s responsibilities include overseeing all day-to-day operations, strategic planning/business development, and finance for the company, and extend across film, television, theater, and digital/audio. FilmNation’s films have grossed over $3.4B worldwide at the box office, while garnering a highly prized ‘EGOT’ across its various businesses: an Emmy win for its first TV series, 2 Grammys for its first Broadway musical, 50 Oscar nominations (including 5 for Best Picture) and 9 wins, and 21 Tony Award nominations and 10 wins. Popelka served as Executive Producer on Denis Villeneuve’s science-fiction epic Arrival, Emerald Fennell’s Oscar-winning Promising Young Woman, and WWII epic Greyhound starring Tom Hanks, among many others, as well as on recent acclaimed Ed Helms hosted podcast SNAFU.  He is a member of both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

April Shih is a WGA Award-winning writer/producer and filmmaker with several series in development at FX, WBTV, and Paramount TV Studios. She has written for FX’s critically acclaimed comedy YOU’RE THE WORST, MRS. AMERICA (starring Cate Blanchett), and Amazon’s UNDONE, and served as Supervising Producer for Season 2 of DAVE. April was recently the Co-Executive producer on Season 5 of FARGO. April has been a fellow of the Sundance Episodic Story Lab, CAPE New Writers Fellowship, CBS Writers Mentoring Program, and the inaugural Film Independent Episodic Lab. April is currently under a recently-extended overall deal at FX where she is creating, developing, and producing meaningful, soul-oriented content under her production banner DIVERSITY HIRE LTD with her producing partner Jen Goyne Blake. The company’s first feature film JOYLAND had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and was awarded the Independent Spirit Award for Best International Film.

Athina Rachel Tsangari is considered a principle instigator of the Greek New Wave. Her work straddles narrative-bending genres, exploring power in gender, class and alterity. Her films have been called screwball tragedies. Her sophomore feature ATTENBERG premiered at Venice’s main competition where it won the Coppa Volpi. CHEVALIER won Best Film at BFI-London and was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Independent Spirit Awards. Both films were Greece’s official submissions to the Academy Awards. She was lead director/EP on the BBC2/HBO Max series TRIGONOMETRY; guest director on Greg Daniels’ Amazon sci-fi comedy UPLOAD. Under the banner of Athens-based company HAOS FILM, she produced a number of films such as Yorgos Lanthimos’ KINETTA and ALPS, Georgis Grigorakis’ DIGGER, and was co-producer on Richard Linklater’s BEFORE MIDNIGHT. A DGA and AMPAS member, Tsangari served on juries in Cannes, Berlin, Locarno, Sundance and Toronto; as jury president in Venice, Götteborg, and BFI London. She taught cinema at Harvard, UT Austin, and Le Fresnoy in France. She is in preparation of her next feature HARVEST, an English-language neo-western taking place in the Scottish Highlands. Tsangari is the Artistic Director of the Oxbelly Screenwriting and Directing Labs.

Lulu Wang is a filmmaker who captivates audiences with sincere storytelling through a global lens. In 2020, Wang established her production company, Local Time, with Dani Melia, to produce artist-driven stories that open audiences to new perspectives in storytelling. Wang’s second feature THE FAREWELL, which she both wrote and directed, first premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, garnering both international and domestic acclaim. Wang is currently in post-production on her anticipated Amazon series, EXPATS, starring Nicole Kidman, where Wang is showrunning and directing all six episodes. She has several other projects in development with various studios and streamers. Most notably, she’s directing her upcoming feature, CHILDREN OF THE NEW WORLD, with FilmNation, based on Alexander Weinstein's short story of the same name, and a US adaptation of Hirokazu Koreeda's LIKE FATHER LIKE SON with Focus Features.

Anna Winger is a British-American writer, showrunner and executive producer. After working for many years as a photographer, she created the series Transatlantic (Netflix), Unorthodox (Netflix) and Deutschland83 (Amazon). Her novel, This Must Be the Place, is published by Riverhead/Penguin. Her personal essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine among many other publications. Winger was raised in Kenya, Massachusetts and Mexico and educated at Columbia University in New York. She founded her Berlin production company, Studio Airlift, in 2016.