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Home , A Little Curious, Ben Affleck, Chuckles Bites the Dust, Heather Locklear, Kenya Barris, Michael Cuesta

2018 Panelist Biographies Words to “Action”! As of 9/4/2018

Marilyn R. Atlas is a Talent/Literary Manager and Producer. Among her credits as film producer are REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES for HBO, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, A CERTAIN DESIRE starring Sam Waterston, and ECHOES, which won the Gold Award at the International Film Festival. She produced THE CHOKING GAME for Lifetime, based on a YA book. She was involved in several writers' debut books for HarperCollins, Grand Central Publishing, and Source Books. Marilyn is a member of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers. She has long been committed to projects that celebrate diversity. She speaks at colleges, film festivals, and industry events on creating three-dimensional, non-stereotypical characters. She is the co-author of a relationship-based, screenwriting guide called Dating Your Character, about an organic approach to character creation for Stairway Press. She is also featured in the book Write Now! from Penguin/Tarcher.

Joan Darling was the first woman nominated for an Emmy® for television direction. She was nominated four times winning both the Emmy® and the DGA Award. She is considered the first woman director of the modern age. She is widely recognized for her talents as a director and actress. In the early , Joan had a recurring character role in the television series OWEN MARSHALL, COUNSELOR AT LAW. In her early directorial career, Joan directed the and many other episodes in the first season of the hit TV series MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN. She also directed episodes of M*A*S*H*, RICH MAN, POOR MAN, and MAGNUM P.I., among others. She directed the Chuckles Bites the Dust episode of THE SHOW, which was named “the number one TV episode of all time” by TV Guide. named it “the funniest episode ever on TV”. Her first film, FIRST LOVE, was released in 1977, and was named one of the year’s ten best by CBS. Joan created the Directing the Actor workshop for the Sundance institute and has taught directing at the Sundance Lab for 20+ years.

Dana Flor is a documentary director and producer based in Washington DC. Her latest film is a feature length documentary, CHECK IT about a black gay gang in DC premiered at Tribeca. The film is executive produced by Steve Buscemi and and is being adapted for a television series. She also co-directed and produced THE NINE LIVES OF MARION BARRY – a feature length documentary about the infamous politician that appeared on HBO and played Closing Night at the 2009 Silverdocs Film Festival. Flor wrote and directed the Emmy award-winning documentary LATINOS IN BEISBOL and the Emmy- nominated documentary CESAR CHAVEZ for NBC. She also works on a wide-range of stories for Television, CNN, BBC, National Geographic, and others - covering breaking news throughout Latin America and around the world. Flor is a recipient of a Tribeca Film Institute Documentary Fund Grant, a DC Arts and Humanities Artist Fellowship, a Pare Lorenz Fund Grant and as a AFI Docs/NBC Universal Impact Grant. She also won an Influence Film Award from the Tribeca Documentary Fund.

Emma Mankey Hidem has been producing media for over a decade, specializing in non- fiction media of all kinds, including documentary, news, corporate, and interactive media. She has had the privilege to work with and learn from talented documentarians such as Ross Kauffman (BORN INTO BROTHELS) and Joe Fab (PAPER CLIPS). Through her work in interactive media for museums, she learned to film 360° video in 2013, before virtual reality was even a glimmer on the mainstream radar, and immediately fell in love with the medium's ability to transport audiences so in 2015 Emma launched SunnysideVR, a full service VR video production company where she creates virtual reality content for brands, as well as immersive journalism. Since launching her company she has worked with brands such as Mercedes, Estee Lauder, and , and is also working on several interactive multimedia journalism projects such as Caste Out, a doc about the lingering effects of the now-outlawed caste system in Nepal.

Bob Hone has had award-winning careers as documentary filmmaker (Peabody, Emmy®) as well as an interactive/game designer (Codie, Prix Mobius). Currently Bob runs the Game Studio, part of American University's Game Lab, where he designs and manages collaborations with external organizations such as the NIH, ETS, WGBH, and the World Bank. Prior to AU, Bob was the Creative Director of Hill Studios, a boutique developer of innovative educational and health software and games. An accomplished grant-writer, Bob has received grants totaling $8M for a wide range of interactive and video projects.

Helen Krieger grew up with her ultra-conservative family on Highway 0 in Wisconsin. For fun they would stock the bomb shelter and prepare for the world to end. When it didn’t, Helen happily left home to try something new. She was a journalist in Boston, a stripper in Dallas, and a real estate agent in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit. She sold her house to make a feature film about that experience, FLOOD STREETS, then she wrote and produced two seasons of a Webby’s honored digital series, Least Favorite Love Songs. She got her MFA in screenwriting from USC, worked as an assistant for Kenya Barris, had a project she co-created optioned by New Form Digital, and most recently wrote on season one of grown-ish. When not writing, Helen does improv and stand up in LA and New Orleans.

