Lucie Arnaz
Lucie Arnaz, having had one walk-on part in her parents’ television series I Love Lucy and on Lucille Ball’s second TV series The Lucy Show, made her first acting appearance in a continuing role in the series Here’s Lucy from 1968 to 1974. She played Kim Carter, the daughter of the eponymous Lucy — who was played by Arnaz’s real-life mother, Lucille Ball. Arnaz also briefly had a series of her own, The Lucie Arnaz Show, in 1985. She has also had a lengthy career in musical theatre. In the summer of 1978, she played the title role in “Annie Get Your Gun” at the Jones Beach Theatre on Long island, NY. This was the first production at Jones Beach Theatre after the death of longtime producer Guy Lombardo. She made her Broadway debut in 1979 in the musical They’re Playing Our Song. Arnaz won the Theatre World Award and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Sonia Walsk in the show. In 1986, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her tour with Tommy Tune in the international company of the musical My One and Only. She has numerous other theater and musical credits both in the United States and abroad, including roles in Seesaw, Annie Get Your Gun, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, The Guardsman, The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True, Sonia Flew, The Witches of Eastwick, Vanities, Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Terence McNally’s Master Class. Arnaz has also made some feature film appearances, the most prominent of which was 1980’s The Jazz Singer, in which she co-starred with singer Neil Diamond and renowned actor Laurence Olivier. She earned a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe nomination for her work in the film. She won an Emmy Award in 1993 for her documentary Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie.
Mark Beasley
President and Vice President of MPS Studios Dallas
Mark Beasley, with over 30 years providing exceptional service to clients worldwide, MPS is a full-service facility offering 65,000 square feet of sound stages, equipment, and support staff. MPS provides standard packages or custom orders for the production of motion pictures, documentaries, industrial films and television commercials. MPS prides itself on not only focusing on providing the friendliest, most comfortable atmosphere and the most functional facility imaginable, they aim to give their clients the best rental experience possible. With over 20 specialists and trained technicians on staff to service each job from pre-production to deliverables, MPS has the knowledge and expertise to support their client’s projects like no one else.
Michael Cain
Michael Cain, a native of Dallas, graduated from the American Film Institute with a Masters in Fine Arts – Producing. He has produced and executive produced over 20 feature length films for cable television, working with directors such as David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers) and Christopher Taylor (The District) and Cinematographer Wally Pfister (Academy Award Nominee for Batman Begins and The Prestige). As President of Deep Ellum Pictures, Cain produced and directed the documentary TV Junkie winning the Special Jury Prize, 2006 Sundance Film Festival, and the Governor’s Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Science (The Emmy® Awards). Following that success, he launched the educational program TV Junkie: Faces of Addiction which won an AVA Award and has been nominated for a Prism Award. He is the Co-Founder and former President, CEO and Artistic Director of the DALLAS Film Society and the DALLAS International Film Festival, one of the nation’s 20 largest international film festivals. He is a principal in the Trinity Diversified Film Fund Advisors.
Blake Calhoun
Blake Calhoun, an award-winning Filmmaker who has successfully directed both feature films and web originals including the Streamy and Webby-winning hit series Pink, also Continuum, 88 Hits, and the TheWB.com’s Exposed. Pink has been viewed nearly 10 million times since it premiered in late 2007. Calhoun is also an extremely versatile Director, rarely working within the same genre. He has directed dark comedy, action, mystery, sci-fi, drama and even physical comedy. As well as directing, Calhoun often writes, produces and edits his projects through his production company Loud Pictures. It was formed in 1997 to produce high quality film and television content at a fraction of the cost of the typical Hollywood productions.
Julio Cedillo
KD Studio Alum
Julio Cedillo graduated from KD Conservatory, earning an Associates in Applied Arts Degree in Acting Performance. Julio co-starred opposite Tommy Lee Jones in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, an award winning movie at the Cannes Film Festival. He co-starred opposite Jennifer Lopez and Antonio Banderas in Gregory Nava’s film Bordertown. Starred as Oscar Perez in Killing Down. His other feature film credits include On The Borderline opposite R. Lee Ermey, Billy Bob Thornton’s All The Pretty Horses, Alan Parker’s The Life of David Gale, Reginald Hudlin’s Serving Sara with Vincent Pastore, and Luke & Owen Wilson’s cult classic Bottle Rocket. On the small screen, Cedillo’s credits include a regular as Travis Del Rio on the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Wishbone, about a literature-loving canine. He has co-starred opposite George C. Scott on ABC’s movie of the week Finding The Way Home, as Lt. Herrera on TNT’s Two for Texas with Kris Kristofferson, and CBS’s The Legend of Cadillac Jack opposite Clint Black.
