Respect for Acting

Alysia Reiner is best known as the villainous warden Natalie “Fig” Figueroa on all 7 seasons of Orange is the New Black, and won a SAG Award as part of the incredible cast. However, IRL she’s an actress, activist, producer and eco-momma who uses her superpowers for good. You can also catch her as Sunny on critically acclaimed, Peabody Award-winning Better Things on F/X x HULU, and Kiki Rains on HBO‘s The Deuce. Also, she both starred in & produced the Sundance Film Festival hit Equity & Tribeca Film Festival favorite Egg, which is 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. A few other recent adventures include getting naked in an Emmy Award winning episode of Broad City, and going head to head against Annalise on How To Get Away with Murder. She loves working as a change maker for women. As an advocate for women’s rights & climate change initiatives, she is on the global advisory board of Times Up, on the board and an ambassador for GDIM, and even started an eco-fashion initiative, Livari. Alysia has been invited to speak at The White House, The United Nations, Google, Cannes Lion, Women’s Media Summit, Collision, and countless film festivals and other events about breaking barriers for women in all fields, specifically the entertainment industry. And she’s really proud to have been awarded the Persistence of Vision Award by the Women’s Media Summit, the Sarah Powell Leadership Award by the Women’s Prison Association, the MUSE Made In NY Award from The Mayor’s office & New York Women in Film and TV, the Moves Power Women Award, the Pioneer in Filmmaking Award, and the Collaboration Award from the Coalition for Women in the Arts and Media.

Dawn-Lyen Gardner has left an indelible mark on viewers as Charley Bordelon, in Oprah Winfrey and Ava DuVernay‘s critically acclaimed Queen Sugar. A writer as well as an actor, her creative work has long intersected with her activism, which has ranged from racial justice organizing and immigrant rights advocacy to advancing gender equity. She is a proud member of social justice collective Harness, whose members work to center marginalized communities in pop culture. In 2018, Dawn-Lyen became an official ambassador for women’s empowerment organization Women for Women International. Additionally, in support of the 2020 election, Dawn-Lyen founded the Belong campaign in collaboration with Inspire Justice, a public conversation about belonging and political engagement.

Michelle Hurd can currently be seen as Raffi on CBS All Access‘ hit series Star Trek: Picard which continues the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart). She can also be seen in Justin Simien‘s Sundance Film Festival breakout Bad Hair, premiering on Hulu. And soon to be seen in Pose. Last year Hurd starred in the CBS pilot reboot of Cagney and Lacey portraying Lacey, as co-lead opposite Sarah Drew‘s “Cagney”. In addition to her explosive performance as “Shepherd” on NBC‘s hit drama, Blindspot, Hurd is also known for Starz‘s hit horror comedy Ash Vs. Evil Dead, the Marvel Universe series’ Daredevil and Jessica Jones (“DA Samantha Reyes”), and the A&E summer series, The Glades (“Colleen Manus”). Other television credits include Hawaii Five-0, Lethal Weapon, Younger, Devious Maids, 90210, Witches of East End, How To Get Away With Murder, Bosch, Mysteries of Laura, Pretty Little Liars, Raising Hope, The Good Wife, Law & Order: SVU (“Det. Jeffries”), Gossip Girl, ER, Bones, According To Jim, Law & Order, Smith, Skin, Leap Years, Charmed, The O.C., Kevin Hill, The Practice, and Another World. Some favorite theater credits include, Getting Away with Murder on Broadway, The Violet Hour at South Coast Rep, The Dog in The Manger at the Shakespeare National Theater, in which she won a Robbie award for Best-Surporting Actress in a drama. Other film credits include Being Frank opposite Jim Gaffigan, Be Afraid, We Don’t Belong Here (alongside Catherine Keener and Maya Rudolph), Search Engines, Within The Dark, Girl Most Likely, Random Hearts, Personals, Double Parked, Wolf, and King of New York. Hurd is a proud alumnus of NYC’s premiere artist community at Westbeth.

Monica Raymund is a Dominican-Jewish artist. Upon graduating from The Juilliard School, Monica went on to star in various tv/film/theater projects. Most recently she played Gabriela Dawson in NBC’s Chicago Fire and is currently in production as the lead in season 2 of the Starz’s drama Hightown. As a director, Monica was accepted into the NBC Female Forward program and has directed episodes at Law & Order: SVU, F.B.I., and Hightown. Monica’s short film Tanya won several awards including Best Short Film at Midwest Independent Film Festival. Upon completion of Hightown‘s season 2, Monica will return to NYC to direct for Dick Wolf‘s F.B.I. on CBS.

Elisabeth Subrin is a writer/director, video artist, and associate professor of film and media arts at Temple University. Her critically acclaimed first feature narrative, A Woman, A Part was theatrically released in 2017. Her award-winning short films and installations have screened and exhibited widely, including in solo shows at The Film Society of Lincoln Center, The Museum of Modern Art, The Viennale, Harvard Film Archives, The Jewish Museum, New York, VOLTA, San Francisco Cinematheque and in a retrospective at Sue Scott Gallery, New York. She is a recipient of grants and fellowships from The Guggenheim, Annenberg, Rockefeller, Creative Capital and Andrea Frank Foundations, The MacDowell Colony, and The Sundance Institute Feature Filmmaker and Screenwriter Labs. A 2020 Fulbright Fellow, she’s currently working on a project about the late French actress Maria Schneider. Elisabeth Subrin is an associate professor of film and media arts at Temple University.