Dara Marks, Ph.D. is a leading international script consultant, seminar leader, and author of one of the top selling books on creative writing, Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc. She has specialized in the analysis of the modern screenplay for the past three decades, and Creative Screenwriting Magazine has consistently rated her one of the top script consultants in . Dara has worked for most major Hollywood studios and her advice has been sought on a variety of films and television projects. Her groundbreaking work in this field continues to help writers engage more deeply and effectively in the creative writing process. Currently, Dara leads seminars world-wide and is an adjunct professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara.

For more than two decades, Joseph Martin has worked as a producer, location manager and location scout primarily in the Washington-Baltimore region. He left six years of work on Capitol Hill as a policy staffer for Congressman Barney Frank to pursue his other passions in life – film, television and still photography. Martin worked as a producer on the road in Europe and throughout the U.S. on some 225 episodes of cooking and travel shows that screened on PBS and Discovery. From there, Martin moved into location scouting and location managing for Hollywood features, network television series, commercials, documentaries and photo shoots. Recent projects include 3 ½ MINUTES TEN BULLETS, an HBO documentary directed by Marc Silver that examines racial implications of Florida’s Stand Your Ground laws, I.T., a crime thriller starring and EERO SAARINEN, THE ARCHITECT WHO SAW THE FUTURE, a PBS/WNET American Masters documentary produced by Peter Rosen.

Shelly Mellott took over Script magazine in 1995 from her father, who founded the business in 1985. She secured a newsstand presence for the publication and grew Script into a well-respected industry magazine. From 1995 to 2006, she created additional services for scriptwriters including script coverage, pitching events, and quarterly screenwriting contests sponsored by major production companies. In 2006, she became a vice president at Final Draft overseeing the Big Break Contest, social media, events, and customer relations for the company. In 2015, she became Vice President of Sales & Marketing where she manages the professional and educational sales divisions, develops initiatives that drive sales across all retail channels, and manages marketing, events and customer relations.

Beth Mendelson is the Senior Executive Producer of Special Programming and Documentaries at Voice of America. Focused on issue oriented programming, her projects include; AIDS: Living in the Shadows, hosted by Sir Elton John; JOHN F. KENNEDY: A Legacy Remembered; IMMIGRATION THE NEW FACE OF AMERICA; and A FATEFUL HARVEST. Prior to her documentary work at Voice of America, Beth Mendelson was the Chief of the Afghanistan Service for 6 years, overseeing Television, Radio, and Web Programming. She supervised a staff of 100 people between DC and Afghanistan. Beth’s communication career spans 30 years across U.S. Government, including the White House, Non-Profit Organizations and Broadcast Media. She has been an Executive Producer for major American and European networks, including PBS, CNN, ITN, ARD, and MSNBC. Her work producing documentaries and television specials has taken her to Russia, China, France, England, and numerous other countries.

Michelle Mower burst onto the global filmmaking scene with her 2016 acquisition of Imagination Worldwide. IWW is a based international sales and distribution company. Mower will be refocusing the company’s efforts by producing and distributing motion pictures directed by women and/or targeted to female audiences – thereby bringing more gender parity to the entertainment industry. Prior to heading up Imagination Worldwide, Mower was an acclaimed writer, producer and director whose work has been featured on Lifetime, Lifetime Movie Network (LMN) and Nuvo Television. Her debut feature film, THE PREACHER’S DAUGHTER starring Andrea Bowen (DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES) garnered the highest ratings for LMN that year. After that success, Mower wrote, co-produced and directed two more telefilms for the network, THE PREACHER’S MISTRESS and THE PREACHER’S SIN. Mower was an Associate Producer, morning news, at Houston's NBC affiliate before joining Southwest Alternate Media Project (SWAMP) as Program Coordinator. Through her work with SWAMP, Mower started “Lights! Camera! Action! Summer Moviemaking Camp” for teens and the annual Business of Film Conference with takes place annually at Rice University.

Daphne Pollon is a prolific Writer-Producer of television comedy. During her twenty-year career, she’s worked on shows including ITS GARY SHANDLING’S SHOW, MURPHY , THE JOB, and SULLIVAN AND SON, as well as created original pilots. Currently she teaches Graduate Television Comedy at USC, and is writing a novel. Raised in (which explains her obsession for coffee, comedy and too many coats), she graduated (eventually) from USCB.