Clayton Coblentz
Clayton Coblentz, a media producer for the past 20 years, has extensive experience in feature, television, corporate video, e-commerce, live event, and interactive media projects. Clayton has two television series airing nationally and an independent feature film that was screened on 176 screens in the top 32 U.S. markets. His projects have appeared in front of numerous audiences from NASA dignitaries to hundreds of attendees at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Clayton has served as a senior/executive level production professional for companies as Head of Production and Vice President of Production. He has won numerous awards for his work including two Silver and three Bronze Telly Awards, two Communicator Awards, and seven domestic and two international film festival awards.
Joe Dishner
Film & Television Producer and Unit Production Manager
Joe Dishner has worked in the film industry for over 30 years. His feature film Line Producer and Unit Production Manager credits include: The Mothman Prophecies, A Simple Plan, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Evening Star, Houseguest, and The Big Green. He produced the independent feature film Ninth Life, which his long-time friend Ken Harrison wrote and directed. His television credits include: Starkweather, Murder in the Heartland, Two for Texas, When the Time Comes, The Ghost Whisperer, The Good Guys, and the 2012 pilot and TV series, Dallas. Dishner was a founding member of the weekly newspaper The Austin Chronicle. Dishner serves on the advisory board of the Dallas Film Society and the Lone Star Film Society in Fort Worth. He is a member of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance and the Directors Guild of America.
Barak Epstein
Barak Epstein earned a degree in Radio, Television, and Film from the University of North Texas and afterwards moved into independent film production, distribution and Film/TV technology sales and consulting. As film Producer, Epstein has completed five feature films, which have played at film festivals throughout the world and have international distribution. Films include Blood on the Highway, which was released internationally in 2009, Earthling, which premiered at SXSW 2010 and Wuss; SXSW 2011, AFI Fest 2011. Barak also works as a Senior Production Consultant at Videotex Systems and has several start-up ventures in various stages of incubation including Film Out Releasing, an alternative independent film distribution company, and Texas MicroCine, a co-op and resource for small format filmmaking in north Texas. Barak started Aviation Cinemas in 2010 as a cinema exhibition firm that has revitalized the historic Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff as an operating movie theatre and event space and in 2012 the first annual Oak Cliff Film Festival was held. By all accounts it was a big success.
James Faust
Dallas Film Society Artistic Director
James Faust began as the Senior Programmer at the Society’s inaugural 2006 AFI DALLAS Film Festival. A graduate of Cinema Studies at SMU following Telecommunication/ Theatre degrees at Texas Tech University, Faust began his film career as a Grip on Armageddon and the locally produced television series, Walker Texas Ranger. After working his way up to being a commercial Producer, Faust started a local production company for which he won a local Emmy. One of the founding members of the Deep Ellum Film Festival, Faust held the positions of Associate Programmer, Managing Director, and Programming Director during that festival’s seven-year run. Instrumental in the formation of AFI DALLAS and the Dallas Film Society, Faust has also served as a Programmer with the Asian Film Festival of Dallas, The Austin Film Festival of Austin and the Texas Black Film Festival of Dallas. He was honored by that festival as Filmmaker of the year in 2009. Faust has served on juries and panels all over the world speaking about film festival management, programming and marketing. He resides on the Board of Directors for Arts Fighting Cancer. Faust loves his family. Loves film. Loves Dallas. Wants you to stay in school.
