Bridging Divides Through Storytelling

Steven Olikara is a nationally recognized social entrepreneur and on-air commentator working at the intersection of media, politics, and culture to transform America’s divisions. He is the founding CEO of Bridge Entertainment Labs, the storytelling and entertainment office for the national movement to combat toxic polarization in America. In that role, he advises studios from A24 to Paramount on creating new American “Stories of Us.” A prominent voice in the pluralism and political reform movements, he is a Senior Fellow at the USC Schwarzenegger Institute, a Partner at the Builders Movement, and the Founder of Future Caucus, the largest cross-partisan organization of young elected officials in the U.S. 

Steven's nuanced political and cultural analysis is regularly featured on national media, including CNN, CBS News, USA Today, and Variety, and he co-hosts the weekly culture and politics show, The Group Chat. Steven also co-authored the book, JFK: The Last Speech, on the role of artists in democracy. In 2022, he made history as the first South Asian candidate for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin. Named a Truman Scholar, Forbes 30 Under 30, and a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum, Steven's story is featured in the documentary, The Reunited States, on Amazon Prime and PBS.

Writer and Executive Producer Dave Caplan has enjoyed a 35-year career in prime-time television and feature films. He recently served as writer/Executive Producer and co-showrunner of the long-running ABC hit “The Conners,” as well as the acclaimed “Roseanne” revival, the highest-rated scripted show in a decade. Caplan has written and executive produced numerous other hits like “George Lopez,” “The Drew Carey Show”, FX series "Anger Management," TNT’s police/medical drama “Rizzoli and Isles,” and the ‘90s cult hit “Dinosaurs.” Caplan has won numerous awards, including the Humanitas certificate and multiple Environmental Media Awards. 

He also holds a PhD in Psychology, focusing on media-related issues and specifically empathy and storytelling, from Fielding Graduate University. Caplan sits on the Advisory Board of Bridge Entertainment Labs, which aims to decrease toxic polarization through storytelling. A regular speaker at universities including USC, Northwestern, and Cal State University at Northridge, Caplan has also been a featured speaker at many pro-social events such as Pluralism in Action, and New American Stories of Us, and organizations including The Impact Guild and Harmony Labs. Caplan has also created an internship program to help train under-represented college seniors to work professionally as writers in TV. 

He is represented by Odenkirk Provissiero Entertainment.

Valerie's two episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+) have been called "instant classics" and her more recently released "The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail" puts Kirk in the Captain's chair for the first time and is being hailed as a backdoor pilot for a potential spinoff with Captain Kirk. Valerie directed a block of the new NCIS: Tony and Ziva spinoff (Paramount+) in Budapest as well as a new show for Amazon and Wonder Project called It's Not Like That starring Scott Foley that has been ranked in the Top 10 for Amazon since it premiered. Upcoming shows include the premiere block of Season 4 of the megahit Ginny and Georgia (Netflix). Prior television work includes the finale of the limited series Echoes (Netflix) for showrunners Brian Yorkey and Quinton Peeples and five episodes of Netflix's global YA sensation Outer Banks (Netflix). She directed multiple episodes for several of television's biggest producers including Shonda Rhimes, Dick Wolf, Greg Berlanti and Marc Cherry. As a producer and pilot director she has several projects in development, including You Don't Know Me, a YA series set up at Escape Artists and MGM.

On the feature side, she will direct Talking Tom, a hybrid movie (CG character in a live action world) based on the wildly popular "Talking Tom" app (18 billion downloads) being produced by Flywheel Media (Angry Birds 3) and Marla Studios. Valerie was also just attached to direct a new action comedy called Eb and Flo starring Gabrielle Union. Her busy development slate includes a four quadrant comedy called Dancing Dads that she wrote as well as the true story of a Jewish Strongman named The Mighty Atom. Valerie began her career in independent features, having directed her award-winning dramatic debut, A Light Beneath Their Feet, starring Taryn Manning, and The Archer, which premiered at SXSW. Her first studio film was Mixtape (Netflix). Starring Julie Bowen and Nick Thune, it's a nostalgic coming-of-age musical odyssey that scored a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, ranked as one of the Best Family Films of 2021 (Washington Post) and labeled one of the 17 Best Happy Films (Entertainment Weekly).

In Valerie's seemingly incongruous previous existence, she studied X-ray Crystallography at Harvard Medical School, earning a Ph.D. in Biophysics and a Masters in Medical Science. Although well on her way to unlocking the molecular mysteries of the universe, she was irrepressibly drawn to the larger scale mysteries of human nature and pivoted to pursue her lifelong passion in the entertainment industry.

Valerie is a Co-Chair of the DGA’s Women's Steering Committee and was appointed to the DGA's Sustainable Future and Special Projects Committees by President Glatter. In 2018, Valerie's short film True Maze, a female-centric sequel to the Maze Runner was selected out of 50 entries from AFI alumni to be produced by Fox Bridge Program. She is an alum of the AFI DWW Program. She is repped by CAA, 42mp and Range.