Story Forum: Exploring Art and Innovation - ON DEMAND

An Emmy and Golden Globe-winning Hollywood producer, Yang recently completed three one-year terms as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, ending her tenure on June 30, 2025. She is the first Asian American to hold this position. In July 2025, she became a founding partner of First Light StoryHouse, a new venture with Miky Lee of CJ Entertainment and Dominic Ng of East West Bank.

Yang came to prominence through her collaboration with Steven Spielberg on “Empire of the Sun” (Warner Bros), followed by a long partnership with multiple Academy Award-winner Oliver Stone where she served as Executive Producer on the iconic "The Joy Luck Club" (Disney), and as a Producer on the Golden Globe-winning "The People vs. Larry Flynt" (Columbia Pictures).

Most recently, Yang was an Executive Producer on the 2025 Tribeca Audience-award winning documentary "The Rose Come Back To Me," the Sundance-premiering narrative feature “Take Me Home,” and the Oscar-nominated animated film “Over the Moon.” Her other works include "Dark Matter" (Sundance winner) with Meryl Streep, "The Weight of Water" (Lionsgate) directed by Kathryn Bigelow with Sean Penn, "High Crimes" (Fox) with Morgan Freeman, and cult favorites "Zero Effect" (Jake Kasdan) and "Shanghai Calling" (China Film Group).

Yang was named one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in Hollywood" by The Hollywood Reporter, included in Variety's "Power of Women," and was featured on the Forbes 2024 "50 over 50" List. She is a co-founder of GoldHouse, serves on the board of IMAX China, Forbes APEX, Unified Youth, and Asia Society Southern California’s Advisory Council. Yang is a Presidential Fellow at Loyola Marymount University and holds an honorary degree from Bowdoin College.

For more information, please visit: www.janetyang.com

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is an actor, filmmaker, and entrepreneur known for films such as 500 Days of Summer, Inception, 3rd Rock from the Sun, and SuperPumped: The Battle for Uber. He also wrote and directed Don Jon, a prescient Sundance favorite about pornography addiction.

Gordon-Levitt has always been passionate about the intersection of media and technology, co-founding the two-time Emmy-winning online community for creative collaboration, HITRECORD. He has written multiple op-eds about the need for individuals to be compensated when their content is used to train AI models. He recently started publishing “Joe’s Journal” on Substack and is set to direct an upcoming thriller about AI for Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman’s T-Street.

Justin Trevor Winters is the co-founder and CEO of Verified Labs, an AI-powered creative studio that partners with talent, brands, and major estates including Ernest Hemingway, Steve McQueen, and Triumph Motorcycles to expand their legacy through emerging technology. 

At Loyola Marymount University, he is a full-time faculty member in the School of Film and Television, where he directs The Innovators Film Festival and serves on the university’s GenAI Task Force, contributing to campus-wide strategy around AI and creative technology. A 2025 Mellon Foundation Faculty Fellow, Winters explores the intersection of AI, creativity, and accessible storytelling.

He began his career in entertainment at Innovative Artists and Creative Artists Agency, representing writers and directors such as Stuart Beattie (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director. His latest feature, American Stream, a dark comedy about a troubled young gamer’s dangerous pursuit of fame as the next big Twitch star, has earned multiple festival awards, including Best Feature and Best Screenplay.

Hailing from London by way of New York by way of Seattle, Valere Veatch is an acclaimed independent documentary filmmaker. Veatch is a writer, director, and producer of documentaries "Me @ The Zoo" (HBO), "Love Child" (HBO). Veatch is a graduate of the New School for Social Research with a degree in Culture and Media Studies. Her award-winning work deals with the intersection of technology and society.

Daniel Kwan has been writing and directing for over a decade as a part of the duo DANIELS with Daniel Scheinert. They got their start with a slew of viral music videos, commercials, and short films, before breaking into the feature film and TV space.

DANIELS have developed a reputation for combining absurdity with heartfelt personal stories including the Sundance hit Swiss Army Man. He co-directed, produced, and wrote Everything Everywhere All at Once which became A24’s best-performing film of all time and won 7 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. He’s returning to Sundance as a producer for The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist.

Daniel Roher is a filmmaker from Canada. He is best known for the 2022 documentary, Navalny, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary. His latest film, Tuner, is a jazzy crime thriller he wrote and directed, starring Dustin Hoffman and Leo Woodall. His latest documentary explores the promise and the peril of the AI revolution. He is an accomplished visual artist. Ask him for a drawing. Seriously. See what happens.

Diana Williams is the CEO & Co-founder of Kinetic Energy Entertainment. She is an award-winning producer with franchise IP expertise across all media including video games, film/TV, and interactive/immersive location based experiences. With a mission to support creative innovation and cultural impact, she operates at the convergence of entertainment and technology, and across legacy Hollywood and the new creator economy. Throughout her career she has partnered with both emerging and established creators to champion a wide range of voices and talent in an ever-changing industry.

Kinetic Energy Entertainment is a multi-platform venture studio specializing in transforming ideas into IP that is entertaining, culturally relevant and accessible across all media, by building value with go-to-market business models and strategy. Kinetic’s slate includes the TV series adaptation of The Gatecrashers comic, political sim videogame Political Arena, podcast series Founder Hustle, YA sci-fi adventure Space Hoppers, Guardian Rogue Rangers animated series to launch on YouTube, and a TV series in development at HBO. Kinetic is also an advisor to companies like Fermata that are utilizing cutting-edge technologies to innovate in traditional entertainment categories.

Prior to Kinetic, Diana was the Creative Development and Franchise Producer for Star Wars at Lucasfilm, overseeing film and tv (including Star Wars Rebels, Rogue One), mobile and console video games (including 2015’s Battlefront), and publishing (Marvel’s Star Wars comics and novel expansions). While at Lucasfilm she was also one of the founders of ILM Immersive (formerly ILMxLAB), the immersive entertainment and VR/AR/mixed reality lab behind award-winning experiences including Vader Immortal for Oculus/Meta, Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire for The Void, and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Academy Award© winning VR experience Carne y Arena. Diana has also worked with BET Networks as a production consultant on Let the Church Say Amen, Gun Hill Road, and The Kenya Barris Project.

An Executive Producer on the Apple+ documentary Number One on the Call Sheet, she also produced the critically acclaimed feature film Our Song, which earned her a nomination for an Independent Spirit Award in the Producer category. Other productions include documentaries Room 237, the Emmy© award-winning Sylvia Drew Ivie, Student Academy Award©-nominated Another First Step, Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible, Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis, and Dear Mom Love Cher.

Diana was formerly the Chair of the Peabody Interactive Board of Jurors for digital and immersive storytelling for the Peabody Award. She is currently on the Strategic Planning Committee of The National Academy of Sciences’ Science and Entertainment Exchange; the advisory committee for the Royal Shakespeare Company/Digital development; the advisory board for UK-based Future of Film; and on the boards of Diverso (a non-profit student-led organization, centered on the under-represented storytellers of the next generation), genre focused The Overlook Film Festival, and The Immersive Experience Institute for interactive and location based experiences and theater. Diana is a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

Charlie Tyrell is a Canadian filmmaker whose work has screened at the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, TIFF, Hot Docs, DOC NYC, Tribeca, and more. His autobiographical short My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes was shortlisted for the 2019 Academy Awards and won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Short Documentary.

Momo Wang is an award-winning animation director and the creator of Tuzki, the first Chinese cartoon character to go global. Her original short film Penglai was Oscar-qualified and produced by Illumination. She is the first animation director inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame. 

