Women Rocking Hollywood 2020 - WonderCon@Home Panelist List

Nisha Ganatra is a Golden Globe winner and an Emmy nominee for her work as the Director/Producer for Transparent. She is currently in post-production on her film, The High Note, for Focus Features starring Dakota Johnson and Tracee Ellis Ross with Working Title producing. Nisha most recently directed the film Late Night, starring Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling, which premiered at Sundance, sold to Amazon in a record-breaking deal, and garnered the highest streaming numbers of 2019. Nisha's acclaimed début feature, Chutney Popcorn with Jill Hennessy and Sakina Jaffrey, won Audience Awards at the Berlin International Film Festival, Newport Film Festival, Outfest Los Angeles and many more. Her sophomore feature, Cosmopolitan, starring Carol Kane and Roshan Seth, premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival. On the television side, Nisha directed Liz Sarnoff's pilot, Highland and sold a one-hour drama project to ABC and a half-hour pilot to NBC with Amy Poehler producing. She was the Co-Executive Producer/Director for, Better Things with Pamela Adlon and the Co-Executive Producer/Director for You Me Her. She also created Code Academy for the ITVS/PBS series Futurestates. Nisha has directed episodes of Girls, Dear White People, Future Man, Mr. Robot, Shameless, Married, Brooklyn 9-9, Last Man On Earth, Love, and Black Monday.

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Lauren Wolkstein is a NYC-based filmmaker originally from Baltimore, Maryland. In 2017, her debut feature The Strange Ones, starring James Freedson-Jackson and Alex Pettyfer, premiered at SXSW to critical acclaim. She co-directed the film with Christopher Radcliff, based on their Sundance short of the same name. Lauren’s previous shorts, including Social Butterfly (Sundance ’13) and Cigarette Candy (SXSW ’10 Grand Jury Prize), have played festivals around the world. She is also a television director who served on the directing team for Season 3 of Ava DuVernay’s critically acclaimed series Queen Sugar. In 2013, Filmmaker Magazine listed her as one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film." Wolkstein is a 2017-2018 Women at Sundance Fellow through the Sundance Institute, and she is a MacDowell Colony Fellow for Summer 2018. Lauren received her MFA in film directing from Columbia University and is an associate professor of Film and Media Arts at Temple University.

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Award-winning director/writer/producer Gina Prince-Bythewood is one of the most versatile storytellers working in film and television. Known for her authentic character-driven work, Prince-Bythewood has directed and written such influential feature films as “Love & Basketball,” “The Secret Life of Bees,” and “Beyond The Lights.” Upcoming from Prince-Bythewood is the action drama feature, “The Old Guard,” which she directs and stars Charlize Theron and Kiki Layne. A Netflix original feature, it is based on the popular comic book series created by author Greg Rucka and illustrator Leandro Fernández. Other recent credits for Prince-Bythewood include the special event series, “Shots Fired,” which she and her husband Reggie Rock Bythewood served as Series Creators and Executive Producers. The ten-hour series for Fox, examined the dangerous aftermath of two racially charged shootings in a small Southern town. In addition, Prince-Bythewood directed the pilot for Marvel’s “Cloak & Dagger,” which launched to strong reviews and viewers, starring breakout actors Olivia Holt and Aubrey Joseph as two teenagers with newly acquired superpowers who are mysteriously linked to one another. An advocate for equal representation in film, Prince-Bythewood funds a scholarship for African American students in the film program at UCLA, her alma mater.

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Zetna Fuentes is a television and theater director. She most recently directed and executive produced the pilot and second episode of the new Netflix series, “Cursed” based on the illustrated novel by Frank Miller and Thomas Wheeler. Her recent credits include “The Deuce,” “Ray Donovan,” “The Chi,” “Jessica Jones,” “This is Us,” “Bosch,” “Snowfall,” and “Shameless.” Zetna previously directed on daytime dramas, “Guiding Light” and “One Life To Live,” for which she was nominated for three Daytime Emmy Awards. Zetna was born and raised in the Bronx and began her directing career in New York theater working on numerous critically acclaimed O-Broadway productions. She serves on the National Board of the Directors Guild of America.

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Alison Emilio is Director of ReFrame, a joint initiative of Sundance Institute and Women In Film Los Angeles. ReFrame is a growing coalition of industry leaders and 50+ Ambassadors – producers, directors, agents, studio executives – to bring about measurable progress in achieving gender equity and advancing female filmmakers in film, TV, and media. Prior to ReFrame, Alison served as Vice President, Marketing and Strategic Partnerships for CreativeFuture. Her feature film work includes Lorimar Filmed Entertainment and New Line Cinema (New York and Los Angeles) as Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications, responsible for the marketing, publicity, and promotional campaigns for more than 25 films, as well as corporate and financial communications. She established the U.S. office of the Ontario Media Development Corporation, generating over $150 million in revenue. Alison serves on the Advisory Board of the Horizon Award, which advances gender parity in media and provides sponsorship and mentorship to the next generation of female filmmakers. Emilio’s producing credits include Handmade Films’ Dinner at Fred’s, starring Parker Posey, Gil Bellows, and Christopher Lloyd, Drowning on Dry Land, starring Barbara Hershey and Naveen Andrews, and Someone is Watching, starring Stephanie Powers, for Lifetime.

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Leslie Combemale is moderator and creator of the Women Rocking Hollywood panel at San Diego Comic-Con. She has been writing about film, with a focus on women and diversity, for over 12 years, on sites like AWFJ.org, TheCredits.org, and her own site, CinemaSiren.com. She has a passion for artists below the line, celebrating them through her film art gallery ArtInsights, located outside Washington, DC, where she has been selling film art by the filmmakers for over 28 years. She is an expert on the history of animation and film art, and has been amplifying the careers of animators important to the classic animated features and tv shows, as well as production artists integral to films like Star Wars and Harry Potter, at conventions around the world for over a decade. She believes parity for women behind the camera and below the line will come, in part, through the support of the thousands of vocal fans at San Diego Comic-Con, that have loyally attended the Women Rocking Hollywood panel since its inception.

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Check out Leslie's female-focused film and television articles at www.cinemasiren.com!

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