The Fellows
Cashmere Jasmine
Title(s): Director/Writer
Director/ Writer and producer of award-winning shorts “Bombs Bursting in Air” (L.A. Intl. Film Fest, 2020) and “Weenie” (Buffer Film Fest, 2019) in post-production on “Oreo” (2021) and directing “Sia” (2022). Currently writing queer disability-inclusive dramas with dark humor and surrealist imagery.
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Faith Strongheart
Title(s): Writer/Director
Writer/Director specializing in female-driven dramas. Santa Fe bred. Los Angeles based. MFA in directing – UCLA. Written, Produced, Directed over a dozen award-winning short films. Currently making feature doc about getting severely burned as an infant. In 2020: Screencraft TV Pilot Quarterfinalist, Respectability Lab Fellow
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Juliet Romeo
Title(s): Writer/Director
Writer/Director. Documentary/Comedy/Romance/Sci-Fi. Born in Trinidad. News journalist turned filmmaker. Co-founder of Slamdance Film Festival UNSTOPPABLE Program. Recipient of the 2019 Firelight Media Groundwork Lab. Recent festival projects: J.U.L.E.S (Urban Film Fest, Everybody Digital, American Black Film Festival, Doc Without Borders) Series contributor PBS Film-Maker. Latest doc, Art Of Warrior tv debut late 2021. In pre-production of dramedy Best Laid Plans.
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Lesley Hennen
Title(s): Writer/Director
Writer/Producer, half-hour, single-cam comedy. “Best of Fest” at 2020 HBO’s Women in Comedy Festival” Pitch Your First Five Pages” competition. Second-rounder for 2021 Sundance Episodic Labs. Finalist in WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Lab, and WeScreenplay TV Pilot Contest. Semifinalist in ScreenCraft’s TV Pilot Contest. Currently working on a new half-hour dark comedy pilot, “Miss Ability” following a group of disabled teenagers as they take on the beauty pageant world, exploring themes of savior complexes and beauty standards.
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Natalia Provatas
Title(s): Writer/Director
Latinx Writer/Director. Published personal essayist in Refinery 29, Real Simple Magazine, and Dame Magazine. Won the audience award at Holly Shorts for Canary Suicides (official selection SXSW and Cleveland International Film Festival.) On the writing team of BOO: Earth Division for DreamWorks Animation Television. National Hispanic Media Coalition’s (NHMC) Series Script Writer’s Program Fellow. 2020 Disruptor’s Fellow. She is currently working on her memoir, Ghosting My Death Doula, a series of personal essays about having cancer in your thirties.
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Nico Pinzo
Title(s): Writer/Director
Nico Pinzon is a Writer/Director, Colombian-American, UCLA MFA Screenwriter, who won Final Draft’s Big Break Diversity Category in 2018, Nicholl Fellowship Semi-Finalist, specializes in dramedy and sci-fi tv and features about underdogs and the marginalized.
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Shannon DeVido
Title(s): Actor/Writer
The BAFTA Breakthrough and Casting Society of America Top 20 of 2020 actress and comedian Shannon DeVido is best known for her roles in Hulu’s Difficult People, Netflix’s Insatiable, Comedy Central’s Delco Proper, and Law and Order: SVU, as well as appearances on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore and Sesame Street. Shannon starred in the world premieres of Michael Lew’s dark comedy Teenage Dick at the Public Theater and Samuel D. Hunter’s The Healing.
Shannon has also acquired a dedicated following on her disability-focused comedy YouTube channel Stare at Shannon. In her latest project, she leads the cast of the full-length independent feature film Best Summer Ever, an award-winning musical comedy which had been set to premiere at SXSW in 2020.
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Rachel Handler
Title(s): Writer/Director
Rachel Handler is an actor and filmmaker based in NYC. She won the AT&T Underrepresented Filmmaker Award for her short, “Committed” and the Sundance Co//ab Monthly Challenge for her script, “The A Doesn’t Stand for Accessible.” Since joining the disabled community she’s found a passion for writing, producing and directing; advocating for inclusion in every project she creates. Her writing credits include the award-winning short films, “HOW MUCH AM I WORTH?” “The Housewarming,” “Committed,” “The Vanished,” and “Authentically Me” which won the Reelabilities 27 Second Film Competition and screened in taxi cabs throughout NYC. Handler’s films have screened at Slamdance, Hollyshorts, Bentonville, Heartland, Newport Beach and more. Handler’s TV acting credits include “Law & Order: SVU,” “Goliath,” “New Amsterdam,” “Bull” and “NCIS: New Orleans.”
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– Rachel Handler, Writer/Producer/Actor
