Shaping a New Production Paradigm

Anu Valia is an Indiana-born, New York-schooled filmmaker whose award-winning short films have screened across the country and abroad. Her short film, Lucia, Before and After, won the Jury Prize for US Fiction at Sundance Film Festival. As a TV director, Anu‘s directing credits include: The Other Two (Comedy Central), Awkwafina is Nora From Queens (Comedy Central), Mixed-Ish (ABC), Never Have I Ever (Netflix, produced by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher), Love, Simon (Hulu), Love Life (HBOMax, produced by Paul Feig), Robbie (Comedy Central) and AP Bio (NBC’s Peacock). She is currently directing a new pilot for NBC. Anu is developing her first feature, We Strangers, which is supported by Cinereach, Sundance Institute, Women in Film, Tribeca Institute, IFP, and Hamptons Screenwriters Lab.

Dawn Wilkinson was born in Montreal and raised in Toronto. She has an Honors BA from The University of Toronto and is a graduate of Nornan Jewison’s Canadian Film Centre’s Director’s Lab and Short Dramatic Film Program. Since being awarded the WIFT and DGC Emerging Television Director Award she has directed many of Canada’s top drama series including Heartland, Murdoch Mysteries, and DeGrassi. Previously, Dawn directed the award-winning feature film Devotion and shorts Wilderness, Girls Who Say Yes, Instant Dread, and Dandelions. Her DeGrassi episode “Better Man” was nominated for a DGC Award for Best Family TV Series. Wilkinson also directed multiple episodes of Rogers‘ comedy series Sunnyside, Nickelodeon/YTV musical comedy Make it Pop and comedy-drama Single Ladies for Queen Latifah‘s Flavor Unit Entertainment and BET/Centric. Recent credits include: Shoot the Messenger for CBC, Switched at Birth for Freeform, CBC comedy Kim’s Convenience, also nominated for a DGC Award for comedy directing, Reign for the CW, Riverdale for Warner Bros, the CW, and Netflix, Nashville for CMT, Greenleaf for OWN, Beyond for Freeform, Reverie for NBC Universal and Dynasty for the CW.

DeMane Davis is a Television Director, Filmmaker, Writer and Producer whose most recent work is Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam CJ Walker. The limited four-part Netflix TV series stars Octavia Spencer, Blair Underwood, & Tiffany Haddish. DeMane produced the series and directed the last two episodes. Her career directing for television began when Ava DuVernay graciously asked DeMane to direct two episodes of her groundbreaking TV series, Queen Sugar (Oprah Winfrey Network.) Ava has changed the landscape (and the numbers) by only hiring female directors and specifically hiring first-time TV directors on the recent TV Academy honored series. She asked DeMane to be producing director of season three. A proud product of #TheAvaEffect, since then, DeMane has directed For The People; The Red Line for CBS; How To Get Away With Murder; Station 19; and YOU for Netflix. DeMane is also a Commercial Director (currently with Sweet Rickey) and filmmaker whose features both premiered In Competition at The Sundance Film Festival. Lift, her second film, was Kerry Washington’s first solo feature and is currently streaming on Amazon.

Maggie Kiley, who began her career as an actress at Off Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company and in films for James Gray and Andrew Jarecki, came up as an emerging director via AFI’s prestigious Directing Workshop for Women. Her award winning short Some Boys Don’t Leave, starred Jesse Eisenberg and played over 50 festivals, garnering awards at both Tribeca Film Festival and the Palm Springs International Shortsfest. Soon after, Maggie received the Panavision New Filmmaker Grant for her debut feature, Brightest Star. The film, starring Chris Lowell and Academy Award winner Allison Janney, was released by Gravitas. She next wrote and directed the feature film Dial a Prayer starring Brittany Snow and William H Macy as well as thriller Caught for Mar Vista starring Anna Camp. Maggie made the transition to episodic directing after being selected as the first participant in Ryan Murphy’s Half Initiative. Her debut episode of Scream Queens was well received and launched a fast paced two years in episodic directing. Most recently Maggie served as Co-Executive Producer and Director on Season 2 of Dirty John; The Betty Broderick Story for UCP and USA. Just prior, Maggie directed the pilot episode of Riverdale spin off Katy Keene. Other notable TV work includes the anthology series What/If starring Renée Zelwegger for Netflix, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix), Marvel’s The Gifted (Fox) Ryan Murphy’s 9-1-1 (Fox) and American Horror Story: Cult (FX), Riverdale (CW), Insatiable (Netflix), Lauren LeFranc’s Impulse (YoutubeRed), and George RR Martin’s Nightflyers (SyFy/Netflix). Maggie is part of the Filmmaking Collective Film Fatales and teaches guest classes in directing and acting for NYU Tisch School of the Arts and Los Angeles County High School for the Arts among others.

Tessa Blake is an award-winning writer and director, who was proud to helm her first episode of network television this year – NCIS: New Orleans. Chosen as one of eight filmmakers to participate in AFI’s prestigious Directing Workshop for Women, Tessa directed Election Night last summer, starring Peri Gilpin (Frasier) and comedian Jake Johannsen (Letterman), which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the American Pavilion. Tessa recently wrapped production on Upended, a dramatic short starring Amy Landecker from Amazon’s critically-acclaimed Transparent. She also directed Words With Girls, a pilot created by Brittani Nichols produced by Issa Rae and Color Creative TV. Tessa’s debut feature documentary Five Wives, Three Secretaries and Me premiered at SXSW and was released theatrically, opening at the historic Quad Theater in New York. It was selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for its Outstanding Documentary series and ran on Showtime. Leave Keys in Car, a short comedy Tessa made in Hawaii, won Best Comedy at the Lady Filmmaker Festival, an Award of Excellence at the Best Shorts Competition, and Best of Fest at the Bahamas International Film Festival. It just enjoyed its broadcast premiere on ShortsHD. Her non-fiction film exploring the ravages of Lou Gehrig’s Disease, Project ALS, won the Media that Matters Award at The Human Rights Watch Film Festival & Best Short Film at the Nantucket Film Festival.