A leading voice in the AI and creativity space, Momo has collaborated with major platforms and spoken at top industry events worldwide, including CES and SIGGRAPH ASIA. She is the first animation director inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame, and has served as juror for BAFTA, the Annie Awards, ADC Annual Awards, and the Shanghai International Film Festival.

Taryn O’Neill is a writer, filmmaker and futurist whose work focuses on using storytelling and emerging technologies to invoke ‘Protopias’ (aka better futures). Her career spans early web series producing, acting, writing, and directing, with experience across traditional film, new media, and STEM-driven storytelling.

Her directing and writing credits include the fantasy feature films Wicked and Torn (based on the bestselling books by Jennifer L. Armentrout), the Sci-Fi short LIVE (released by Gunpowder & Sky), and the climate-fiction short The Assignment, created in collaboration with ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination. She has written for Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment, BlackBox TV and has had semi-finalist and finalist scripts with the Sloan / Sundance Institute, Film Independent, Climate Spring and the New York TV Fest. She recently sold a Sci-Fi animated feature rooted in climate themes.

Taryn is the co-founder of Scirens, a collective advancing STEM and climate storytelling in entertainment. Her work with Scirens has led to panels at San Diego Comic-Con, with the Geena Davis Institute, collaborations with the XPRIZE Foundation and ASU, and appearances on Bill Nye Saves the World and StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

She publishes the weekly industry newsletter Future Film Fridays, tracking the intersection of emerging technology and entertainment. She’s also written Protopia: A New Horizon for Screenwriters for Script Magazine and A Futurist’s Handbook for Hollywood, all centered on how positive Protopian narratives can help society navigate change and uncertainty while envisioning more hopeful futures. 

Patricia Buffa is a Principal Product Marketing Manager for Firefly, Adobe’s AI-powered creative platform. She leads AI thought leadership strategies and programs that center creatives, spanning education, partnerships, events, and content commissions. Most recently, she spearheaded the creation of Adobe’s first generative AI short film festival at the MAX Creativity Conference, celebrating human imagination amplified by technology through the commissioning of generative AI and hybrid films by six visionary filmmakers.

Before joining Adobe, Patricia spent over 15 years working at the intersection of visual arts and technology, with a focus on expanding audience engagement and supporting artistic experimentation. As Director of Digital Strategy at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (de Young + Legion of Honor), she founded and led the Web and Digital Strategy division and delivered transformational initiatives, including the redesign of famsf.org and the de Young’s first in-gallery augmented reality experience. Designed in partnership with Snap Inc., the project allowed visitors to virtually try on pieces from the museum’s high fashion collection. She also launched an award-winning short documentary series and pioneered early experiments with generative AI to augment and customize the visitor experience.

Previously, Patricia led digital initiatives and teams for major international institutions, including Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris and The Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Patricia is a frequent speaker on the future of creativity, art, and technology, with appearances at SXSW, The Night of Ideas, HUB Montréal, MuseumNext, and other global conferences. Originally from Italy and Brazil, she holds an MS in Economics and Management for the Arts from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.

Kathryn Brillhart is a Cinematographer and Director whose work is defined by a deep engagement with cinematic image-making, movement, and visual storytelling. She approaches narrative and visual work through her curiosity for how images, performance, and space carry meaning, often blending physical and virtual environments to expand cinematic language.

Her practice spans independent and studio projects, where she brings extensive experience with volumetric capture, virtual production techniques, and in-camera visual effects to production. Drawing from hands-on work inside these systems as a Virtual Production Supervisor, Kathryn integrates emerging technologies—including AI-driven tools—into the image-making process in service of story, tone, and human experience.

Alongside her creative work, Kathryn has supervised virtual production on projects including Warner Bros.’ Black Adam, Netflix’s Rebel Moon, Amazon Studios’ Fallout Season 1, and Camille. She is also known for curating public screenings that provide context for her films while creating visibility for other artists. Kathryn serves on the Global Board of Directors for the Visual Effects Society, participates in committees within SMPTE, the ASC Motion Imaging and Technology Council, and is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Her written work and case studies have been published by USC’s Entertainment Technology Center and SMPTE’s Motion Imaging Journal.

Nick Borenstein is the General Manager of The Webby Awards, where he leads strategic development, partnerships, and industry relations for the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. A producer, filmmaker, and content executive, Nick brings a diverse background spanning film, television, audio, and digital media.

After creative and production roles at Topic Studios, Hud:sun Media, and Participant Media, he founded Brumor Films, where he developed original content and produced events and partnerships for organizations including The Gotham Film & Media Institute, Screen Australia, and the Consulate General of Canada. As a director, writer, and producer, his credits include the Emmy-nominated series AKA Wyatt Cenac, the Webby Award-winning podcast Missing Richard Simmons, the Audible podcast The Comedians, notable short films Sweater, 99, and Pete Can’t Play Basketball, and collaborations with Sharon Horgan, Jim Cummings, and Joe Penna.

Loren Hammonds is an EmmyⓇ and Peabody Award-winning producer and curator of Film, Television, and Immersive work. A NYC native, he is currently Head of Documentary at TIME Studios. He previously held the titles of Vice President of Immersive Programming at Tribeca Enterprises and Senior Programmer at Tribeca Festival. He is currently a board advisor for Subject Matter, Agog: The Immersive Media Institute, and ONX Studio.

Among his recent credits as Producer or Executive Producer are Frida (Amazon MGM), Dirty Pop (Netflix), The Lionheart (HBO), MLK: Now is the Time (Meta), The Territory (Nat Geo), D-Day: The Camera Soldier (Apple Vision Pro) and Katrina Babies (HBO).

His views on cinematic and immersive storytelling have been featured in several publications and programs, including The New York Times, BBC Click, NPR, The Today Show, and Vice. He has also been featured as a guest speaker at Cannes Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, AIDC, SXSW, Columbia University Digital Storytelling Lab, Mutek, Pratt Institute, Scuola Holden, P&G Signal, and more.

William D. Caballero is a Puerto Rican-American, queer filmmaker. Born in the housing projects of Brooklyn, NY, and raised in a trailer in his grandparent's backyard in Fayetteville, NC, his autobiographical animated documentary shorts have debuted at the 2017 and 2022 Sundance Film Festivals. His work features an innovative blend of animation and live action, usually combined with audio interviews from underrepresented and marginalized peoples. He is a 2001 Gates Millennium Scholar, 2017 Sundance New Voices Lab Fellow, 2018 Guggenheim Fellow, 2021 Creative Capital Awardee, 2022 Sundance Documentary Humanities Fellow, and 2024 Webby Award winner for Best Art Direction.

McNitt is a writer and director. A pioneer of fusing storytelling and emerging technology, she is an Emmy Awards Finalist and recipient of the VR Grand Prize at The Venice Film Festival. From astronauts to astrophysics, McNitt explores the cosmic collision of science and art. She is the creator of SPHERES, a VR journey through the hidden songs of the Universe, Executive Produced by Darren Aronofsky, starring Millie Bobby Brown, Jessica Chastain, and Patti Smith. SPHERES made history as the first VR acquisition out of Sundance. Her latest short film, ANCESTRA, is a groundbreaking collaboration with Darren Aronofsky’s newest venture Primordial Soup and Google DeepMind — combining live-action and generative AI to tell a story of an expectant mother who draws on the strength of all that came before — past matriarchs to dying stars — to transform her love into a cosmic force to save her daughter’s life. McNitt’s work has appeared at Sundance, SXSW, AFI Fest, Cannes, CPH:DOX, Tribeca, Telluride, and Venice.