Alison Rosa has been in Physical Production for many years and has worked as a Line Producer, Production Manager, 1st Assistant Director, 2nd Assistant Director and yes, even a walkie PA! She began her journey in Physical Production in Washington DC as a walkie PA on the film THUNDERHEART and never stopped or looked back. She became a DGA Trainee, and subsequently joined the Directors Guild of America, forging her way as an Assistant Director on major motion pictures, television series and national commercials. She began working as an Asst. Production Manager, then a Production Manager, joining the Producers Guild of America (PGA). Her credits include GLASS (M. Night Shyamalan, Universal, release date 1/18/19), WIDOWS (Steve McQueen, 20th Century fox, release date 11/16/18), LIMITLESS (CBS), MERCY STREET (PBS), CODES OF CONDUCT (Steve McQueen, HBO) KILL THE MESSENGER (Michael Cuesta), PHILOMENA (), ARGO (), J. EDGAR and ABSOLUTE POWER (), HOW DO YOU KNOW (James L Brooks), NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2 (Shawn Levy), STEP UP 2 (Jon Chu), (Armando Ianucci), (David Simon), MIAMI VICE (), A FEW GOOD MEN, NORTH, and THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT () are among her many film and TV credits. She has had the opportunity to work with some of Hollywood’s finest Directors and Producers and is grateful for the experiences and opportunities that her career has allowed.

Alana Sanko is an award-winning television writer and executive producer who has written and developed for comedy, drama and animated series, as well as TV movies and network and cable pilots for ABC, CBS, Bravo, MTV, HBO, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, and Nick at Nite. Her credits began with the critically acclaimed television series, MURPHY BROWN and include ABC’s comedy pilot SEE JAYNE RUN, starring Heather Locklear, the Disney Channel’s Original Movie GET A CLUE, starring and Nickelodeon’s series JUST FOR KICKS, which she developed with Whoopi Goldberg and earned a WGA Award for Outstanding Children’s Script. Alana’s also written for numerous children’s television series over the years, including LITTLE EINSTEINS, DRAGON TALES, OSWALD THE OCTOPUS, A LITTLE CURIOUS, THE WUBBULOUS WORLD OF DR. SEUSS, and ANGELO RULES. When she’s not developing her comedy pilot or writing her middle grade children’s novel, she’s working with the talented writers at the Westport Writers Workshop or blogging at the website she co-founded, www.thedowntownproject.com.

Laurie Scheer is a former vice president of programming for WE: Women's Entertainment. She has worked as an assistant, d-girl, and producer for ABC, Viacom, Showtime, and AMC-Cablevision. She has also been involved in producing series for the web, films for video games, and other digital based forms of entertainment. Laurie has been an instructor at numerous universities across the US from Yale to UCLA. As a professional speaker, she has appeared at annual conventions for NAB, NATPE, Realscreen, WIFV, FTX West, and the Willamette Writers Conference. Laurie has mentored many successful industry professionals throughout her career and is currently a Faculty Associate with UW-Madison’s Division of Continuing Studies. There she is the Director of UW-Madison’s annual Writers’ Institute, founding editor of the regional publication The Midwest Review, and a writing mentor to hundreds of students in-person and online. Her current interest is in exploring ways to preserve storytelling within the digital marketplace. Her book The Writer’s Advantage: A Toolkit for Mastering Your Genre is available on Amazon.

Bill Svanoe is an award-winning screenwriter and playwright. He has written highly acclaimed and rated television movies including MILES TO GO which won a Christopher Award; TERROR ON THE BEACH; RETURNING HOME; THE DREAMMAKERS; THE CARDBOARD HOUSE, and SPARKS. Feature films include, WALTZ ACROSS TEXAS, starring Anne Archer, and FATAL BEAUTY, starring Whoopi Goldberg. His first play, THE NEWSTAND, won awards in New York and Europe. His plays, THE BLACK DUCK, PUNCH AND JUDY, THE LAST LAUGH, and CALLBACK have been published and are performed around the country. For five years he was the playwright in residence for Zephyer Rep in New York. He taught playwriting and screenwriting at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for seven years. Currently he teaches at festivals and forums around the country and also does private coaching.

