PINKALICIOUS & PETERRIFIC Bios Kayla Erickson Voice of Pinkalicious Kayla Erickson is excited to have booked the lead role of Pinkalicious in the new animated PBS KIDS series PINKALICIOUS & PETERRIFIC. Kayla started acting at the age of 4 and has booked numerous commercials and voice-overs (including the role of Little Fish on Bubble Guppies). She made her on-screen debut in the feature film, Most Beautiful Island, and has appeared on Saturday Night Live numerous times. When Kayla isn’t acting, she enjoys drawing, singing, reading and writing. Dorothea Gillim Executive Producer, PINKALICIOUS & PETERRIFIC Dorothea Gillim served as Executive Producer at WGBH for the Emmy award-winning PBS KIDS series Curious George and now oversees Pinkalicious & Peterrific. She began her television career as a writer/audio editor on the Peabody Award-winning series Dr. Katz for Comedy Central. Dorothea went on to produce Science Court for ABC Saturday Morning and TimeWarp Trio for Discovery Kids before creating her first animated comedy, Hey Monie, for Oxygen. In 2006, she created WordGirl for PBS KIDS, winner of four Emmys and a Television Critics Association Award. Akua F. Kouyate-Tate | @AkuaTate Vice President, Education, Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts PINKALICIOUS & PETERRIFIC Curriculum Advisor Akua Kouyate-Tate oversees all of Wolf Trap’s Education Programs, including the nationally recognized Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts and Wolf Trap Internship Program. Prior to joining Wolf Trap in 2001, Akua worked for more than 25 years as an administrator, educator, and professional artist with arts and disability organizations and government agencies, including Memory of African Culture, Inc.; Young Audiences – DC Chapter; DC Public Schools; United Cerebral Palsy; the National Endowment for the Arts and the Library of Congress. She also has served as an Adjunct Faculty member of Dance Major programs at Howard University, University of Maryland, American University and George Mason University; as a grants review panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and other state and local arts agencies and regularly presents at national and international conferences on arts education. Akua holds a MA in Arts Management and a BA in Performing Arts-Dance from American University, and is a recipient of a Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Award and a 2015 BEYA STEM Global Competitiveness Conference K -12 Promotion of Education Award. She has conducted postgraduate research in African Cultural Studies at Howard University and in the countries of Mali, Senegal and the Gambia. Vaneese Thomas | @VANEESETHOMAS Blues recording artist (The Long Journey Home, Blues for My Father) Featured in a PINKALICIOUS & PETERRIFIC interstitial Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Vaneese is the daughter of Rufus Thomas, whose legendary career as a musician and entertainer began in Vaudeville and spanned more than half a century in rhythm-and- blues recording and radio. Embracing this remarkable musical legacy, Vaneese carries forward the rich heritage of Memphis soul and R&B, combined with the influences of her background and experience – R & B, gospel, blues and jazz – to cultivate a soul-stirring style that’s all her own. Vaneese’s talents as a singer, songwriter, producer and actor have made her a sought-after solo performer as well as a first-call vocalist for projects by other top-name artists. She has worked with the renowned recording producer Phil Ramone and has sung with an array of performers, including Luciano Pavarotti, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Celine Dion and Eric Clapton. Vaneese’s album, Blues For My Father, took the blues world by storm, ranking #7 in the US and garnering 2 BMA award nominations in 2014. In addition to concerts and recordings, Vaneese has worked extensively in film and television. She was the voice of Grace the Bass on the PBS series “Shining Time Station” and Clio the Muse, Goddess of History, in Disney’s Hercules. She has sung on numerous film soundtracks, including Anastasia, Mighty Aphrodite and The First Wives Club. TV appearances include The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and NBC’s Today. Vaneese has also produced recordings, created vocal arrangements, and written songs for Patti Austin, Freddie Jackson, Bob James, Larry Coryell, Melba Moore, and Diana Ross, who scored a Top Ten hit in the United Kingdom with Vaneese’s “One Shining Moment.” She helped found the Swarthmore College Gospel Choir and continues to direct the Alumni Gospel Choir. “Dolores” Premieres on Independent Lens, Tuesday, March 27, 2018, on PBS TCA Panelists Dolores Huerta (Subject). Dolores Clara Fernández was born on April 10, 1930, in Dawson, a small mining town in New Mexico; she spent most of her childhood and early adult life in Stockton, California, where she and her two brothers moved with their mother following their parents’ divorce. Independent and entrepreneurial, her mother was an active participant in community affairs. After graduating from high school, Dolores earned a teaching degree, married and