Anna Konkle is the co-creator and co-star of the critically acclaimed Hulu series “Pen15,” produced by The Lonely Island’s production company Party Over Here. The series won the Gotham Award for Breakthrough Series and was nominated for a primetime Emmy, two WGA Awards, and a Critics Choice Award. Time recognized “Pen15” as one of 12 Exciting New TV Shows created by women and Entertainment Weekly called it “Eighth Grade’s weirder sharper cousin.”
Ground-breaking, creative juggernaut, Rebecca Sugar (she/they) is an animator, director, screenwriter, producer, and singer-songwriter. The first solo womxn to create and run a show for Cartoon Network, they are best known for their Emmy-Nominated, GLAAD, and Peabody award-winning series, STEVEN UNIVERSE, on which they served as executive producer, director, head writer, storyboard artist, and songwriter. Prior, they were a writer, storyboard artist, and songwriter on ADVENTURE TIME. Rebecca has been fighting for LGBTQIA+ content in children’s media since 2010, and for a more inclusive environment both on-screen and behind the scenes in the animation industry.
Emma Seligman is a filmmaker from Toronto and based in New York. At NYU’s Undergraduate Film & TV program, she wrote and directed Shiva Baby, the short film, upon which the feature is based. It premiered at South by Southwest in 2018, went on to Woodstock Film Festival, TIFF Next Wave Film Festival, Palm Springs ShortFest and is now a Vimeo Staff Pick.
With the rare ability to captivate audiences with her sincere storytelling and global perspective, Lulu Wang continues to establish herself as a writer and filmmaker to watch.
Most recently, Wang released her second feature THE FAREWELL, which she both wrote and directed. The story follows Billi (Awkwafina), who returns to China after decades in America to join a household of relatives as they convene to say goodbye to the family’s elderly matriarch under the pretense of a shotgun wedding.
The film first premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, earning Wang a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize. After its success at Sundance, A24 picked it up for worldwide distribution and released the film in select
theaters on July 7. Since then, Wang’s sophomore feature has garnered a multitude of praises, including Variety naming Wang among its “Top Ten Directors To Watch in 2019”. The film recently won Best Feature at the 2020 Film Independent Spirit Awards,
as well as a Best Actress Golden Globe for Awkwafina and a Best Supporting Actress Spirit Award for Zhao Shuzhen. The critically-acclaimed film also garnered multiple nominations throughout the season including “Best Feature” and “Best Screenplay” at
the 2019 Gotham Independent Film Awards, AFI’s Top Ten Films in 2019, as well as “Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language” at the 2020 Golden Globe Awards.
Gloria Calderón Kellett is the executive producer, co-creator, co-showrunner, director, and actress on the critically acclaimed sitcom One Day at a Time.
Calderón Kellett spent her early years as a writer/producer on numerous shows including Devious Maids, Rules of Engagement, and How I Met Your Mother. Her acting credits include Jane The Virgin, Dead To Me, How I Met Your Mother, One Day at a Time, and ABC’s upcoming United We Fall, for which she also wrote. In directing, Calderón Kellett has worked on episodes of One Day at a Time, Mr. Iglesias, Merry Happy Whatever, United We Fall, and the Mad About You revival. This year, she launched a “Hollywood 101” web series with Buzzfeed’s PeroLike. The series offers free advice to new artists at the beginning of their entertainment careers.
Awards for her work include The Television Academy Honors, Mental Health America Media Award, ALMA Award, Imagen Award, NHMC Award, Sentinel Award, and The Voice Award. She has been honored as an industry leader by The Hollywood Reporter in their Top Women in Entertainment issue, the THR100 list issue, and their 50 Agents of Change issue.
Janicza Bravo is based in Los Angeles. Though these days she’d say she’s based in couch and food. She writes and directs—though at the moment she spends most of her days looking longingly into her phone. Her work in film has screened at festivals. Her work in television has played on cable and streaming. She hopes to one day go back to the theatre. And also make more visits to the beach.
Danielle Krudy and Bridget Savage Cole co-wrote and co-directed their first feature, BLOW THE MAN DOWN. The film premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival where the film won the festival’s prize for Best Narrative Screenplay and later premiered internationally at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film was nominated for an Indie Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.
Krudy got her start in indie filmmaking in New York City working at Technological Cinevideo Services. She eventually went on to work for the Director of Photography Matthew Libatique on films such as BLACK SWAN and COWBOYS & ALIENS. Later, Krudy worked at Annapurna Pictures as a reader for Producer Megan Ellison and as the company’s Creative Researcher, working with directors including Bennett Miller, David O. Russell and Angela Robinson.
Originally from salty Beverly, Massachusetts, Bridget grew up working on her dad’s construction crew and serving tourists at seaside restaurants. She attended Wesleyan University where she discovered a passion for dance choreography and cinematography and began creating projects with DIY vigor. Moving to New York City, Bridget found herself creating videos for Nylon Magazine, and began shooting and directing music videos for bands such as Future Islands and Haerts. In 2011, she was selected to participate in AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women, through which she directed the short film Oowiewanna, co-written by Danielle Krudy. In 2014, Bridget joined the roster of M ss ng P eces, where she directed branded content for numerous national campaigns as well as original narrative content for Funny or Die and Refinery 29. Together with Danielle Krudy, she wrote and directed the feature film Blow the Man Down which had its international premiere at Toronto Film Festival, received Best Screenplay at Tribeca Film Festival and was acquired as an Amazon Original. She has served on the board of the Commercial Directing Diversity Program run by the Association of Commercial Producers and is passionate about supporting women and diversity in film.
Milch was at Yale studying William Faulkner when she met an executor of the writer’s estate, an encounter during which her affection for the Nobel laureate’s work—matched with her budding screenwriting talent—led to the acquisition of film and television rights to much of Faulkner’s canon. A first-look deal at HBO followed; and soon after, when she began expanding the subject matter of her scripts, Olivia was featured on the 2013 Black List, Variety’s ’10 Screenwriters to Watch’ and Indiewire’s ‘On the Rise’ lists.
In 2018, Milch made her feature directorial debut with her Black List entry, Dude, a fresh take on the coming-of-age comedy which was released on Netflix. Shot in 18 days on a shoestring budget, the film follows four best friends as they navigate loss and major life changes—and smoke a lot of weed—during their last two weeks of high school. Dude stars breakouts Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars), Alex Wolff (Hereditary), Alexandra Shipp (Straight Outta Compton), Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians) and Kathryn Prescott (To the Bone).
Milch then worked as co-writer and co-producer of Ocean’s 8, the all-star re-imagining of the Ocean’s 11 franchise, released by Warner Bros. on June 8, 2018. Directed and co-written by Gary Ross, Ocean’s 8 stars Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Rihanna, and Helena Bonham Carter.
As a writer, director, and producer, Milch is developing projects for both film and television. The Los Angeles native currently lives in Brooklyn.