With over 18 years of experience in the interactive and immersive media industry, Yelena Rachitsky leads content innovation initiatives across Meta’s platforms, bringing a deep understanding of emerging technologies and user-centric storytelling. She currently serves as the Head of Emerging Formats at Meta, where she focuses on developing and launching next-generation content experiences that push the boundaries of creative expression.

Rachitsky has overseen the launch of more than 40 virtual reality projects, including seven that have won Emmy Awards. Prior to Meta, she consulted for the Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier program and spent four years in the documentary division at Participant Media, contributing to award-winning films such as An Inconvenient Truth and Food, Inc. She began her career at Echo Lake Entertainment.

Rachel Joy Victor is the founder of Interphase, an R&D design studio. Rachel's work as a designer, strategist, and worldbuilder for emerging technologies (XR/AI/web3) focuses on creating cohesive narrative, brand, and product experiences. She designs for a range of applications: from multiplatform narratives and immersive experiences, to tools and platforms, to spaces and cities. She draws from her education in computational neuroscience and spatial economics to facilitate the creation of data-informed emergent experiences where world simulation, systems design, and 8 architectures intersect. Rachel’s clients have included Disney, HBO, Technicolor, Vans, Ford, Nike, Havas, Meow Wolf, Niantic, and many more. She is known for her talks and panels that make emerging technologies accessible and has presented at SXSW, Stanford, NAB Show, AI on the Lot, Future of Film, and more. Most recently, she co-founded FBRC.ai, an ecosystem company focused on creating AI-supported tools for the future of content production, and was an adjunct professor at USC's School of Cinematic Arts. 

Connie He is an animation director and creative technologist at Google DeepMind. Her professional background includes work on animated feature films like Inside Out 2 and Dream Productions at Pixar from 2021-2024, while her first short film, "Watermelon: A Cautionary Tale,” is a viral success with over 200 million views on YouTube.

Yung Spielburg is a Grammy Award–winning producer and songwriter best known for his long-standing collaboration with Japanese multi-hyphenate, MIYAVI. Collaborations include Simple Plan, Mikky Ekko, Train, Goo Goo Dolls, Samuel L. Jackson, DUCKWRTH, and Yuna, as well as HYDE, Daichi Miura, and EXILE SHOKICHI. 

His work includes campaigns for Honda, Asahi, Beats, and Samsung; video game franchises such as Final Fantasy and Bleach; and music featured across more than 2,000 episodes of television and anime worldwide. Beyond the studio, he has accompanied MIYAVI on UNHCR ambassador missions to refugee camps around the world, using music to help raise awareness of global refugee crises.

Cassidy Curtis is an animator and researcher at Google DeepMind, and served as Supervising Animator for Dear Upstairs Neighbors. Previously, he worked for almost two decades at PDI/DreamWorks, where he supervised animation on characters like Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon and Alex the Lion in Madagascar 2. In his capacity as a researcher, he developed stylized rendering techniques for immersive animated films like Pearl (the first VR short to be nominated for an Oscar) and Age of Sail (which won the VES award for real-time visual effects) at Google Spotlight Stories.

Sarah Rumbley is a software engineer at Google DeepMind, and served as VFX Supervisor for DEAR UPSTAIRS NEIGHBORS. Drawing on her background in photography, she is passionate about bringing a creator’s perspective to her work on image and video generation. Her first love was music, and she remains an active performer as a classical pianist in the Fireside Ensemble (a Boston-based chamber music group) and bass guitarist in her office rock band (“Codeplay”), while also pursuing studies in composition and film scoring.

Márcia Mayer is a Film Independent Spirit Award-nominated producer, currently leading Google DeepMind’s Media and Entertainment production efforts. Previously, Márcia worked at Pixar, and founded and ran Tenacious Productions, where she was dedicated to producing exciting, emotionally engaging feature films that expand audiences’ empathy and understanding. 

Bernie is a Peabody and three-time Primetime Emmy award-winning creator, director, and interactive storyteller pushing the boundaries of AI-driven narrative. He created and showrunned Whispers, Pickford.ai's groundbreaking interactive mystery series where audiences actively solve crimes alongside AI-powered characters.

His Emmy-winning works include Jane Austen adaptations The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Emma Approved—capturing YouTube's first two Primetime Emmys—and Artificial, the pioneering live interactive sci-fi series that became Twitch's most decorated original, winning a Webby, Peabody, and Emmy.

He recently directed the Olay Body Wash 2025 AAPI commercial campaign and is a sought-after speaker on generative AI's transformative impact, ethics, and risks across the creator economy and traditional entertainment industry.

Stephen Piron is a co-founder of Pickford, a technology company that believes AI will make the future of storytelling interactive and immersive, creating a new medium defined by real-time collaboration. Before co-founding Pickford, Stephen co-founded Dessa, an AI company that became widely known for creating a deepfake of Joe Rogan in 2019, one of the first high-profile demonstrations of AI's capabilities, which brought AI into public consciousness. In early 2020 Dessa was later acquired by Jack Dorsey at Block Inc. (formerly Square), the NASDAQ-listed, $50 billion payments & technology company.

Stephen holds a Bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Toronto. He’s spoken about the threats and promises of AI at 10 Downing Street, the CIA and to members of the United States Congress. 

Harrison Sanborn is the product lead behind Pickford’s interactive narrative experiences, including the development of First Date and producer of Whispers. As one of Pickford's earliest team members, he has played a central role in shaping the company’s vision, user experience and AI-driven storytelling systems.

Drawing on more than 15 years of experience in Hollywood and team leadership, Harrison bridges creative direction with technical execution; working closely with engineering to turn AI's raw capabilities into coherent, living narrative experiences for Pickford. He's been instrumental in defining Pickford's approach to real-time, sentiment-driven storytelling and the tools that will enable creators to build imaginative and ever-evolving worlds.

Harrison’s work focuses on how AI can expand authorship, empower new users, and open the door to narrative worlds that were never before possible.

Stephen A. Chang is an accomplished actor who brings depth and humanity to groundbreaking entertainment across television and interactive media. He portrayed Jesse, the noble and heroic companion in Naughty Dog's critically acclaimed The Last of Us: Part II (2020), one of gaming's most celebrated narrative experiences.

As a series regular in Amazon's Bosch: Legacy, Chang brought complexity to his role, demonstrating his range in premium streaming drama. He previously starred as the antagonistic Sebastian Wu in Artificial (2019), the Emmy and Peabody-winning Twitch original that pioneered live interactive storytelling.

Raised in the Bay Area, Chang discovered his passion for performance after nearly pursuing law school. Beyond the screen, he's a dedicated father to his children and channels his storytelling devotion into writing whimsical children's books that inspire young imaginations.

Heavenly Reyna is a multi-lingual singer, songwriter, and actress. Having grown up traveling around the world before settling in LA, she has lived many lives. She has carved out a path streaming music full time on Twitch whilst pursuing acting, finding her two worlds colliding more often than not, recently having had a film release where she plays a singer/songwriter, called The Greatest Ever, and previously playing “Blake” in Film At A Deadly Cost, which features 5 of her original songs.

A California native born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jennifer is a former Miss Asian America and current soccer mom of a tween. Notable roles she's played include the notorious Assistant D.A. Jennifer Arden on General Hospital (ABC), and the maniacal Dr. Ruby on Primetime Emmy and Peabody Award winning series Artificial (Twitch), also created by the prolific Bernie Su. Other recurring credits include The Old Man (FX), Roswell, New Mexico (CW), and the Emmy-winning stop-motion animated series Robot Chicken (Cartoon Network). She recently wrapped shooting an episode for a popular Netflix series, and won Best Actor in a Short Film at the 2025 Seattle Film Festival. Jennifer is a sci-fi nut, outdoors enthusiast, and loves to spend her free time with friends and family.

