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Talkhouse

Ricki Stern is an Emmy-nominated documentary film director, producer and writer. Her new film, <a href="https://www.discoveryplus.com/show/a-radical-life-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A Radical Life</a>, about former Islamic State jihadi Tania Joya, is now streaming on discovery+. Ricki is the executive producer and director of six-part series Surviving Death, director and executive producer of the Emmy-nominated Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work. Ricki is the co-director and co-producer of the four-part series Surviving Jeffrey Epstein (2020), the five-part series AMC/Sundance’s Preppy Murder – Death In Central Park, My So-Called High School Rank (2022), the Emmy-nominated Reversing Roe (2018), Marathon – The Patriots Day Bombing (2016), In My Father’s (2015), Knuckleball! (2012), Burma Soldier (2011), the Emmy-nominated The Devil Came On Horseback (2007), the Emmy–nominated The Trials of Daryl Hunt (2006). She was the director of In My Corner (1998) and the director-producer of the Emmy-nominated Neglect Not the Children (1992).

Ricki Stern

Film

Reaching a Place of Vulnerability and Authenticity

Kimberley Elizabeth is co-host and creator of the leading horror film podcast and outlet Nightmare on Film Street. She’s a horror screenwriter turned director, celebrating her directorial debut with the segment “Do Us Part?” in <a href="https://www.screenanthology.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sinphony: A Clubhouse Horror Anthology</a>. Her favorite horror films are Creepshow 2, Poltergeist and From Dusk Till Dawn.

Kimberley Elizabeth

How a Brush With Death Made Me an Even Bigger Horror Fan

Rodrigo García is a celebrated award-winning director, producer and writer who has directed the multiple Academy Award-nominated film Albert Nobbs, starring Glenn Close, Mother and Child, starring Annette Bening, Naomi Watts and Samuel L. Jackson, and Nine Lives, starring Holly Hunter, Glenn Close, Dakota Fanning and Robin Wright. His new film Raymond &amp; Ray, a family drama starring Ethan Hawke and Ewan McGregor, is now streaming on Apple TV+. García also wrote and directed the critically acclaimed Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her,” which won the Un Certain Regard Award at Cannes in 2000, Last Days in the Desert, starring Ewan McGregor, and Four Good Days, starring Glenn Close and Mila Kunis. He has also worked on TV shows including The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, In Treatment and Big Love. His memoir, A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes, was published in July 2021 by HarperVia.

Rodrigo García

Stories for Indigestion

Flying Lotus aka Steven Ellison is a genre-bending Grammy Award-winning producer, composer, filmmaker, rapper and founder/owner of Brainfeeder Records. He wrote, directed and scored a segment for the latest installment of the anthology franchise <a href="https://www.shudder.com/movies/watch/vhs99/780a406c91b8430e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">V/H/S/99</a>, which is out now on Shudder. Since 2006, Ellison has released six studio albums to global critical acclaim and composed much of the bumper music heard on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. An alumnus of the Los Angeles Film School, he made his directorial debut in 2017 with Kuso, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and in 2021 he executive produced and scored the successful Netflix anime series Yasuke, directed by LeSean Thomas and starring LaKeith Stanfield. Ellison’s next project is the sci-fi horror feature Ash, which he will direct and score, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tessa Thompson. Ellison has worked with celebrated visionaries from David Lynch and Alma Har’el, to Hiro Murai, Khalil Joseph and Shinichiro Watanabe, and has been mentored by legendary filmmaker Terence Malick. (Photo by Matt Lief Anderson.)

Flying Lotus

Three Great Things: Flying Lotus

Ryan Spahn is an actor, filmmaker and writer. He has been published by Rotten Tomatoes, Metro Weekly, USA Today, IntoMore, and American Theatre Magazine. As an actor, he can be seen in American Horror Story, Succession, The Bite, Chicago P.D., and Modern Love. Ryan is a graduate of Juilliard and is based in New York City. Go <a href="https://linktr.ee/RyanSpahn" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> for more info.

Ryan Spahn

For Michael

Alexis Knapp can currently be seen in the horror movie The Accursed, also starring Sarah Grey and Mena Suvari. She is known for playing Stacie in the Pitch Perfect franchise and had her breakout role in the cult hit Project X, in which she starred alongside Miles Teller and Thomas Mann. She also starred alongside Ashley Greene and Pierce Brosnan in the thriller Urge and can be seen opposite Ian Somerhalder and Luke Hemsworth in the sci-fi action thriller The Anomaly. Knapp’s other film credits include Couples Retreat and Percy Jackson &amp; the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. She can currently be seen starring in Phobias, released by Vertical Entertainment and available on Hulu. She also starred in the Lifetime movie My Christmas Prince and earlier this year had a memorable appearance in the season premiere of Hulu’s The Orville.

Alexis Knapp

Three Great Things: Alexis Knapp

Jenny Waldo’s debut feature as writer-director, <a href="http://acidtestfilm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Acid Test</a>, is out now on digital. The coming-of-age feature adapts her festival-favorite short film of the same name and is based on her own tumble through self-discovery as a 1990’s Riot Grrrl! A graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts where she won a directing scholarship, Jenny worked on documentaries while also pursuing her passion for scripted filmmaking. Her producing credits include the indie feature The Preacher’s Daughter, which sold to Lifetime, and the feature documentary The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing. An advocate for upcoming filmmakers, Jenny was Program Coordinator at the non-profit Southwest Alternate Media Project (SWAMP) and now teaches filmmaking at Houston Community College. Learn more at <a href="http://jennywaldo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">jennywaldo.com</a>.

