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Talkhouse

Actor Pej Vahdat recently starred on three successful series concurrently: in The Old Man, alongside Jeff Bridges, for FX/Hulu, opposite Kevin Bacon on the Ben Affleck-Matt Damon-produced City on a Hill for Showtime, and in a pivotal role in the final season of Dynasty for the CW. Born in Tehran, Iran, Pej and his family moved to the United States to escape the revolution and landed in San Jose, California. Pej went on to attend San Diego State University where he played Division 1 Tennis, but ultimately turned his focus to acting. His first professional job was on CBS’ The Unit and he went on to work for eight seasons of Fox’s Bones. He had recurring roles on Shameless, alongside William H. Macy, Sneaky Pete opposite Bryan Cranston, and Fox’s Empire, opposite Taraji P Henson and Terrence Howard. His feature film credits include Christopher Morris’ The Day Shall Come, which he starred in opposite Anna Kendrick. When not acting, Pej resides in Los Angeles with his two dogs, Charlie and Zinfindel. (Photo by Jared Schlachet.)

Pej Vahdat

Film

Being Jason Vaughn, or How I Kickstarted My Career By Becoming My Own (Fake) Agent

Eleanore Pienta is an award-winning screen and stage actor, comedian, dancer and filmmaker. She can currently be seen in the single-take thriller <a href="http://www.momentumpictures.net/soft-quiet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Soft &amp; Quiet</a>, which is now out in theaters on VOD through Momentum Pictures. Weaving in and out of the independent film world, Pienta has carved out a niche for herself by portraying uncompromising and complex characters, her presence on screen is at once alluring albeit menacing. Filmmaker Magazine called her role as Mona in See You Next Tuesday “…one of the most original, indelible, infuriating and truly felt movie characters in some time, a sister to Loden’s Wanda and Rowlands’ A Woman Under the Influence…” Pienta’s directorial debut, Ada, premiered at the New York Film Festival. Eleanore graces the NYC stages with her solo work and can be seen performing with collaborators Sunita Mani and Tallie Medel as Cocoon Central Dance Team, and together created the cult classic Snowy Bing Bongs Across the North Star Combat Zone.

Eleanore Pienta

Drooling Towards Bethlehem: Taking Risks in Making Art

An Tran is a director and producer based in Los Angeles and Vietnam. She directed the documentary <a href="https://fortomorrow.org/documentary" target="_blank" rel="noopener">For Tomorrow</a>, about people worldwide making innovative change in their communities, is now streaming on Prime Video. An co-directed/produced the feature documentary Moving Pictures: Filmmaking and the Art of Cinematography, which premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2020 and directed and produced more than 50 episodes of the web series The Filmmakers View. Her producing credits include The Summer People for director Todd Louiso and the indie feature Marjoun and the Flying Headscarf, written and directed by Susan Youssef. She formerly ran the ARRI Emerging Filmmaker Grant program, where she championed award-winning films like Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station and Beach Rats. The daughter of political refugees who fled Vietnam at the end of the war, she grew up in South Bend, Indiana, and is currently finishing the documentary Tran 5, about her experiences growing up in the Midwest and then returning to Vietnam.

An Tran

How Leaving the Life I Knew Saved Me

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

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

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

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.

film essay