Alyssa is the Head of Commercial Operations at Studio Ulster, a £72 million next-generation virtual production studio. Managing Business Development, Client Services, and Marketing for the studio, Alyssa brings technical sales and content development expertise.

Prior to joining the team in Belfast, she had been leading commercial teams at innovative media startups across the US, Ireland & the UK for 12 years including WPP (AKQA Leap), News Corp (Storyful, Unruly), and Paramount Global (Vh1).

Professor Declan Keeney, PhD, FRSA, SFHEA, is Co-Founder & CEO of Studio Ulster Ltd, a £72m next-generation virtual production studio and creative tech company based at Belfast Harbour Studios, a pillar innovation project of the Belfast Region City Deal. 

Declan is a global leader in real-time screen technologies and holds a Chair in Screen Technologies & Innovation at Ulster University. He is Director of the CoSTAR Screen Lab, overseeing £12m in R&D investment. A board member of the British Film Institute and Northern Ireland Governor, he has secured over £91.5m in R&D&I investment funding, co-leads several major UKRI-funded national initiatives in virtual production, and founded the Ulster Screen Academy — home to the UK and Ireland’s first university-based VP studio.

Jamie is a former journalist turned film producer. Beginning his career in radio, he could have been heard delivering the sports news on both the BBC and numerous commercial radio stations, before moving into television for ITV News and Channel 4 news. 

After moving into the world of narrative features, the first film he produced was EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED TO TELL MY DAUGHTER ABOUT MEN, an amalgamation of 16 shorts, all directed by a different female director. He also Produced MY HOUSE for Finite Films, and Co-Produced, COTTONTAIL and FIREBRAND for Magnolia Mae (which both released globally in 2024), DADDY’S HEAD and ODYSSEY for Stigma Films. As well as LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT starring Jessica Lange and Ed Harris, and ETERNAL RETURN with Kit Harrington and Naomi Scott.

He completed principle photography on APART FROM HER in late 2024, and FRANK AND PERCY in late 2025, and is currently shooting NO WAY OFF on the Studio Ulster Virtual Production stage.

Niamh Gormley is a Sundance Collab Community Leader, award-winning Northern Irish screenwriter, co-founder of Lír Pictures and member of the Writers Guild of Ireland. 

Her work includes Boa Island, a supernatural epic family drama set in Northern Ireland’s Lakelands, Dippers, a bilingual Irish-English murder mystery series, and Luscus, an adaptation of poet Maureen Boyle’s award-winning memoir. Her 1920s period TV drama Bridget in Manhattan, developed through Sundance Collab’s Outline-to-Pilot programme, is a multi-award-winning script with numerous international Best TV Pilot Screenplay awards. 

Niamh has been a Sundance Collab Community Leader since July 2025 and is passionate about introducing filmmakers to new technologies and using emerging AI technologies to amplify untold stories and bring them from page to screen. 

Joanna Popper is a media and technology executive and award-winning executive producer focused on AI, storytelling, and innovation. She served as Chief Metaverse Officer at CAA, leading initiatives in AI, spatial computing, and web3, and previously held roles leading XR Go-to-Market at HP, EVP Media & Marketing at Singularity University and VP Marketing at NBCUniversal. She cofounded Satire AI, which has produced over 30 AI-powered short films and earned 20 awards. Her work includes AI shorts Enter the BBL Drizzyverse: The Yams of Life, Project 2029, D.I.C.E., and immersive experiences Finding Pandora X and Breonna’s Garden. 

She has held Board, advisory board, or consulting roles with Metaphysic AI, Unity Software, AGBO, the Producers Guild of America, and the Television Academy. Joanna is recognized in the XR Hall of Fame, 50 Women to Watch for Boards, and Top Women in Media.   

Social: @JoannaPopper

Drigan Lee is an AI Artist and Emmy-nominated filmmaker. His current projects include serving as a creative technologist on an AI collaboration between Ron Howard and Obsidian Studios, editing episodes of Rick Rubin's TETRAGRAMMATON podcast, and co-writing a vérité documentary about an Alaskan strip club (Prod. Chloe Zhao and Alex Gibney). His lead editing work includes CALLBACK (Sundance '26), THE MONEY GAME (Emmy-nominated, Amazon), BAMARUSH (HBO). His additional editing work includes DAUGHTERS (Sundance '24, Netflix), CUSP (Sundance '20, Showtime). 

As a commercial director and creative director he's worked extensively for Condé Nast Entertainment, Warner Brothers, and Vox Media. In a past life, he directed a stage adaptation of Kafka's THE TRIAL at Cherry Lane Theatre, and acted in films, network television shows, and regional theater productions. He graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Theatre Studies.

Maddie Hong is a creative technologist and filmmaker specializing in using emerging technologies to achieve human creativity. Her career has spanned from technical AI artist work for companies such as Secret Level, to editing movie trailers, to technology teams at major studios such as Netflix. Her innovative AI filmmaking has been published in Forbes and Wired and has earned several accolades, including Finalist in Runway's Gen48 competition, Second Place in the Culver Cup sponsored by FBRC.AI and AWS, and official merit selection in Runway's 3rd Annual AI Film Festival.

Maddie is also an educator and frequent public speaker, and has given presentations on AI filmmaking to Curious Refuge, the American Society of Cinematographers, and LA Tech Week. She believes in using technology to empower previously unheard voices. Maddie is a member of creator partner programs for Runway, Luma Labs, and Pika Labs and actively contributes industry research and programming for SMPTE, the Hollywood Professional Association, and the USC Entertainment Technology Center.

Website: maddiehong.com

Social: @hmdehong

Gina Garcia is a Product Marketing Manager on Firefly GenAI, Adobe’s generative AI platform for creators. She works closely with filmmakers, artists, creative professionals, and creators to support creative workflows, helping them understand and experiment with emerging tools in service of their creative practice. At Adobe, she partners with creators and cultural institutions to explore how generative AI can be integrated thoughtfully and responsibly into storytelling.

Before joining Adobe, Gina held creator-focused roles at Instagram, TikTok, and Meta, where she led creator and artist programs supporting creative professionals and helping extend their work across social and digital platforms. Her work focused on building programs that supported creator engagement, sustainable creative practices, and the translation of artistic work across platforms.

Gina holds a BFA in Photography from Parsons School of Design, grounding her work in a deep understanding of visual storytelling and creative practice.

At the dealmaking intersection of where content makers meet buyers, financiers, and distributors, Elsa Ramo is at the forefront of first-time deals with emerging and established streamers and studios, guiding her clients into innovative terms that optimize their reach and prevalence in today’s flattened marketplace. Elsa provides comprehensive legal services to producers, financiers, creators, and owners of film, television, and digital content and projects across a range of budgets and production levels. She established her law firm to enable up-and-coming filmmakers and producers to bring their stories to life.

Ramo works with established content-creating powerhouses such as Imagine Entertainment, Skydance, Lion Forge Studios, Boardwalk Pictures, Scout Productions, Riff Raff Entertainment, The Comedy Store, The Jim Henson Company, Wonder Project and French Tuck. She also represents independent prolific producers and directors like Lee Broda, Zachary Drucker, Anne Clements, Liza Mandelup, and founder of the Los Angeles Festival of Movies, Sarah Winshall.

