Frieda Vizel
Frieda Vizel grew up in the Satmar Hasidic community of Kiryas Joel. Although she left the fold in her twenties, she continues to connect with the Orthodox Jewish community through her work as a Brooklyn tour guide and Youtuber. Her lively Youtube channel explores Hasidic life through interviews, street visits, analysis, food, holidays, and more.
Alan Niku
Alan Niku is a writer and MFA filmmaker from the only Persian-Kurdish-Assyrian-Jewish family in San Luis Obispo, California. He has written and directed comedic shorts, music videos, mockumentaries, and a Bollywood-style action flick shot in the back-alleys of LA. His dozen feature and TV pilot scripts are, in the words of his grandmother, “get that computer out of my face, weirdo.”
Natacha Ruck
Natacha is a multi-lingual storyteller, media producer and educator. She strives to use narrative to deepen our understanding of the world and foster a sense of community. Her documentary work has appeared at the MoMA, the Jewish Museum New York, and on NPR. She’s served as the Managing Editor of the Duolingo French podcast, and Senior Producer of the Stanford Storytelling Project. Natacha teaches at the University of San Francisco and explores how we define our identities on stage as the writer/performer of two solo shows: “You’re good for nothing… I’ll milk the cow myself” and “Confessions of a French Interpreter.”