‘RELATIVE STRANGER’ PRODUCTION BIOS LARRY LEVINSON (Executive Producer) – Larry Levinson has extensive credits as an executive producer, including the telefilm "Johnson County War" and blockbuster miniseries "Larry McMurtry's Streets of Laredo" and "Larry McMurtry's Dead Man's Walk." His Hallmark Channel productions include "The Last Cowboy," “Straight From the Heart,” “Love Comes Softly,” “Audrey’s Rain,” "The King and Queen of Moonlight Bay,” “Hard Ground,” “A Time to Remember,” “Just Desserts,” “A Place Called Home,” “The Long Shot (Believe in Courage),” “Life on Liberty Street,” “King Solomon’s Mines,” “La Femme Musketeer,” “The Trail to Hope Rose,” “The Reading Room,” “Our House,” “Where There’s A Will,” “Love’s Enduring Promise,” “Out of the Woods,” “Thicker Than Water,” and the Hallmark Channel Mystery Movie franchises “Jane Doe,” “Mystery Woman, “McBride” and “Murder 101.” Levinson also executive produced "Mark Twain's Roughing It," "Everything That Rises" with Dennis Quaid, "Rough Riders" with Tom Berenger, and a series of "Hard Time" telefilms starring Burt Reynolds as detective Logan McQueen. Previously, Levinson was supervising producer for the Kenny Rogers' telefilms "MacShayne: The Final Roll of the Dice" and "MacShayne: Winner Takes All." He was also an executive producer on Hallmark Channel’s highest-rated original movie ever, “The Christmas Card” and 2007’s “A Grandpa for Christmas,” which earned Ernest Borgnine a Golden Globe nomination, the first ever for a Hallmark Channel Original Movie. # # # CHARLES BURNETT (Director) - Charles Burnett, a native of Vicksburg, Mississippi, received a M.F.A. from UCLA's School of Theater, Film & Television. "Killer of Sheep," Burnett's thesis film, was expanded into his first feature. He was the director, producer, writer, cinematographer and editor. The film won the Critics' Prize at the Berlin Film Festival, the first- place honor at the Sundance Film Festival, and was declared a "national treasure" by the Library of Congress. Due to its significance, it was among the first 50 films placed in the National Film Registry. After winning a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1980, Burnett began work on his sophomore feature "My Brother's Wedding," made in 1983. He wrote, directed and produced this independent film centering on the theme of envy and its power to warp families. In 1990, he was the recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, known as The Genius Grant. Shortly thereafter, Burnett wrote and directed the family drama, "To Sleep With Anger", starring Danny Glover. The film won three 1991 Independent Spirit Awards: Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actor. (more) HALLMARK CHANNEL/ ‘RELATIVE STRANGER’ – Production Bios – Page 2 "To Sleep With Anger” also won the National Society of Film Critics Best Screenplay Award, The Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Special Award. His next film, "The Glass Shield," 2000, starring Lori Petty, Michael Boatman and Ice Cube was a drama based on a true story of corruption and racism within the Los Angeles police force. Burnett made his television debut with the acclaimed 1996 Disney Channel film, "Nightjohn," starring Carl Lumbly, Lorraine Toussaint, Allison Jones and Bill Cobbs. Based on the young- adult novel by Gary Paulsen, "Nightjohn" is a period piece about a slave's risky attempt to teach an orphan slave girl to read and write. New Yorker's film critic Terrence Rafferty called "Nightjohn" the "best American movie of 1996." Among its many accolades, it received a 1997 Special Citation Award from the National Society of Film Critics, "for a film whose exceptional quality and origin challenge strictures of the movie marketplace." Also in 1997, Burnett was honored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival with a retrospective of his work, entitled Witnessing for Everyday Heroes (and included his documentary, "America Becoming"). Burnett continued to make projects that "witness for everyday heroes". They included: a look at race relations during the 50's in the ABC mini-series "Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Wedding" (1998) starring Halle Berry; the Civil Rights Movement in the ABC telepic, "Selma, Lord, Selma" (1999) that featured Martin Luther King's daughter, Yolanda; and interracial love found among the most unlikely of characters in "The Annihilation of Fish" (1999) with Lynn Redgrave and James Earl Jones. Burnett’s projects over the last few years have been high profile, such as Martin Scorsese's PBS documentary series, "The Blues" (2003). Burnett was the series' only African American director among seven filmmakers that included: Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Wim Wenders and Mike Figgis. He also directed an episode of the 2004 Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated PBS miniseries, "An American Family: Journey of Dreams," created and directed by Gregory Nava. In 2004, Burnett presented an innovative take on Nat Turner for the PBS Independent Lens project, "Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property”; where the traditional documentary format included dramatizations of the various perspectives on Nat Turner and the slave revolt, featuring a different actor to represent Turner in each segment. 2007 saw Burnett return to his indie roots by writing and directing the feature film "Namibia: the Struggle for Liberation," about Namibia’s fight for independence. The film stars Danny Glover and Carl Lumbly. That year, he was also the recipient of the prestigious Horton Foote Award for Screenwriting. Burnett recently returned from Paris where Nobel Prize Laureate Toni Morrison organized and hosted a retrospective of his work at The Louvre. His classic film, "Killer of Sheep" was re- (more) HALLMARK CHANNEL/ ‘RELATIVE STRANGER’ – Production Bios – Page 3 released nationally in 2007 to critical-acclaim. Time Magazine proclaimed it to be one of the “25 Most Important Films On Race.” # # # ERIC HAYWOOD (Writer) – Eric Haywood got his start as a music video director while earning a bachelor’s degree in film production at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. After relocating to Los Angeles, Eric was hired to write an episode for the first season of Showtime’s hit drama series “Soul Food: The Series.” He joined the show’s writing staff the following year, working his way up from staff writer to executive story editor. He then went on to write for NBC’s police drama “Hawaii.” His screenwriting work earned him acceptance into the 2000 Guy Hanks and Marvin Miller Screenwriting Program, an annual writer's fellowship program established by Drs. Bill and Camille Cosby. He has also served as Vice-President of the Organization of Black Screenwriters, and is an active member of the Writers Guild of America/West, and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 1998, Eric was named Graduate of the Last Decade by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He wrote and directed the short films “Intersection” and “Staring at the Sun,” both of which screened at film festivals around the county. Eric is also an accomplished photographer whose work can be seen at www.erichaywood.com. Most recently, Eric wrote the TV movie “Relative Stranger,” starring Eriq LaSalle, Michael Beach, and Cicely Tyson, for The Hallmark Channel. -- HALLMARK CHANNEL -- .