In addition to directly overseeing high-level clients, Elsa Ramo founded and manages her boutique firm, which has grown from a solo practice on the Universal Backlot in 2005 to a team of over 22 attorneys with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Ramo is notable for its majority female partners and diverse group of attorneys. Elsa is a Forbes.com contributor, speaking to current issues and topics in the entertainment industry. She and the firm were recently featured in a Variety article, "The Rise of Ramo from Two-Person Law Firm to Industry Player," celebrating Ramo Law’s 20th anniversary. She was recently recognized among Variety’s 2025 Legal Impact Report and 2022 Dealmakers Impact Report, Daily Journal’s Top 100 Women Lawyers, and Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2022 Women of Influence; she was nominated for the LA Times B2B Inspirational Women Awards; and her Firm was featured among Los Angeles Business Journal’s Most Admired Law Firms. In 2024 she was awarded LAW.com’s Women, Influence & Power in Law Managing Partner of the Year Award. Elsa lives in Brentwood with her husband and two children.

Geeta Gandbhir is an award-winning filmmaker and co-founder of Message Pictures. Recent credits include the Oscar-nominated documentary “The Perfect Neighbor” which won the Directing Award for the US Documentary Competition and was bought by Netflix, the series “Katrina: Come Hell and High Water” which premiered at #1 on Netflix, Oscar-nominated short "The Devil is Busy" for HBO, "Reclaimed" for Sesame Workshop, the Oscar Shortlisted film “How We Get Free” for HBO, the series "Born in Synanon" for Paramount, the series "Eyes on the Prize" for HBO, the feature doc "Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power," which was nominated for the 2022 Critics Choice Award, won a 2023 SIMA Award, and won a 2023 Emmy Award. She directed and show ran the series "Black and Missing" for HBO which won a 2022 NAACP Award for Best Directing, a 2022 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Series, a 2022 ATAS Honors Award, and a Cinema Eye Honors for Best Series. She directed the film "Apart," with Rudy Valdez for HBO Max, and won a 2022 Emmy Award.

Ryan White is the director of Come See Me in the Good Light (Apple TV), which follows poet Andrea Gibson and their partner Megan Falley as they navigate an incurable cancer diagnosis with remarkable perspective and joy. The film won the Festival Favorite Award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Previously, White directed Into the Fire (Netflix), Pamela, a love story (Netflix), Ask Dr. Ruth (Hulu), and Good Night Oppy (Amazon), which won two Emmys and five Critics Choice Awards. White is also the director of Visible: Out on Television, The Case Against 8, Serena, and The Keepers. White’s projects have been Oscar-shortlisted and won multiple Emmys.

R.J. Cutler is an award-winning filmmaker whose has directed such films as Martha, Elton John: Never Too Late, Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry, BELUSHI, The World According to Dick Cheney, The September Issue, and A Perfect Candidate. He has produced such films as The War Room, Thin, Listen to Me Marlon, and The Disappearance of Shere Hite. For television, Cutler has directed and/or Executive Produced such programs as Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul, Elton John Live, Murf the Surf, Dear…, Nashville, 30 Days, Freshman Diaries, and American High.

Cutler is the founder of This Machine Filmworks, an LA-based production company specializing in the development and production of premium documentary content, which is a part of Sony Non-Fiction Television.

Cutler’s work has been nominated for two Academy Awards and a Writer’s Guild Award, and he is the recipient of numerous other awards including three Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, a GLAAD Award, two Cinema Eye Awards and two Television Academy Honor Awards. In 2009, the Museum of Television and Radio held a four-day retrospective of R.J.’s work. In 2021, R.J. received the Critics’ Choice Pennebaker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Documentary Film.

Maggie Pisacane is a Senior Partner at WME in the agency’s Non-Scripted department and runs its Documentary Group. In her role, she represents renowned filmmakers as well as prolific production companies in the nonfiction space.

Maggie joined WME in 2017 as a Partner. Prior to WME, she was a partner at Frankfurt Kurnit after being an associate at Sloss Eckhouse. She is an AMPAS member.

A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Law School, Maggie currently resides in New York City with her husband and two sons.

Sara Bernstein is an award winning producer, leading the development and production of premium documentary feature films and series for Imagine Documentaries. Recent credits include the 5-time Emmy Award-winning Jim Henson Idea Man, Critics’ Choice Award-winning and Grammy nominated Music by John Williams, Emmy-nominated Judy Blume Forever and We Feed People, Emmy winning Frida, Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything, The Super Models, Earnhardt and Downfall: The Case Against Boeing.

Prior to joining Imagine in 2018, Bernstein was Senior Vice President of HBO Documentary Films, where she oversaw award-winning nonfiction programming for the network. Bernstein has garnered 12 Emmy wins, 35 Emmy nominations and 11 Peabody Awards, and the documentary features she has supervised have garnered 2 Oscars and 13 Oscar nominations. In 2024, she was featured on Variety’s New York Women’s Impact List.

Bryan Edward Hill is a screenwriter, filmmaker, and comic book author whose work blends genre storytelling with emotional and psychological depth. His screenwriting credits include Bitter Root (dir. Ryan Coogler / Proximity Media), and an untitled Prince biopic (dir. Ryan Coogler / Proximity Media). For television, he has written for Titans (WB / HBO Max), and in comics, he has authored acclaimed runs of Blade and Black Panther for Marvel.

His first feature as a director, Archangel, is currently in post-production (Image Nation / Spooky Pix). Bryan is also the co-founder of Kevlar Creative, a production company focused on high-concept, character-driven storytelling across film, television, and emerging media.

Julius Pryor IV is a filmmaker, producer, and creative strategist. A graduate of Morehouse College and NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Julius has spent the last decade developing original work across both the narrative and branded space.

His credits include two feature films that world premiered at Sundance: How to Tell You’re a Douchebag (dir. Tahir Jetter) and Cronies (dir. Michael Larnell), executive produced by Spike Lee. He recently produced The Vacation, winner of the 2023 Sundance Short Film Special Jury Award, which is currently being developed into a feature. He also produced Feathers, written and directed by A.V. Rockwell, funded by Tribeca’s "Through Her Lens" program and world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Always with a focus on elevating underrepresented voices and bold creative perspectives.

Most recently, Julius has partnered with acclaimed writer-director Bryan Hill (Blade, Titans, Killmonger) on a slate of genre-driven feature films, including the upcoming occult thriller Archangel.

Together, they are also launching a new creative platform and production banner to house their shared vision for boundary-pushing, artist-first storytelling: Kevlar Creative.

At the core of Julius’s approach is the belief that the best art comes from trust, alignment, and shared vision. He brings a spirit of precision, adaptability, and focused collaboration to every project—whether producing, directing, or writing.

Alix Dunn is a trusted expert and advisor who has worked at the intersection of technology and society for over 15 years. She is the founder and CEO of The Maybe, a critical consultancy, collective, and media studio that challenges the power and politics of tech. Alix is also the host of the weekly Computer Says Maybe podcast, a senior advisor to AI Now, and serves on the boards of the strategic litigation firm Foxglove and the radical research network RealML. Previously, she served as a trustee of the Ada Lovelace Institute for AI & Society. Alix and her team at The Maybe have partnered with organizations including the Ford Foundation, Amnesty International, Open Society Foundations, International Fund for Public Interest Media, System, Human Rights Watch, DeepMind, and many others.

Alli Finn is an experienced organizer, policy advocate, and movement researcher rooted in NYC, focused on AI, data centers, and state and corporate surveillance. Alli leads the AI Now Institute's partnerships work, equipping communities, organizers, and policymakers to challenge the negative impacts of AI infrastructure and systems on our work, health, rights, and daily lives. Alli also helps steward a nationwide network of local and state groups resisting data center expansion. 