Jenny Waldo

From Teen to Parent and Back Again

Karina Manashil is the president of Mad Solar, having begun her career in the mailroom at William Morris Endeavor, where she became a talent agent. Manashil represented notable clients including Scott Mescudi, known by his stage name, Kid Cudi, and built her career taking talent into new arenas. In 2020, she partnered with Mescudi and Dennis Cummings to launch Mad Solar, which is backed by BRON Studios. The first production released under the banner was the Amazon documentary, A Man Named Scott, from director Robert Alexander. Manashil then went on to executive produce SXSW fan-favorite X, along with its prequel, Pearl, and the recently announced sequel, MaXXXine. All three films are directed by Ti West and distributed by A24. Manashil is an executive producer on the critically acclaimed Netflix animated series directed by Fletcher Moules, Entergalactic, which was released alongside its album of the same name from Kid Cudi on September 30th. Manashil is a native of Los Angeles and graduated from Chapman University with a BFA in Film Production.

Karina Manashil

Opa + Me

Michael Tennant was born and raised in San Diego, California, and attended the University of Arizona (the Harvard of Arizona) where he graduated with a BFA in both Acting and Directing. After graduation, spent the next four years hustling as an actor in New York City, where he did his requisite episodes of Law and Order, wore a peacoat, and then decided he missed having a kitchen and returned to the West Coast. Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles, he booked leads in multiple pilots as well as guest starring roles for ABC, NBC, Nickelodeon, and The CW before also working as an actor/producer/writer on productions for STX, IFC Films, Amazon, Neon, and Netflix. <a href="https://www.ifcfilms.com/films/pretty-problems" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pretty Problems</a>, which he wrote, starred in and produced, has won a number of awards, including the Audience Award at SXSW, and is out now in select theaters and on VOD through IFC Films. He currently resides with his dog Leroy in Los Angeles. They have a very nice kitchen.

Michael Tennant

I Made a Movie to Save My Marriage and Then I Got Divorced

Ian Clark is a director, cinematographer, editor, and producer based in the Pacific Northwest. His films and collaborations have screened at festivals worldwide including BAFICI, CPH:DOX, CUFF, Locarno, and Torino. One of Filmmaker Magazine&#8217;s &#8220;25 New Faces of Independent Film,&#8221; he makes work that blurs the line between fiction and nonfiction and conventional narrative structure often gives way to atmospheric visuals and conceptual experimentation. Recurring themes in his films include the limitations of human perception, ecology, and the way in which technology, landscape, and beauty coalesce. In addition to his filmmaking, Clark has been curating cinema since 2009 and is a founding member and Program Director of Filmfort, named one of the &#8220;25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World&#8221; by MovieMaker Magazine.

Ian Clark

All It Took Was a Brain Injury

Dubbed the “Godfathers of LGBTQ+ TV,” real-life married couple Deondray and Quincy LeNear Gossfield are the creators, writers and directors of the iconic GLAAD award-winning anthology series The DL Chronicles. Building on their brand and following their passion of telling Black LGBTQ+ stories, they created and directed the Amazon Prime spinoff series The Chadwick Journals. The Gossfields were also tapped to be part of the producing teams for hit shows like Kocktails with Khloé and Sunday Best. Their short film Flames, executive produced by Lena Waithe and Rishi Rajani, premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, after the success of their previous shorts, Congo Cabaret and Smoke, Lilies and Jade, which was narrated by Emmy® and Tony Winner Billy Porter (Pose). The pair made their TV directorial debut in 2022 on Lena Waithe’s and Showtime Network’s drama, The Chi.

Deondray Gossfield and Quincy LeNear Gossfield

#MyAriel

Marc Maron is currently co-starring in the drama <a href="http://www.momentumpictures.net/to-leslie" target="_blank" rel="noopener">To Leslie</a>, opposite Andrea Riseborough and Allison Janney, out in theaters and on VOD on October 7. For more than 30 years, he has been writing and performing comedy for print, stage, radio, online and television. With his landmark podcast WTF with Marc Maron, which achieves more than 55 million listens per year, he’s interviewed icons such as Robin Williams, Keith Richards, Nicole Kidman, and former U.S. president Barack Obama. Marc starred in the Netflix series Glow and his scripted series, Maron, aired for four seasons on IFC. He’s had recent roles in the films Joker, Spencer Confidential, Sword of Trust, Stardust, the 2021 Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect, alongside Jennifer Hudson, and the animated feature The Bad Guys, co-starring Sam Rockwell. Marc’s stand-up special More Later (2015) aired on Epix and his specials Thinky Pain (2013), Too Real (2017) and 2020’s End Times Fun, which was nominated for a 2021 Critics’ Choice Award, are currently streaming on Netflix. Marc is the author of The Jerusalem Syndrome: My Life as a Reluctant Messiah and Attempting Normal.