Scott Hadden
Scott Hadden has been a force in the Texas film/video industry for many years. After graduating from UT Austin in 1975, Hadden worked at KERA-TV on Austin City Limits, then at 36 NBC-TV, before helping to build Third Coast Video in Austin. Moving to Dallas in 1981, he directed the Roger Staubach Cowboy Football Show for Channel 21 Productions. In 1983, along with partner Joe Manganello, he formed Hadden Manganello & Associates and brought “Entertrainment” to corporate communications. In 1990 as VP of Development & Production for Lessonware, Hadden led the team producing the Study Game, a series of educational programs blending the motivation of big name athletes (Magic Johnson to Chris Evert), the experience of celebrity academics (Dr. Bob Ballard to George Plimpton), and good common-sense study skills. Hadden’s current company Film & Video Direction, formed in 1993, specializes in corporate communications and TV commercials. FVD has produced training and/or marketing videos for companies such as Mary Kay and Texas Instruments. Hadden is twice past-President of the Dallas Producers Association and was on the Board of Directors from 1987-2008. He has also served on the board of the DFW Regional Film Commission and the Dallas Communication Council.
Ken Heckmann
President of Ken Heckmann Productions
Ken Heckman’s career spans the fields of television, advertising, as well as industrial, dramatic, and documentary films. As an independent producer and director, he has been the recipient of numerous awards, including an Addy and Clio award, as well as an Award for Outstanding Creativity from the U.S. International Film Festival, Cine Golden Eagle from the Washington Council on International Non-theatrical Events, Gold Camera Award from the U.S. Industrial Film Festival, Bronze Award from the International Film & TV Festival, and the Backstage Award for producing and directing the Nation’s Best Public Relations Film.
Rick Jaffa
Rick Jaffa began his entertainment career with the William Morris Agency in the literary department where he was involved in the packaging of Mask, The River, Robo Cop and Mrs. Soffel. Currently an independent writer/producer, Mr. Jaffa produced the feature film The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, which was written by his wife Amanda Silver. Together Rick and Amanda co-wrote the Paramount film, Eye For An Eye, starring Sally Field, Keifer Sutherland and Ed Harris. Rick and Amanda recently wrote and produced the box office smash hits Jurassic World and The Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, starring James Franco, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto. They are currently working on Avatar 2 and Avatar 3.
James M. Johnston
James M. Johnston is a Filmmaker from Fort Worth, Texas. He was recently awarded a Creative Producing Fellowship by the Sundance Institute. His work as a Producer includes David Lowery’s dramatic thriller, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck, as well as the award-winning films St. Nick and Pioneer, which won Best Narrative Short at SXSW. He also produced Tom Huckabee’s 2010 feature Carried Away and co-produced Yen Tan’s award-winning 2008 film Ciao. In addition to filmmaking, Johnston is a Vegan Chef, and operates two successful restaurants with his wife Amy McNutt.
Russ Jolly
Russ Jolly is owner of 214 Media and a fifth generation Texan. He’s a graduate of North Carolina School of the Arts and has enjoyed a 25-year career in creative storytelling. In the past dozen years, Russ has produced, directed, written, shot and edited over 300 corporate marketing and industrial films for companies across the nation such as Cisco, Humana, Charles Schwab, Hotels.com, HSBC, Tenet Healthcare, Infinera and Mission Foods. From ’84-’98, his NYC-based theatre career included work on Broadway, off-B’way and in regional theatres around the country as a Director, Writer and performer.
Tracy Jordan
Tracy Jordan has gained a wealth of experience working in the entertainment industry for over thirty years in national and regional tours, circus, cruise ships, dinner theater, cabaret, night clubs, commercials, voice-overs and industrial shows from coast to coast. He was featured in 42nd Street with Tammy Gaines, Sugar Babies with Mickey Rooney and Juliet Prowse, in touring companies including Jesus Christ Superstar and Fiddler on the Roof with Herschel Bernardi, and with Donald O’Connor at the Las Vegas Hilton. Mr. Jordan has appeared in a number of Las Vegas shows including the lead role in the world famous Folies Bergere, and emcee for numerous events at major hotels in Las Vegas. Mr. Jordan holds a B.A. in Human Relations and Business from Amberton University, an Associate’s degree from Mountain View College in Dallas and attended Southern Methodist University and the University of Texas at Austin as an undergraduate in public relations. He has given master classes in dance and theater movement at the University of Texas at Austin, Southern Missouri State University, Southern Methodist University, and has served on the dance faculty of Mountain View College and Richland College in Dallas, Dance Educators of America, and Dance Interim in Michigan. Mr. Jordan is a recipient of the prestigious Dance Council of North Texas Mary Bywaters Cochran Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to dance. Mr. Jordan is on the faculty of the Ballet Conservatory in Lewisville, Texas and his students have also appeared in a number of major Broadway and Las Vegas shows and international tours.
