Leah Bleich
Leah Bleich is an LA-based director, producer, writer, and former development executive. Her debut feature film “The Moon and Back” starred Isabel May, Missi Pyle, and Nat Faxon, and was released on Paramount+ in 2024. She’s currently preparing to shoot a two-episode docu-series for Roadtrip Nation and PBS, and loves telling stories that make people laugh and cry at the same time.
Kelly Woyan
Kelly Woyan is a writer and producer who has collaborated on several projects with notable artists, including Academy Award-nominated actor Jeremy Renner and Tony Award-winning actress Joanna Gleason. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Professional Writing/Screenwriting from the University of Southern California, where she studied under the late Syd Field. Kelly has also attended additional writing programs at Roadmap Writers, Yale University, and the Paris American Academy, and has a journalism degree from Columbia College.
Sarah Afkami
Sarah Afkami is a Persian-Texan Jewish comedy writer known for her cultural humor and compelling storytelling, with credits including series on Showtime, FX, TBS, and Comedy Central. She’s passionate about creating stories that authentically represent diverse Jewish communities, blending emotional depth with comedic insight. Sarah currently splits her time performing stand-up and developing original series in Los Angeles, Austin, and New York.
Isaac Feder, Samuel Limor and Danny Weiss
Isaac Feder is a film director and television showrunner who has produced and directed shows for Netflix, Sony, Disney+, Amazon, and Comedy Central. His debut feature Sex Ed won the Grand Jury Prize at the Portland Film Festival, and his ESPN 30 for 30 film AC Green: Iron Virgin was a TriBeCa selection. Born and raised in Chicago, he holds degrees from Northwestern and the AFI Conservatory, and now lives in Los Angeles.
Samuel is a Producer and Production Executive with credits at companies such as Awesomeness TV, Dreamworks Animation, E!, Investigation Discovery, Nickelodeon, and Netflix
Danny Weiss is a television Writer and Producer with a broadcast procedural background having written for HOUSE, M.D., BATTLE CREEK on CBS and most recently having served as a Co-Executive Producer on NBC’s CHICAGO MED. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Joni and his three children.
Chelsea London Lloyd
Chelsea London Lloyd is an actor and comedian who appears as Emma Foster on Shifting Gears (ABC) as Tim Allen + Kat Denning’s grief counselor. TV credits include Ballard (MGM,) (HBO, Dir. Bill Hader) and Schooled (ABC) as well as national commercials with Mekanism, KC5, PrettyBird, etc., most notably in her 3-part Wayfair campaign with Kelly Clarkson. When she is not performing, you will find her volunteering as a grief counselor, DJ’ing Bat Mitzvahs and hosting her comedic grief podcast, Dying of Laughter. Because #YODO, you only die once. Lloyd holds a BA in Theatre from the University of Southern California.
Elise Allen
Elise Allen is an Emmy Award nominated TV writer and NY Times Bestselling author who specializes in kids’ and family entertainment across all genres. Notable credits include Dinosaur Train, Sid the Science Kid, and the Gabby Duran and the Unsittables book series. She hails from Philly (Go Birds!) and has never met a dog she didn’t stop to pet, whether or not it was appropriate to do so.
Lily Henley
Lily is a singer, songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist working at the intersection of Sephardi Ladino and American folk music. Her album Oras Dezaoradas (2022, Lior Editions Paris) was named Album of the Year by Hey Alma and featured in The Guardian and Songlines Magazine. A Fulbright award winner and Carnegie Hall Musical Explorers artist, she has received support from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the New Jewish Culture Fellowship, the New York Foundation of Arts, and held residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, JArts Boston, and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC. Lily tours regularly across the US and abroad, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Ethnomusicology at Harvard University.
Justin Goldner
Justin Goldner is a composer, producer, and session musician whose work spans Grammy-, Tony-, and Golden Globe–winning projects with artists across a range of genres. A restless traveler and language junkie, music has taken him to 73 countries in search of exchange and connection with communities from a mélange of traditions. Justin weaves Yiddish language and heritage into contemporary life through original songs and collaboration with other artists who bring fresh vitality to their own cultural idioms.
@jusgold1, @peripatetish
Janice (Jan) Fernheimer
Janice W. Fernheimer is a Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies; Zantker Professor of Jewish Studies; and James B. Beam Institute for Kentucky Spirits Faculty Fellow at the University of Kentucky where she co-directs the University of Kentucky-Jewish Heritage Fund Kentucky Holocaust Education Initiative and teaches courses in “Bourbon Writing” and “Bourbon Oral History” in the Certificate for Distillation, Wine, and Brewing. She is also a Stave and Thief Certified Executive Bourbon Steward. In 2024 the Bourbon Women Foundation recognized her as a Woman of Whiskey with the Mike Keyes Ally of the Year Award honoring the trailblazing work of the Women in Bourbon Oral History Project, which she founded in 2021. She currently resides in Lexington, KY with her family and when she’s not writing or teaching, you can usually find her shimmying across the dance floor or cycling across the Bluegrass.
Avraham “Abe” Fuzaylov
Avraham Fuzaylov is a digital creator and cultural storyteller based in Queens, NY. He is the founder of Bukharian Bites, a short-form series that preserves Bukharian Jewish heritage through food-centered storytelling and voiceover-driven reels. His work brings visibility to a community rarely seen in mainstream Jewish media, blending tradition, emotion, and narrative to connect past and present.