Telling Stories Across Multiple Formats with Michael Showalter (THE BIG SICK) & More

Writer/director Michael Showalter helms Semi-Formal Productions which produces film and television that is edgy, contemporary, socially aware, and tells commercial stories with unconventional characters that have as much heart as they do humor. Michael recently wrapped production on THE LOVEBIRDS, an action comedy starring Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae. Michael's most recent feature is the critically acclaimed and Golden Globe nominated, THE BIG SICK. Other projects include the feature film, HELLO MY NAME IS DORIS, and he is the co-creator of the hit TBS series Search Party and showran Netflix’s Wet Hot American Summer. 

Jenny Lumet is the author of Rachel Getting Married, for which she received the 2008 New York Film Critics Circle Award, 2008 Toronto Film Critics Association Award, and 2008 Washington D.C Film Critics Association Award. She also received a 2008 NAACP Image Award. She is also the author of the screen adaptation of The Center Cannot Hold, The Language of Flowers, and doctored Remember Me, Bobbie Sue, Honeymoon with Harry, and The Mummy. 

She is currently at work on the Untitled Monsters Franchise for Universal Studios. She authored the pilots The Weissmans of Westport, Crazytown, and The Beresfords and consulted for Fox Television’s Sleepy Hollow. Lumet is presently at work on a series Pilot for Amazon Television, her third series Pilot for CBS television, and a series Pilot for the U.K.’s Blueprint Pictures. She has authored several other original screenplays including Kingdom of Louie and Sambo. 

She serves on the Council of the Writers Guild of America East and the Board of the Writers Guild Initiative. She generated and chairs the WGAE’s first Diversity Caucus. She is an Executive Director of Bindercon, a conference for Women and Non-gender conforming writers, and holds screenwriting seminars for Women of Color, and Women over 40. Lumet lives in Manhattan with her two children.

D.V. DeVincentis was born in Europe and raised in Evanston, Illinois. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California, but is often in other places. He began his creative life at an early age in the Chicago theater. After studying literature and filmmaking at a number of colleges, DeVincentis moved to Los Angeles. From there and some other places he has written and produced feature film scripts in collaboration with others and alone, including High Fidelity (Writers Guild of America and BAFTA nominations), Grosse Pointe Blank, Lay The Favorite, and S.O.S., among others. 

In 2016, DeVincentis won the Golden Globe, The NAACP Image Award, two Emmy Awards, the Writers Guild Award, two Producers Guild Awards, and others for his writing and producing of American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson. He has two television shows developing at FX Network, and an untitled feature that will mark his writing/directing debut and go in front of cameras in 2018.

Jessie Nelson wrote, directed and produced CORRINA CORRINA and I AM SAM, starring Sean Penn. She co-created and executive produced Sara Bareilles’ LITTLE VOICE for Bad Robot and Apple TV. Among her other directing credits are CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM and LOVE, THE COOPERS. Her writing credits also include STEP MOM and THE STORY OF US. Nelson wrote the Broadway musical WAITRESS with music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles, which went on to the West End in London. Nelson directed ALICE BY HEART, which she co-wrote with Steven Sater with music by Duncan Sheik at the National Theater Connections Program in London and at MCC in NYC. She began her career as an actress at the Public Theater, working with the experimental theater, Mabou Mines, and acting with the New York Shakespeare Festival. Currently, Nelson is executive producing Nikesh Shukula’s BROWN BABY and Glennon Doyle’s UNTAMED for television. She wrote the children’s book LABRACADABRA.