Alli came to tech justice work through a decade of fighting for immigrant and worker rights, through deportation defense, frontline casework, and national advocacy. They led research and organizing against ICE surveillance with the Immigrant Defense Project and Surveillance Resistance Lab, campaigned against corporate tech power with Kairos, and managed the casework department at a migrant domestic workers’ center in Lebanon. Alli holds an M.A. in Sociology from the American University of Beirut and is currently a Public Voices Fellow on Technology in the Public Interest.

Johnathan Flowers is currently an assistant professor of philosophy at California State University, Northridge. His primary research areas include African American intellectual history and philosophy, Japanese Aesthetics, American Pragmatism, Philosophy of Disability, and Philosophy of Technology. Flowers also works in the areas of Feminist Philosophy and affect theory, with a specific focus on the affective organization of identity.

Outside of philosophy, Flowers works actively in the areas of Disability Studies, Science and Technology Studies and Comics Studies, where he applies insights from American Pragmatism, Philosophy of Race, and Disability Studies to current issues in human/computer interaction, artificial intelligence and machine learning, identity in digital space, and representations of identity in popular culture. 

Flowers is currently working to develop a poetics of experience through the work of Audre Lorde by treating her theory of the Erotic as an affective integrative principle which unites the self into a qualitative whole. Lorde's principle of the Erotic as integrative is what enables a unity of experience throughout the various aspects of Lorde's philosophy.

His first monograph, Mono no Aware and Gender as Affect in Japanese Aesthetics and American Pragmatism was published by Lexington Books in 2023. 

Thema (Tay-mah) Monroe-White is an Associate Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Policy in the Schar School of Policy and Government and the Department of Computer Science at George Mason University. She is particularly concerned with understanding the pathways to achieving social and economic empowerment for minoritized groups via AI education, and emancipatory data science, a justice-centered approach to computational and quantitative inquiry that challenges algorithmic biases, advances racial equity, and reimagines how data and AI can serve marginalized communities. She investigates the intersections of bias mitigation, critical computational methods, and racial equity across science and technology education. 

Dr. Monroe-White has received multiple grants to study equity in K-20 learning ecosystems for the purpose of designing inclusive, data-driven pedagogies that broaden participation in AI and data science. She is an advisory board member and fellow of the Institute in Critical Quantitative and Mixed Methodologies (ICQCM), has served on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Technical Advisory Committee, and contributes regularly to national dialogues on equitable and emancipatory AI education through forums at the White House, the National Academies, and other convenings. Thema holds a PhD in Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from Howard University.

Dr. Tiera Tanksley is a Senior Researcher whose work examines the socioemotional, mental health and academic impacts of digital and artificially intelligent technologies on Black youth. Her work examines anti-Blackness as the “default setting” of schools and school-based technologies, including GenAI chatbots, facial recognition systems, weapons detection systems, and more. Her work simultaneously recognizes Black youth as digital activists and civic agitators, and examines the complex ways they subvert, resist, and rewrite algorithmically biased technologies to produce more-just and joyous digital experiences for Communities of Color across the diaspora. 

In 2020, Dr. Tanksley founded the Race, Abolition and Artificial Intelligence summer program - a critical science and technology program that prepares young people to have more critical, agentic and algorithmically-conscious relationships with digital technologies that exist within and beyond the educational setting. In 2025, she was awarded an AI in Education research grant from the Spencer Foundation.

Kristina Budelis is a filmmaker, entrepreneur, and product leader working at the intersection of media, AI, and storytelling. She teaches film and AI at universities and beyond, and writes the Film Robots newsletter on how emerging tools are reshaping the way stories get made. She has served as a Mozilla AI Fellowship mentor and an OpenAI alpha artist.

Previously, Kristina helped build The New Yorker’s Oscar-winning video department, founded and ran the venture-backed startup KitSplit, and led product development for NYT Kids (New Ventures) at The New York Times. Her documentary films have premiered at Tribeca and reached millions of viewers; she also produces and executive produces for partners ranging from PBS to Delta. Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 (Media), she specializes in bridging creative storytelling with responsible, real-world uses of new technology.

Ben Wiley is a creative director at the Google Creative Lab focused on shaping emerging technology. With a background in storytelling and filmmaking, he’s worked on everything from music videos and album launches to TED Talks and documentaries to big brand commercials, weird experiments, and everything in between. Lately, he’s been dedicated to making a dent in the universe of AI — creatively hacking models, building filmmaking tools for the AI era and finding ways to this new technology can help expand human imagination.

Joseph Couch is the Sydney based Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Othelia, where he builds systems for working with complex stories and expansive storyworlds. His work spans long-form narrative design and interactive storytelling across film, new media, and games. He has advised leading studios and production companies on creative development and collaborated with interactive teams on narrative experiences. He has presented his ideas at prominent venues, including the Sydney Opera House.

Mike S. Ryan has produced 30 plus independent features including award winning features for such directors as Todd Solondz, Kelly Richard, Hal Hartley and Bela Tarr. 

Junebug is one of the lowest budgeted films to receive a Oscar nomination (Amy Adams' first). His films have played all of the top international festivals including winning awards at the Spirits and Gotham's. Mike’s most recent film is The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire by Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, which started in competition at Rotterdam 2024 and went on to play TIFF and NYFF and theaters in the US in 2025. It won Best Experimental Film in 2024 by the National Society of Film Critics.

Mike is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and he is an Associate Professor at Emerson College where he teaches Producing and Narratology. He is both a US and Irish Citizen.

Alicia Van Couvering is an independent producer whose credits include FX’s Adults, Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture, Jon Watts' Cop Car, Joe Swanberg's Drinking Buddies, Gimlet Media's inaugural scripted podcast, Homecoming, and its television adaptation, as well as numerous short films and commercials. 

Formerly an executive with Nick Kroll's Good at Business, Lord Miller Productions, Epic Magazine, and Annapurna Pictures, she is also a contributing editor to Filmmaker Magazine, a nominee for the Independent Spirit Award for Producer of the Year and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Abhi (he/him) is a game designer from Toronto who recently released his first game, Venba, to a great reception. He wants to tell intimate stories with interesting mechanics and hopes to see more games made from around the world with their own unique perspectives.  

Julián Cordero is a game developer from Quito, Ecuador, now based in New York City. His latest project, DESPELOTE, is a slice-of-life adventure about childhood and the magical grip soccer held over the people of Quito in 2001. He is passionate about finding new ways to capture the world, and sees video games as the perfect vessel for that exploration.

Tim Dawson is a BAFTA winning narrative designer, game developer and co-founder of Brisbane indie game studio Witch Beam. Beginning his games career in Adelaide, Tim worked as an animator at multiple Australian game studios including Team Bondi, Pandemic and Sega Studios Australia, contributing to releases on consoles and handhelds. After co-founding his own studio in 2013, Tim helped create and release three award winning titles, including Witch Beam’s breakout success, Unpacking.

Wren Brier is a BAFTA-winning narrative designer, artist and game designer best known for the indie game UNPACKING. She has worked in the games industry for over 12 years, starting at Halfbrick and later working as a freelance artist before developing UNPACKING with Witch Beam Games. She hopes to keep making personal games that engender empathy in players.

Wren is an active member of the game development community, participating in mentorship programs and running Brisbane's Women in Games meet-up group for 8 years. She has served as a GDC Summit advisor and BAFTA jury member, curated a pixel art exhibit with the Brisbane Powerhouse, and given talks and keynote speeches at games conferences around the world.

Krystal is a data worker and research fellow with DAIR, focused on the human labor that underpins AI systems and the ethical questions that surround them. Her work examines the often-invisible individuals who power the AI supply chain - data annotators, content moderators, and other platform-based workers - and the broader systems that shape their working conditions.