Ligiah Villalobos is a Writer, Producer, Consultant, Educator and Lecturer. She is best known for feature film UNDER THE SAME MOON (La Misma Luna), which she wrote and executive produced. The film was released by Fox Searchlight and in 2008 after it was acquired at the Sundance Film Festival, where it became the highest sale for a Spanish-language film in the history of Sundance. Made for under $2M, the film earned over $23M worldwide. More recently, Villalobos was a Cultural Consultant on the Academy Award winning movie, COCO, which has become the highest grossing movie of all time in Mexico (and highest grossing Pixar movie in China). She is also the recipient of the Humanitas Prize, for writing the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, FIRELIGHT, produced by and Mary Martin, which aired on ABC. Villalobos has developed projects for multiple studios and networks, including ABC, NBC, ABC/Family (now Freeform), F/X, Showtime, BET, HBO, Lifetime, Nick Jr., and , among others. As a studio executive at , Villalobos oversaw television production in Latin America for five years, launching eight #1 children shows in seven countries and then overseeing the Writing Fellowship Program and the Directors Training Program for the Studio. She then worked as a Current Programming Executive at The WB, where she oversaw six prime time shows, including the four highest rated shows on the network. Villalobos lectures and teaches writing workshops around the world, including for the Sundance Film Institute, the Taipei’s Film Commission San Miguel de Allende’s Writers Conference and NALIP. Villalobos is a professor in the TV Film and Theatre MFA program at Cal State LA. She has also taught at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, Colorado College, and Tisch/Asia in Singapore (NYU).

ScriptDC Committee: JANE BARBARA, Chair After receiving a full scholarship from The Rockefeller Scholarship Fund, graduating with a Fine Arts Degree from Parson's School of Design, Jane went on to work as Costume/Set Designer for several Off-Broadway productions, a political illustrator (The New York Times), freelance graphic and book jacket designer, and Publications Designer for Exxon Corporation. After leaving Exxon, Jane was Partner/Art Director of Menu Makers Plus, a full-service design company located in , which serviced the NYC metro area 16,000 restaurants and gourmet shops. After moving to Maryland, Jane was able to combine her love of film, art, music, dance, and storytelling. She has completed five feature length screenplays, several shorts, and is currently working on developing several television series.

Along with producing partner, Oriana Oppice, Jane wrote and produced the comedy short, LOBSTER FRA DIAVOLO – The Movie, which screened at the 2015 Cannes Court Metrage Shorts Film Corner, as well as other international film festivals. The LOBSTER screenplay was a finalist at the 2014 Moondance International Film Festival screenplay competition, and a 2014/ 2015 Roy W. Dean Grant Finalist. LOBSTER has received several awards for comedy, editing and best screen fight. Inspired by the Women’s March, Jane’s most recent dramatic short, LEIA’S ARMY, has won The Best Director Award at 2018 NY Chain Film Festival and The Global Impact Film Festival in Washington, DC. LEIA’S ARMY will be screened at The Imagine This Women’s International Film Festival in November in New York City. Jane is Chair for Women in Film & Video’s Screenwriters’ Roundtable and ScriptDC, WIFV’s annual filmmakers’ conference.

JOHN BENEDETTO (“Detto”) moved to Washington, DC to attend American University’s MA program in Film and Video. After graduating with a concentration in Screenwriting, Detto totally expected to end up in NYC or LA in a few short years. Instead, over a decade later, he finds himself fully immersed in the DC media world as a writer, director and editor. He has written for Capital Arts Entertainment, the FBI, and HGTV, has completed six spec screenplays and is currently putting the finishing touches on his first novel. On the post production side, Detto has edited five feature length films and is an award-winning VFX artist, and edited six different true crime reality TV series for networks such as ID, TVOne, and LMN. Looking to expand his resume, Detto co-founded XIII Stories Media, a production company dedicated to developing quality narrative and documentary productions in the DMV area. XIII Stories most recent project, the horror short THE PHAGES which Detto co-wrote and co-directed, is currently being submitted to festivals across the world. John is a member of the WIFV Board of Directors.

WORYENEH BENSON is an advocate for educating the world through the arts. In recent years, she worked as an actress, teacher, theater manager, and director. Before her current position with Trinity Volunteer Corps, she lived in Monrovia, Liberia and was a Drama teacher at Jahzet Missionary School. At Jazhet Missionary, she wrote her first play The Young Gal Wan Marsh that covers the lives of two Liberian women reuniting after the 14 years of separation due to the civil war in Liberia. As for management, she worked at Wayne State University Theatre & Dance in Detroit, MI and Black Women Playwrights’ Group in Washington, DC as a liaison between the theatre and management offices. At WSU, she was able to defeat hardships in art programming in a revitalizing city recovering from bankruptcy and daily struggles for a small “one-man band” nonprofit at B.W.P.G. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Arts Management from SUNY Purchase College. She aspires to bring her writings to life through stage and screen. Woryeneh is a member of the WIFV Board of Directors.