had two daughters. Seeing her students come to school with empty stomachs and bare feet inspired her lifelong commitment to correcting economic injustice. She found her calling as an organizer while serving in the leadership of the Stockton Community Service Organization (CSO). During this time, she founded the Agricultural Workers Association, set up voter registration drives and pressed local governments for barrio improvements. It was in 1955 that she met a likeminded colleague, CSO Executive Director César E. Chávez. The two soon discovered that they shared a common vision of organizing farm workers and in 1962 they launched the National Farm Workers Association, which would evolve into the United Farm Workers and bring national attention to the conditions faced by farm laborers. Huerta’s lobbying and negotiating talents helped secure Aid for Dependent Families (AFDC) and disability insurance for farm workers; she was also instrumental in the enactment of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, which granted California’s farm workers the right to collectively organize and bargain for better wages and working conditions. While the farm workers lacked financial capital, they were able to wield significant economic power through hugely successful national boycotts. As their principal legislative advocate, Dolores became one of the UFW’s most visible spokespersons. While directing the first National Boycott of California Table Grapes out of New York, Huerta met Gloria Steinem and was introduced to the burgeoning feminist movement, which rallied behind the farm workers’ cause. Having found a supportive voice with other feminists, Huerta began to challenge gender discrimination within the farm workers’ movement. At age 58, Huerta suffered a life-threatening assault while protesting against the policies of then presidential candidate George H.W. Bush in San Francisco. Following a lengthy recovery, she began to focus on women’s rights, traversing the country on behalf of the Feminist Majority’s “Feminization of Power: 50/50 by the Year 2000” campaign which encouraged Latinas to run for office. Huerta continues to work tirelessly developing leaders and advocating for the working poor, women and children as founder and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation. She was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in March of 2013 and has received numerous awards 1435 Folsom Street San Francisco CA 94103 T. 415 356 8383 F. 415 356 8391 pbs.org/independentlens including The Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award from President Clinton in 1998, Ladies Home Journal’s “100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century,” and nine honorary doctorates from U.S. universities. In 2012, President Obama bestowed on Huerta her most prestigious award, The Presidential Medal of Freedom. Benjamin Bratt (Consulting Producer). A veteran of more than 25 films, Bratt’s distinguished career includes the critically acclaimed films Piñero, Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, which received five Academy Award nominations, and The Infiltrator opposite Bryan Cranston. Other notable film credits include The River Wild opposite Meryl Streep, and Donald Petrie’s beloved blockbuster comedy Miss Congeniality opposite Sandra Bullock. In 2010, Bratt won Cinequest’s Maverick Spirit Award for his work as producer and star of the acclaimed independent hit La Mission. Bratt served as Consulting Producer for “Dolores.” Numerous accolades for the film include the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at the San Francisco International Film Festival and the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the Houston Latino Film Festival. Currently, Bratt voices the famed musician Ernesto de la Cruz in Pixar’s critically lauded film Coco, which premiered in theatres November 22, 2017. Just weeks since its release, the animated picture has already received multiple accolades including awards for Best Animated Film by the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle. On television, audiences perhaps best recognize Bratt from his Emmy-nominated role as Detective Rey Curtis on NBC’s long-running drama Law & Order. He also previously starred in the ABC drama Private Practice and in a recurring role as Sofia Vergara’s ne’er-do-well ex- husband Javier on Modern Family. Bratt can now be seen in Lee Daniels’s Star on Fox. Peter Bratt (Producer/Writer/Filmmaker) is an award-winning screenwriter and independent filmmaker whose first feature Follow Me Home premiered in competition at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival and won the Best Feature Film Audience Award that same year at the San Francisco International Film Festival. In 2009, he and his brother Benjamin produced La Mission, a feature film shot on location in their hometown of San Francisco. The film, which Bratt wrote and directed, premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and was the opening night film at the 2009 San Francisco International Film Festival, the 2009 New York International Latino Film Festival and the 2009 Outfest Film Festival in Los Angeles.