Larry Luckinbill
Larry Luckinbill was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the son of Agnes (née Nulph) and Laurence Benedict Luckinbill. He graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1956 and The Catholic University of America in 1958. He starred in the 1976 Broadway play Poor Murderer. He portrayed Spock’s half-brother Sybok in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989). He also appeared in The Boys in the Band, reprising the part of Hank, which he originated on stage. Other film appearances include Such Good Friends, Cocktail, and The Promise, and he has been seen in numerous television shows, including Law & Order, Barnaby Jones and Murder, She Wrote. His acting career has also included writing and directing. He has written and performed in several one-man shows including, “Hemingway”, “Teddy”, “An Evening with Clarence Darrow”, as well as, “Lyndon”, which he didn’t write, but has performed numerous times, including a schedule at the LBJ Museum in Austin, Texas, where Lady Bird Johnson was one of those in attendance. He narrated the documentary Moonwalk One which has recently been restored and re-released.
Melina McKinnon
Melina McKinnon holds a MBA in Finance from SMU and focuses her efforts in film on production and finance. She developed the Filmanthropy Concept which utilizes traditional and philanthropic business practices to produce and exhibit Movies with a Mission through M3 Films, the production company she co-founded in 2003. In 2011, McKinnon founded the Trinity Diversified Film Fund Advisors which will provide capital to the film industry via a diversified film fund format. Since 1999, McKinnon has been instrumental in the creation and production of 15 film festivals in North Texas and California, including Deep Ellum, Santa Monica and the DALLAS International Film Festival. She has served as consultant to the Lone Star Film Society and as Director of Development for the Dallas Film Society. As Executive Director of Arts Fighting Cancer, she and Michael Cain co-founded the Cancer Relief Fund which provides direct financial relief to cancer patients.
Glenn Morshower
Glenn Morshower, one of the busiest character actors in Hollywood today, has appeared in over 200 film and television projects in a career spanning four decades. His first appearance was in the feature film Drive-In, in 1975. Audiences worldwide know Glenn best for his seven-year run as Agent Aaron Pierce, on the FOX hit series 24, and as Lew Rosen, the Ewing family attorney on TNT’s Dallas. Glenn was recently seen on the big screen in Moneyball, with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, as well as all three of the “Transformers” movies, as General Morshower. He appeared this past summer in After Earth, with Will Smith, and Parkland, with Paul Giamotti and Billy Bob Thornton. The film was executive produced by Tom Hanks. Other film credits include X-Men: First Class, Men Who Stare at Goats, All the King’s Men, Good Night & Good Luck, The Island, Hostage, Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor, Godzilla, Air Force One, The River Wild, Star Trek: Generations, and the upcoming films Hoovey, and Dark Places, with Charlize Theron. Additional television credits include NCIS, Revolution, Castle, Eli Stone, Friday Night Lights, Shark, Bones, The Closer, Walker: Texas Ranger, Charmed, Monk, ER, Alias, Deadwood, CSI, and The West Wing, among many others.
Danny Ohman
Danny Ohman, with a degree in Communications from the University of New Mexico, landed the position of Production Manager for Bob Bain and Greg Sills Productions. Ohman worked on multiple TV specials including Billboard Awards and Teen Choice Awards. He was fortunate to work with Aerosmith, Justin Timberlake, Clint Black, Tony Bennett and Jennifer Lopez. Ohman went on to work with all the top networks including Discovery, NBC, ABC Family, CBS and ABC. As Co-Executive Producer, he developed and produced the pilot Discover America for Fremantle, (American Idol). SiTV, the first English speaking Latino cable network, hired Ohman to line produce seven original television shows. Quickly promoted to Executive in Charge of Production, he produced over 400 hours of original content, including The Drop, nominated for a prestigious Imagen award alongside HBO and Comedy Central, a major milestone for an independent startup network. Ohman is currently VP of Production for YouToo Media, where he oversees all original content and network re-branding for the YouToo Cable Network. Ohman also recently produced the satirical web series, Suck and Moan which looks at a zombie apocalypse through the eyes of vampires. Before YouToo, he served as the Senior Director of Business Development at iBallz.com, an online studio for content collaborators.
