Yunah Chung, Development Executive for Film and TV
Of Texas provenance and a bicoastal upbringing in California and New Jersey, Yunah Chung is a Korean American creative executive. After graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts as a film & TV major, she cut her teeth at CAA followed by MTV where she witnessed words on a page turn into pixels on a screen as a scripted series development and current programming assistant. Her lifelong love of Korean cinema (which began long before the Parasite hype!) naturally led her to blogging about it online over at Dramabeans.com where a global community of K-drama fans continue to engage in thoughtful and enthusiastic discourse. In early 2017, Yunah was selected for an inaugural comedy screenwriting fellowship from Whoop Inc. (Whoopi Goldberg’s production company) and Mana Contemporary. Unable to shake her interest in global cinema, she also developed content and analyzed scripts at Infinite Studios (local producer of Crazy Rich Asians) while completing her dual international MBA degrees in Singapore and Tokyo. She was most recently a Development Executive at 9 Story Media Group in New York where she developed kids & family animated and live action content.
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Rachele Domond, Dancer/Filmmaker
Rachele is a dance educator. She earned her BA in Dance Education with a minor in African-American Studies from Hunter College in 2023 and has been teaching dance to children since she was 16 years old. She currently teaches at various schools around the city, while also recording and creating content that highlights her art and her work, and celebrates Black innovators and artists.
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​Myles Hunt, TV Writer/EdTech Developer/Disability Advocate
Myles Hunt is a hard of hearing and proud lifelong hearing aid-wearing visual artist based out of Brooklyn, NY. Early on he became infatuated with Jim Henson and his famous Muppets while learning his syllables. He practiced lip-syncing to music, movies, and television shows while using the puppets that he built himself. Utilizing his love for creatures and all mediums of art, he developed over 200 characters of his own and counting. He attended Hobart and William Smith Colleges and graduated with a B.A. in Arts and Education. Exploring all art mediums and becoming certified as an elementary school teacher in New York State, he set his sights back on the Muppet world. He interned for two summers with The Jim Henson Company, where he took part in the design, creation, and performance of Jim Henson Muppets. He then went on to become a professional puppeteer with the Walt Disney Company. He has since been involved in the ed-tech space and eventually became CEO of sMyles Creative. Through his work with sMyles to date, he has devoted his efforts to creating, conceptualizing, and producing original characters for entertainment and education. Currently, he is pitching his first animated series centered around a character of his own creation named J.W., a deaf drummer who, with his rag-tag gang of diverse musicians, attempts to make it in the music scene. A paired children’s book, J.W. The Deaf Drummer showcases the character and world-building put in place to promote empathy, compassion, and the joy of the arts with friends. Such animated characters have been featured in several film and television festivals such as The Metro Film + Tv Awards, Giphy Film Fest, and Reel 13.
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Bryan Korn, VP, CREATIVE CONTENT, SONY TV PICTURES, KIDS
Bryan is an Emmy, BAFTA, and Annie award-winning Children's Media Writer/Producer who also teachers Film Producing coursework at SVA and is a Certified Queens Public Television Producer. He has worked on world-class children’s media development and production. Focusing on highly-imaginative, idiosyncratic, creator-driven worlds, characters, and brands. Guiding IP through every stage from development, to series, to global commercial success. 2D/CG animation production. Currently, Bryan is the VP Creative Content at Silvergate Media, an international TV production and licensing company. Developing new animated television series. Crafting pitches for partners like Disney, Nickelodeon, Netflix, and CBeebies. Bryan was the Co-Executive Producer on the Netflix Original animated series Hilda. Season 1 was nominated for a Peabody Award and won 3x Annie, BAFTA, Emmy, Kidscreen, and TAAFI awards. Season 2 won an Emmy for best Animated program for kids.
He has also written for Octonauts (Disney), Hilda (Netflix), Monkey with a Toolbelt (Netflix). Bryan received his BFA Dramatic Writing from Conservatory of Theater Arts and Film School of the Arts, SUNY Purchase College.
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Stacey Larkins, Filmmaker/Musician
Stacey Larkins is an award winning filmmaker, writer and musician residing in the New York City metropolitan area. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Spelman College, and a Masters in Music from New York University. She has shot, written, directed, composed and edited several short films that have played in various film festivals as well as Shorts TV International. Her award winning film Jabari Keating is currently airing Aspire TV’s Urban Indie Film Block.
