Raanan Hershberg
Raanan Hershberg is a writer/director and nationally touring stand up comedian. He has performed stand up on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Late, Late Show with James Corden, After Midnight and Comics Unleashed on CBS, and Comedy Central. His third special ‘Jokes from the Underground’ was included in the New York Times ‘Best Comedy of 2022’, where critic Jason Zinoman awarded it ‘Funniest YouTube Special of The Year’. He is also the co-writer and co-director of Memory Room, a psychological thriller that won the Grand Prize at The 2025 New York Shorts International Film Festival, and has amassed close to half a million views on YouTube since its release four months ago.
Matt Sadowski
Matt Sadowski is a Toronto-based screenwriter, actor and playwright whose writing alternates between the hilarious, and the heartbreaking. His work includes the award-winning feature Pretend We’re Kissing, the John Hughes documentary Don’t You Forget About Me, his one-man show Welcome to Splitsville, and the novelette Last Shot at Love. He also holds the distinction of playing the first canonically Jewish Power Ranger.
Jake Emanuel and Willie Block
Jake Emanuel and Willie Block are writing partners originally from the east coast. They’re most known for writing the film “Reunion” and the horror podcast “The Edge Of Sleep,” which was adapted into a TV series.
Liz Buda
Liz Buda is a writer and producer from the San Fernando Valley. She is an executive producer on the horror feature Malus, currently in post-production, and has sold projects to production companies, including Crystal City Entertainment and Biônica Filmes. Liz holds an MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA, where she won the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award for her pilot based on her grandfather’s experience in the post-World War II black market.
Sam Barnett
After graduating from the University of Michigan’s Screen Arts and Cultures program with a screenwriting concentration, Sam Barnett grew tired of his home state of Michigan and relocated to the ancient homeland of his parent: New York. In addition to his writing, he has served as a longtime story analyst for Lionsgate, and has worked on feature films and documentaries at production companies such as Big Beach, Ideal Partners and Keshet Studios. His work has been featured on websites such as The A.V. Club.
David Lombroso
David is a Brooklyn-based writer and filmmaker whose work mines the humor and heartbreak at the intersection of identity, inheritance, and assimilation. As a 2023–24 Jewish Writers’ Initiative Fellow, David developed and wrote PERPETUITY, a horror feature that satirizes the insidious spread of antisemitism through the outbreak of a bloodthirsty mind-virus at a summer camp in the Catskills. His debut feature NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM is slated for production in early 2026, and his comedy series SHTICK is currently out to streamers.