Before entering the research space, Krystal spent a decade working on political and issue campaigns as a community organizer, driven by a commitment to equity and systemic change. Her training in geology helps her approach the AI ecosystem as a layered, interconnected system, one where human labor is often buried or overlooked. 

Richard Mathenge is a former team lead in one of the well known AI organizations in Kenya. He is credited in fighting for the rights and better working conditions for Tech workers and content moderators through better regulations, workable mechanisms and policy framework.

Richard is also one of the founders of the African Content Moderators Union, founded on the 1st of May 2023 and also a global AI policy maker working with Partnership on AI, an organization dedicated towards formulating AI policies and mechanisms.

Amongst the accolades Richard is decorated with include‌ TIME Top 100 most influential people in AI‌ Top 100 Kenyans 2023

Through his agitation and clamor for better working conditions and human treatment in the AI world, Richard has received a number of invitations globally to inspire the international community. Richard doubles up as the co-founder of a non-profit Techworker Community Africa as well as the Admin of the African Content Moderators Union, both centered in Nairobi.

Dr. Milagros Miceli is a leading researcher and critical voice in the field of artificial intelligence. She currently serves as Research Lead at the Distributed AI Research (DAIR) Institute, Director of the Data, Algorithmic Systems, and Ethics research group at the Weizenbaum Institute, and lecturer at the Technical University of Berlin. Her research focuses on the social, political, and ethical dimensions of AI, with particular attention to the invisible labor and power asymmetries embedded in the creation of machine learning datasets.

Dr. Miceli is the Principal Investigator of the research project Data Workers’ Inquiry, an innovative initiative that empowers data workers to conduct worker-led research on their own labor conditions. Through this project, she explores how global data supply chains shape the production of “ground truth” data and how inequalities in outsourced data work impact algorithmic outcomes. The project has received major international recognition for its methodology and for bringing visibility to the human labor sustaining the AI industry.

Dr. Miceli’s academic background spans multiple disciplines. She earned her PhD in Computer Science (summa cum laude) from the Technical University of Berlin. She also holds a Master’s degree in Sociology from Humboldt University of Berlin and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of the Arts, Berlin. Earlier in her career, she studied Sociology and Communication Science at the University of Buenos Aires.

Dr. Miceli’s scholarly contributions combine Critical Data Studies, Sociology of Technology, Labor Sociology, and Human-Computer Interaction, bridging technical and social research traditions. She has authored multiple award-winning papers. Her leadership has attracted significant research funding from institutions including the Ford Foundation, European Parliament, and Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Her influence extends beyond academia: Dr. Miceli’s work has informed policy in Europe and beyond, and she is often consulted and invited to testify in parliamentary discussions. She was named among TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in AI (2025) and 100 Brilliant Minds of Berlin, recognizing her as a pioneer in advancing ethical, worker-centered perspectives on AI.

Mophat Okinyi is an AI and human rights activist, labor organizer, and former content moderator based in Kenya. He is the Founder and CEO of Techworker Community Africa and a leading voice organizing data and platform workers across the Global South. Mophat is one of the Kenyan workers who helped train large language models, including ChatGPT, to reduce harmful and toxic content, giving him firsthand insight into the hidden human labor behind AI. 

Drawing from lived experience inside global AI supply chains, his work exposes exploitative outsourcing, racialized labor hierarchies, and the psychological harm faced by content moderators and data labellers. He bridges grassroots organizing, policy advocacy, and global research collaborations to push for worker-centered AI governance and labor rights. Mophat was recognized by TIME100 AI for his impact on the future of artificial intelligence.

Meagan Keane is Director of Product Marketing for Adobe Professional Film & Video. She joined the Adobe Premiere Pro Management team in 2012 and has led business strategy across the Adobe video portfolio since 2019. While Meagan’s leadership has guided Adobe video strategies for over a decade, her beginnings were in documentary film. 

She was a producer across numerous documentary features including High School 911 (2016), Defining Beauty (2011), We Live in Public (Sundance Grand Jury Winner, 2009) and Join Us (2007). Meagan is a thought leader in the film and video industry, recently quoted in Variety, Hollywood Reporter and Forbes Magazine regarding the future of filmmaking, as well as the growing impact of AI in Hollywood. Meagan sits on the Board of Governors of the Advanced Imaging Society and was named one of PR Daily’s Top Women in Marketing in 2023. She loves remaining connected to the film industry, while influencing future innovation in her field. Meagan lives with her family in Marin County, CA and has an MFA in film production from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

Charles Melcher is a creator, curator, and thought leader in the storytelling and technology space, as well as an entrepreneur and early-stage investor in media and technology companies. He is the Founder and CEO of Future of Storytelling, a live events and content studio that is focused on how storytelling and technology are developing in the twenty-first century. 

For over a decade, FoST has created groundbreaking live gatherings such as the FoST Summit, the FoST Festival (recognized as cutting-edge events by Forbes, VICE, The New York Times, and others), and most recently the FoST Explorers Club membership program. Additionally, FoST produces original content throughout the year, including storytelling workshops; curated exhibitions with local and international organizations; a storytelling curriculum for businesses; a monthly newsletter, “FoST in Thought,” and the bi-weekly FoST Podcast, where Melcher has intimate and informative conversations with expert guests such as Margaret Atwood, Al Gore, Neil Patrick Harris, and David Byrne, among others. FoST also produces apps, websites, films, and immersive experiences for international brands and media companies. Melcher also recently wrote and published a first-of-its-kind book about immersive experiences titled The Future of Storytelling: How Immersive Experiences Are Transforming Our World. He sits on the boards of immersive theater company Punchdrunk International, the American Alliance of Museums, and Nova Sky Stories.

Melcher is also the Founder and CEO of Melcher Media, Inc. Founded in 1993, the company works with leading brands (including Meta, PepsiCo, and Microsoft), media companies (Netflix, HBO, Condé Nast, and Time Warner), and individual authors (Oprah Winfrey, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Kobe Bryant) to help them tell their stories and connect with large audiences via beautifully illustrated, interactive books. The company has won numerous design awards and has produced thirty-three New York Times best sellers.

Alex Rivera is an award-winning filmmaker whose work explores themes of globalization, migration, and technology. 

Rivera’s first feature film, Sleep Dealer, a cyberpunk thriller set on the U.S./Mexico border, won awards at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival, was screened at the Museum of Modern Art, and had a commercial theatrical release in the U.S, France, Japan, and other countries.  

Rivera’s second feature, The Infiltrators, won the NEXT: Audience Award and the Innovator Award at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The Infiltrators uses documentary and scripted forms to tell the true story of Dreamers who ‘infiltrate’ a detention center to get immigrants out.  

Rivera is currently developing a few new cyberpunk projects and, with support from the Ford Foundation, a feature documentary on the history of deportation titled Banishment. 

Alex Rivera is a 2021 MacArthur Fellow, Sundance Fellow, Creative Capital Grantee and was The Rothschild Lecturer at Harvard University. He studied at Hampshire College and lives in Los Angeles. He is an Associate Professor of Filmmaking Practice at ASU's Sidney Poitier New American Film School. 

Noah Segan is a fourth-generation New Yorker who has been a part of the independent and genre film community for nearly two decades. Early in their careers, filmmaker Rian Johnson cast Segan in the Sundance Award-winning hit Brick, beginning their friendship. Since then, Segan has appeared in nearly all of Johnson’s films, from a supporting-lead role in Looper to a cameo in Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi and more recently the blockbuster Knives Out and its sequels, Glass Onion and Wake Up Dead Man. 