She has also written work for theater, that has been produced by theatrical production companies in New York City and in the U.K
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Marta Márquez Filmmaker/Journalist
Founder/CEO of Chico&Punky Productions, an independent production company focused on horror tales and documentary films. Marta began her career as a journalist and then developed her career as a freelance producer in New York, Mexico, and Spain, working on commercials, television shows, music videos, and independent films. Marta is also an experienced filmmaker, having directed “Verano Perro” and “WTNY Bienvenida a Nueva York”, an award-winning Horror Short, shot on 16mm film. Marta has a Master´s Degree in Radio and TV Communications by Universidad Complutense de Madrid and also studied Filmmaking at the NYFA in Manhattan and Screenwriting at EICTV in Cuba. She currently resides in the south of Spain where she is earning a PhD in Philosophy of Cinema from The University of Cordoba.
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Deirdre Morales TV Writer/Producer
Deirdre is a writer and producer based on the east coast. Deirdre began her career in children’s television at Sesame Workshop and “The Wonder Pets” on Nick, Jr. before receiving her MFA in film production from Florida State University’s College of Motion Picture Arts. As a film student, Deirdre was a finalist for the PGA Debra Hill Fellowship and as a writer, her feature screenplay was a top ten finalist in the 2015 Bluecat Screenplay Competition out of over 5,000 entries. After graduation, Deirdre became Vice President of The Pod Advertising where she produced Emmy-winning video content and was the recipient of a gold addy for her work as a video producer and songwriter for the “Safer, Smarter Kids” animated series as part of a childhood sexual abuse prevention curriculum through the Lauren’s Kids foundation and Florida Department of Education. Other notable career milestones include amplifying diverse filmmakers through her work at Wise Entertainment and Film Independent’s artist development programs in Los Angeles. Recognizing that neurodivergent voices have been largely left out of the DEI conversation in film and television and specifically children’s media, Deirdre decided to create “N is for Neurodiversity,” an inclusive preschool series designed for neurodivergent children and their caregivers, which earned her a spot in the Disabled 2022 Children's TV Content Creators Lab, run by Respectability and Netflix. Deirdre lives in New Hampshire.
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Makeba L. Ross, Filmmaker
Born and raised in Newburgh, New York, Makeba once dreamed of becoming a film and stage actress. She stumbled upon filmmaking in a media production class during her senior year of high school where she quickly fell in love with cinematography and the editing process and enrolled in film school at Brooklyn College. She graduated in May of 2017 with a Bachelors in Film Production and a Bachelors in Media Communications, worked for several years as a documentary filmmaker for the United States District Courts in Manhattan, New York, and is now Sr. Producer for Colorway Productions based in Brooklyn, NY. Her short films have screened at multiple festivals across the country and have won many awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at AFF2019.
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Kathleen S Wilson PhD, Professor NYU TISCH
Kathleen S Wilson PhD is a professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in the Interactive Telecommunications Program and is a founding co-partner of the Rikaroo Film Collective. She has been involved in digital media design, development and strategy since she created interactive multimedia projects for Bank Street College of Education in the 1980s, co-designed SimTown with Maxis, and worked as an Executive Producer at Paramount Pictures’ Media Kitchen in the early 1990s. Kathleen was part of the founding team that created Viacom Interactive Services, Viacom’s in-house digital media development group, where she was the VP/Creative Director from 1995-2001. Since then, she has taught, consulted, and created digital media products, participated on a variety of judging panels, and given presentations on digital media creation and strategy to organizations worldwide. Kathleen has an EdD from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, a Global Executive MBA from TRIUM (a joint MBA offered by NYU- Stern, The London School of Economics, and HEC-Paris), an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and a BA from Middlebury College.
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Jordyn Zimmerman M.Ed., Filmmaker/Disability Advocate
Jordyn Zimmerman, M.Ed., earned her bachelors degree in Education Policy from Ohio University and her Masters of Education at Boston College. As a nonspeaking autistic student who was denied access to effective augmentative communication until she was 18, Jordyn has personal experience challenging the educational status quo, which is featured in the 2021 documentary, This Is Not About Me.
Technology helped open Jordyn's world and she began advocating for students through a series of engagements. Since then, she has keynoted and presented at conferences around the world, is Board Chair of CommunicationFIRST, works at The Nora project, and has been featured by prominent media outlets. Jordyn has written blogs for companies in Amsterdam and has been featured by educators on an international level. Most recently, Jordyn was appointed to serve on the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.
An avid advocate for all students, Jordyn is passionate and determined to make a difference in the world of education — making sure every student is able to access effective communication and exercise their right to a truly inclusive education.