John Schrimpf
John Schrimpf, a native Texan, attended Highland Park High School and college in Fort Worth at both TCC and TCU. Heavily involved in the Forth Worth music scene, he discovered a passion for photography and began his media career in 1974 with local Dallas TV stations. After eight years of directing, editing, sports photography and news gathering, Schrimpf left to start a freelance career in 1982. Wanting to launch an off-line editing business, he felt the technology was about to change, so to develop a better business base, he took a “temporary” job in 1984 with Victor Duncan Inc., a local production equipment rental company and a Panavision agency. Over 25 years later he is basically still there as the General Manager of Panavision Dallas and the VP of U.S. regional operations with offices in Houston, New Orleans and Orlando. Schrimpf works tirelessly to incentivize Texas filmmakers to keep business in Texas and lobbies the Texas Legislature to keep Texas competitive; he is a valued Board Member of TXMPA. He has served on the Texas Comptrollers Advisory Board and he serves the same function with the Dallas Film Commission. He is involved in the creative process of filmmaking by getting the proper tools in the hands of the filmmakers and by realizing that this is a continual learning exercise, as the process of filmmaking is ever evolving.
Bill Schwarz
Bill Schwarz, in his 30-year career in the industry, has worked in various capacities behind the camera. His work has screened at film festivals including the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, and he has participated in festival panels as well as taught film seminars. His work as a Director of Photography includes numerous commercials, music videos, and feature films. A working professional based in Dallas, he embraces the traditions of filmmaking honed over 100 years of history while fully embracing the evolving methods of high-end digital acquisition. He is a Board Member of TXMPA.
Marilyn Burton Seeberger
Marilyn Burton Seeberger, having served as president of the Southwest Chapter of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, the Dallas Communications Council, and Women In Film/Dallas, has been an influence on the evolution of the film, video, and advertising industries in the Southwest and nationally. She has served as VP of Broadcast Production with the Bloom Advertising Agency prior to beginning her career as an independent producer and director. Her work includes national campaigns, music videos, and award-winning films for corporate and non-profit groups.
Don Stokes
Don Stokes is president of Post Asylum, a founder & president of TXMPA, past president of DPA, board member of Dallas Film Society and a very active member of the Texas production community for over 35 years. Don has produced award-winning films and videos in the documentary, commercial, and corporate sectors, running the gamut from script and project development, supervision and selection of production teams to budgeting and cost control. He’s a graduate of SMU’s Radio, Television and Film program and credits include Executive Producer of the Sundance/HBO-Films documentary TV Junkie, the Starck Project and the feature film The Playroom.
Fred Strype
Fred Strype has a BA from Fairfield University, an MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts and postgraduate study at the American Film Institute and New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. Strype is an award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker whose work has been screened and honored internationally. Head of Raindance Pictures, he heads up the Filmmaking/New Media Arts Program at Sarah Lawrence College, in Bronxville, NY where he is also a Professor of Screenwriting. As a faculty member in the Graduate Film Division of Columbia University, his alma mater, he taught screenwriting, film history and theory. Strype is a former Executive Director of the Irving Texas Film Commission. He recently won the Grand Prize at the Nantucket Film Festival, The Showtime Tony Cox Award in Screenwriting and was also a 2008 member of the Nantucket Screenwriters Colony. He lectures nationally and is a screenwriting juror and panelist at the Austin Film Festival. Strype has developed projects for companies such as: Columbia/Tristar/Sony, Lifetime, MTM Productions, Family Channel, FX, Alliance/ Atlantis, Turman-Foster Productions, James Manos Productions and FX.
Darren Wadyko
Darren Wadyko is the Co-Founder of Elbow Grease Media, a vertically integrated content communications platform that transforms the way brands engage with their stakeholders (i.e. customers, employees, shareholders, talent, suppliers and business partners) and helps drive bottom-line results. He is currently a producer and consultant for Funny or Die, ABC, Nickelodeon, and Tru TV. He is the former Director of Development for Scripps Network Interactive, Esquire Network, and G4 Media.