Cast to the Future

Ava Xiao-Lin Rigelhaupt (she/her/hers) is a writer, consultant, actress, public speaker, and advocate for disability and autism representation in the entertainment industry. In June 2021, Rigelhaupt joined the Nickelodeon Live Action Casting Team for their immersive internship. Additionally, she’s an Autistic Creative Consultant on a developing musical (dir. Sammi Cannold), How to Dance in Ohio, based on the HBO documentary of the same name. Previously, she was an Entertainment Media Communications Fellow with RespectAbility. Rigelhaupt became immersed in the entertainment industry through consulting with studios such as Disney and Netflix on authentic onscreen portrayals of disability and diversity. Rigelhaupt reviews scripts, discusses disability tropes, edits character sketches, and writes casting calls. She remains an ongoing entertainment consultant. Rigelhaupt is a speaker on RespectAbility‘s Jewish Speakers Bureau and Women and Nonbinary Speakers Bureau. Rigelhaupt shares her lived experiences and expertise through multiple speaking engagements and public/internal panels (e.g., Disney and Netflix writers’ rooms, Actors’ Equity, Sundance Film Festival, The Kennedy Center). She publishes articles and critiques of disability representation in media, interviews with entertainment professionals, and experiences as a disabled AAPI woman. Rigelhaupt was chosen to be a Ruderman Family Foundation Inclusion Ambassador her senior year at Sarah Lawrence College (class of 2020). Rigelhaupt produced the college’s first sensory friendly theatrical performance. She organized and moderated a panel of NYC professionals discussing entertainment inclusion practices with students and faculty. (Sensory friendly performances are made accessible to people with sensory sensitivities such as those with autism or PTSD). Rigelhaupt develops stories based on her life experiences, writing scripts on the road to her screenwriting career, while keeping her eyes peeled for auditioning opportunities! She’s determined to educate and influence the entertainment industry, creating more opportunities and authentic representations for the talented and diverse disability community.

Alaa Zabara is a Hard-of-Hearing Yemeni-American Director and Cinematographer. Drawn to the power of photographs from an early age, she started to document the daily life around her through the use of a camera. These documentations became her conversation with, and introduction to, the world. She became attracted by the ability of cinema to change the hearts and minds of an audience, highlight the stories that need to be told, and to amplify the voices of the voiceless. Her approach in telling stories is, through vision, to challenge herself in telling stories that come from personal experience and have a representation of what is usually untold or hidden. She expresses her take on the world creatively, insightfully, and humanely. She likes to play with perception and nudge the audience that they are watching something established by an Arab Hard-of-Hearing woman. Rather than trying to surprise the audience, she strives to unveil potential connections to the characters or the story, creating a new view of their own lives. She wants them to relate to her not as a filmmaker but as a human, filling the distance that comes between each of us. Her latest short film Selahy was Selected for Competition Shorts in Bentonville Film Festival & HollyShorts, primarily focusing on deaf/hard-of-hearing story living in a war zone. She recently finished a project that was selected to present a work of nonfiction for the Arab American National Museum 2021 (AANM). Alaa was one of the participants for its third annual RespectAbility Lab for Entertainment Professionals with Disabilities. She also recently finished the Minorities in Film (MiFIM) branded Lab to demystify the process of working in the commercial industry and was a Semi-Finalists for the Paxeros 2020 inaugural WCCDP to direct a spot for Subaru.

Gail Williamson is a talent agent and heads the Diversity Department at Kazarian/Measures/Ruskin & Assoc. working with talent with disabilities. Gail is also the mother of an adult son with Down syndrome and was the Executive Director of the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles for 8 years. Gail has consulted on many Down syndrome stories over the years, including several episodes on Touched By An Angel, the Michael Patrick King pilot for Amazon, Love You More, some VO and animation for characters with DS for Disney, Nick, and Amazon. She also gave notes on several films for the Disney Channel back in the day.

Before working in film and theatre as a creative, Khadifa Wong trained at the iconic London Studio Centre in all aspects of dance. After 10 years as a dancer she moved to New York to further study acting at TVI Actors Studio. Her acting training continued at Identity School of Drama in London. On her return to London, frustrated by the lack of opportunities and abundance of stereotypes for performers of colour, Khadifa realised she could make more of a difference behind the scenes and she formed her production company to help increase inclusion and erase stereotypes. She divides her time working in film, theatre and education. Credits include: Film – Uprooted – The Journey of Jazz Dance, Mondays and The Woman Who Knocked On My Door. Theatre – Black Women Dating White Men, 15 Heroines.