Ryan Turkienicz
Ryan Turkienicz has over a decade of experience in entrepreneurial businesses, as well as a diverse background in the arts as both a professional musician and a freelance writer. After October 7th he along with this brother Eric Turkienicz – a Canadian Comedy Award nominated sketch comedian and satirist – cofounded The Daily Brine, a satire news page with the goal of fighting antisemitism on social media using comedy.
Joshua Kessler
Joshua E. Kessler is a Los Angeles-based showrunner, producer, director, and writer specializing in unscripted, documentary, and docudrama content. A two-time Emmy nominee, he is known for compelling work in true crime, history, lifestyle, and human-interest storytelling. His credits include acclaimed series for Netflix, A&E, and Showtime, such as Unsolved Mysteries, Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, and House Hunters International. A member of both the Directors Guild and Producers Guild of America, Kessler actively seeks new creative opportunities with a strong emphasis on collaboration.
Julia Sebastien
Julia Sebastien draws on her Ph.D. research in media psychology at Cornell University and her Master’s in Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology from Harvard in her ongoing quest to uncover how emerging technologies blur the boundaries between narrative, perception, and reality. Like her research, her creative work explores how immersive media shape human thought and behavior—from directing theatrical productions exploring truth and intercultural understanding to designing interactive digital games and VR experiences that foster self-reflection, experiential learning, and prosociality.
Flo Low
Flo Low is the founder and Executive Director of BAMAH, a cultural dialogue and exchange organization that works with artists from Israel to design experiences that inspire and connect people and communities across cultures. Under her leadership, the organization has made partnership with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) a core priority. Previously, she served as Associate General Manager of the La Jolla Playhouse; Associate Manager of the Yale School of Drama, and producer of the animated documentary shorts “Four Minutes from the Frontlines,” and of a reading tour of COME MY BELOVED, a play about the shared history and future of Black and Jewish communities in the United States.
Rebecca Cunningham
Rebecca Cunningham is the Founder and CEO of Cordelia Studios, an award-winning kids’ podcast company. She started the kids’ podcast, Girl Tales in 2017 and has since helped build podcasts for Mattel, Realm, National Geographic, Spotify Kids & Family, Sony, America’s Test Kitchen, and tonies. She was honored with the Webby for Best Kids & Family Podcast Episode, a Signal Award, the Kennedy Center’s Next 50 Award, and The Gotham/Variety Audio Honors.
Jessica Shaw
Jessica Shaw is a print and audio journalist who was a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly before hosting a pop-culture show for more than a decade on SiriusXM. She has moderated premieres and panels all over the country, from Comic Con to SXSW to 92Y, and has written for Vanity Fair, the Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine. Her New York Times article, “Recreating a Family’s Lost Holocaust Story, Step by Step” won a Lowell Thomas Award from the Society for American Travel Writers.
David Brown
David Asher Brown is a composer, speaker, and video-maker. His content focuses on breaking down and sharing music from around the world, as well as disability advocacy.
Jamie Denbo
Jamie Denbo is a lifelong comedian and occasional professional screenwriter/producer/playwright/actor. Her newest mission is for her alter ego “Beverly Ginsberg” to bring about generational harmony and global peace through love, laughter, inappropriate behavior and podcasting. (And if you know any single men for her least favorite daughter – the one with the eating problem – let her know!)
Jacob Stark
Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Jacob S. Stark is a graduate of UCLA Law School and the UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting. An award-winning writer/producer, Jacob has worked with entertainment companies ranging from Warner Bros to NBCUniversal to Nickelodeon. Most recently, Jacob produced the acclaimed Israeli TV series, The Man Who Wanted to Know Everything, which aired on Kan 11 and is being distributed by Keshet International. He also served as an executive producer on Netflix’s The Great Seduction, which premiered on the streaming network as the #1 non-English film in the world. He is currently writing and producing an animated Christmas feature (like a good Jewish boy) with A+C Studios out of England. He is very proud to have been an inaugural Jewish Writers Institute Fellow.
Leah Gottfried
Leah Gottfried is an award winning writer/director and actor who draws on her life in the Orthodox Jewish community to tell authentic stories about her world. Her short film THE SETUP won Best Short at the Washington Jewish Film Festival where critics called it “clever, whimsical and sneakily poignant”. Leah is best known for her web series SOON BY YOU (“a Kosher version of Friends”), which she writes, directs and stars in and which has garnered fans all over the world. She is the founder of Dignity Entertainment, a production company dedicated to creating meaningful visual content. Leah was named one of The Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36” celebrating young Jews influencing change worldwide. She studied film at Yeshiva University and NYU, and lives in Greenpoint with her rabbi husband.