His other screen credits include features War Pigs, Tales of Halloween, Starry Eyes, Deadgirl and The Brothers Bloom as well as guest appearances on series such as “House,” “Chicago Fire” and “Poker Face.” Segan wrote, directed and starred in the vampire film Blood Relatives, opposite Victoria Moroles. He both appeared in and helmed a segment of the horror anthology Scare Package.

Rian Johnson is a two-time Academy Award® and Golden Globe®-nominated filmmaker known for telling unique stories across a wide variety of genres. Johnson’s film highlights include KNIVES OUT, GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY, LOOPER and STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI. Additionally, through his company T-Street with his creative partner Ram Bergman, Johnson co-created and executive produced the Emmy® nominated series POKER FACE and executive produced the hit science-fiction series 3 BODY PROBLEM. The third installment of his beloved whodunit murder mystery franchise WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY released in select theaters on November 26, 2025 and is now streaming on Netflix, where the film stayed in the Top 10 films for at least six weeks following the streaming launch and was recently longlisted for Adapted Screenplay for the 2026 BAFTA Film Awards. Upcoming, T-Street will produce longtime collaborator Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s AI thriller feature film starring Rachel McAdams and THE ONLY LIVING PICKPOCKET IN NEW YORK written and directed by Noah Segan, starring John Turturro. 

Alton Glass, a creative entrepreneur and immersive storyteller, leads GRX Immersive Labs, a studio leveraging emerging tech to innovate storytelling, accelerate immersive education, and amplify culture. An Oculus Launch Pad and Unreal Engine Virtual Production Fellowship alum, he co-created THE MARCH for TIME magazine, bringing the 1963 March on Washington to life in VR. At Tribeca Film Festival, his POV: POINTS OF VIEW experience explored implicit bias in AI and policing. Through the Arts Beats & Tech XR platform with Verizon, Glass merges creativity, technology, and education to inspire future innovators. His commitment to empowerment and immersive storytelling earned him the Culture Creator Award for Technology and Accenture Breakout Star for Tech by Black Enterprise.

Gary Hustwit is a New York–based filmmaker and visual artist whose work examines design as a force shaping culture, technology, and everyday life. He is the CEO of Anamorph, a generative media studio and software company focused on new tools for creative expression. Across more than two decades, Hustwit has developed a body of work that treats design not as style, but as a system of decisions that structure how we live.

He made his directorial debut with Helvetica (2007), the first feature-length documentary about graphic design and typography, and continued his exploration of design practice with Objectified, Urbanized, Workplace, and Rams. These films investigate objects, cities, environments, and designers themselves, and have screened in over 300 cities worldwide, with broadcasts on Netflix, HBO, PBS, and the BBC. His most recent film, Eno, a documentary about musician and artist Brian Eno, applies bespoke generative technology to both its creation and exhibition, extending design thinking directly into the filmmaking process. The film was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2024.

Hustwit’s work has premiered at Sundance, SXSW, and TIFF, and has been exhibited at institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt, the Design Museum London, the Venice Biennale, and the Victoria & Albert Museum. He has served on juries for Sundance, the Gotham Awards, and Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, was named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, and is a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

KD Daza is an executive, producer, and writer dedicated to future-minded storytelling. As the leader of Punctuate Studio, she works at the intersection of entertainment, innovation, and education. She has contributed to projects for Netflix, Warner Bros., Disney, Sony, Cartoon Network, Hi-Rez Studios, and more. 

Punctuate empowers film and television professionals to navigate rapid industry transformation. The studio specializes in creative resilience frameworks and the ethical adoption of emerging technologies, including AI, XR, virtual production, gamification, and interactive storytelling.

Through the Sundance Institute, Daza serves as the creative technology advisor for Sundance Collab and the Story Forum program producer for the Sundance Film Festival. She also teaches filmmaking courses and hosts story development events, including the popular Sundance Collab Script Club.

Daza has navigated a robust career as an artist, researcher, and entrepreneur. She has successfully founded and sold two companies — an award-winning digital strategy studio and an edtech media platform — and generated millions of media impressions for her creative works.  

Jim Festante (Executive Director) founded Health-e-Habits to promote thoughtful technology and gaming use, emphasizing informed decision-making and community building. He spent 20 years in media production and knows how the engagement loops are built because he worked in the industries that built them.

Jim’s digital journey began in 1996, designing websites when the commercial web was still in its infancy. His work spanned industries, with clients like Ford, Merrill Lynch, and Conde Nast. He soon transitioned into online entertainment, producing content for MTV, NBC, and Comedy Central before moving into journalism at Slate Magazine/The Washington Post, where he created video content surrounding gaming and technology while helping launch Slate’s video department and official YouTube channel.

Since 2008, Jim has shaped the marketing landscape for video games, leading creative campaigns in television, online, and social media for major publishers including Xbox, Sony, and Nintendo, as well as global sensations like Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft. He also consults creatively for entertainment studios including Pixar and Disney, writes comics for publishers including Dark Horse and Image, as well as video game-adjacent books for Insight Editions.

Jim has always been deeply invested in supporting young people. Before becoming a parent, he taught acting and improv in NYC and Hollywood. Now, he mentors through programs like Crisis Text Line and Big Brothers Big Sisters while coaching youth soccer and baseball. He is currently pursuing certification in Addiction Studies Counseling, furthering his commitment to guiding the next generation.

Jim’s experience in gaming, journalism, and digital marketing has given him a 360-degree view of technology’s influence; founding Health-e-Habits was the natural next step in helping families make sense of it.

Denver Humphrey is a 17-year-old advocate, award-winning filmmaker, and musician dedicated to using storytelling as a tool for justice, empathy, and connection. She is the co-founder of Fourddo (four-dee-do), a nonprofit that has reached more than 30,000 young people through campaigns and collaborations with brands like Macy’s, KIA Motors, UNESCO, and Seventeen. In 2025, Fourddo launched a national mindfulness tour that inspired the upcoming documentary Dreamers (2026).

Her creative journey spans acting for Disney, performing at the US Open, and directing films like Find Me in the Void with Black Girls Film Camp. Denver also serves on UCLA’s Center for Scholars & Storytellers Youth Advisory Council and partners with organizations such as Nike, Hershey’s, and Harvard’s Center for Digital Thriving.

Whether through film, music, or advocacy, Denver’s work challenges norms and centers underrepresented stories, reminding people of their collective power to imagine and build a more equitable world.

Shira Lazar is an Emmy-nominated digital culture expert, keynote speaker, and mental health advocate with over 1 million followers across platforms. She is the founder of What’s Trending, a pioneering digital media brand with more than 3 million followers, where she has been covering and shaping internet culture, technology, and the creator economy for nearly two decades.

She has spoken on stages including SXSW, CES, Cannes Lions, NAB, and VidCon, and has been recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Influential Women in Technology, Variety’s Women of Impact, and Adweek’s AI Trailblazers.

Shira is the founder of Creators 4 Mental Health, an initiative dedicated to improving mental health access, support, and sustainability in the creator economy through research, events, and community programs. She is also building CreatorCare, a platform focused on benefits and mental health resources designed specifically for creators.

In 2026, Shira helped introduce the Creator Bill of Rights alongside Representative Ro Khanna, advocating for fair labor standards, protections, and benefits for creators as workers and small business owners.

She shares her insights on AI, culture, and the creator economy in her weekly newsletter The Alpha and hosts The AI Download, a weekly audio and video podcast exploring how AI is reshaping work, creativity, and society.

Henry is the Resident Filmmaker and Creative Director at Google Labs, following two decades of creative leadership working with some of the world’s largest brands. Working across design, film, and emerging technology, he explores how human storytelling endures in an AI-driven world.