Episodic Shadowing

Bethany Rooney began her directing career on the 1980’s iconic television show, St. Elsewhere, where she served as Associate Producer. She has since directed nine TV movies and more than 250 episodes of prime-time narrative shows, most recently Law & Order, Chicago PD, Law & Order SVU, The Rookie, Criminal Minds Evolution, and Chicago Med. Bethany also served as Producing Director on two series: Bull and The Originals. She has directed Oscar winners and Emmy contenders Denzel Washington, Hilary Swank, Mariska Hargitay, Angela Bassett, George Clooney, Alfre Woodard, Felicity Huffman, Sally Field, and Robert Downey, Jr., among many others. She has served the Directors Guild of America in numerous ways: as a member of the National Board, co-chair of the Women’s Steering Committee and member of the Western Directors Council. She co-created two of the industry’s leading diversity director training programs: Warner Bros. (2012) and the DGA’s Directors Development Initiative (DDI, 2015.) Teaching rising directors is one of the ways Bethany continues to learn about and love storytelling. She co-wrote (with Mary Lou Belli) the industry’s preeminent directing craft textbook, Directors Tell the Story, which Rooney uses when she teaches the WB Access Craft Intensive and the NBC-Universal Launch program. Bethany is a wife and mother and lives in Los Angeles.

Alycia Cooper is an actor/ comic/ writer/ producer/ director. She loves each skill set equally- but for different reasons. Being an actor has allowed her to be an excellent director, who knows how to direct other actors. A comedian is basically a writer, director, and producer of their own material. And when you combine all five, you’ve got Alycia. Alycia began acting at the age of 5 at Howard University’s Children’s Theater while her mom completed her undergraduate degree. She then developed a love of stand-up comedy, after her older cousin, Karen’s mother put her out of the house for being “smart mouthed.” Karen was nine years older. And became Alycia’s de-facto older sister. Alycia watched all of the comics that Karen loved: Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Eddie Murphy, George Carlin, Rita Rudner, Judy Tenuta, and Yakov Smirnoff, all while in middle school. Alycia went on the play Evilene in The Wiz while an undergraduate at The University of Maryland College Park. She then started interning at Black Entertainment Television in Washington, DC. Alycia loved producing. Shortly after, she fell in love with the hit television show, Living Single, and decided to move to Hollywood with no connections and twelve hundred dollars to her name. This is where the fun began. Alycia was in Hollywood for one month, before she landed a job on Magic Johnson’s Late Night Talk Show, The Magic Hour, (and that’s how long it lasted). From there, she started to make connections, and continued to work all over town. Eventually landing a gig as a WGA Trainee on the hit UPN sitcom, The Parkers. From there, she started performing stand-up comedy at night, and producing a series of hit reality television shows by day. She was eventually hired as a Segment Director on The Dr. Phil Show, which afforded her a membership into the esteemed Director’s Guild of America, or “DGA.” 

Elaine Del Valle is a native New York, Puerto Rican Director and multi-hyphenate Storyteller. Her awards include the HBO Latinx Director award and from many festivals including SXSW, Urbanworld, Catalyst Stories, and Seriesfest. Elaine’s feature film directorial debut was a genre bending dance-drama-thriller Tubi original, Midnight Hustle (now streaming.) Her second narrative feature, Between Rockaway and Mother Gaston, which she wrote and directed, is currently in post-production. The YA family drama shares Elaine‘s personal coming-of-age and was filmed in New York and Puerto Rico. The story is adapted from Elaine‘s award-winning short film, autobiographical novel and Off-Broadway stage play, Brownsville Bred. Elaine is a WarnerMedia 150 Artist, Sundance Writer & Director Lab alumna, Shondaland Director finalist and two-time Lynn Shelton and Imagen Impact award nominee. Her short films, Me 3.769 and Princess Cut, went on to air on HBOmax.

A global citizen, Iram Parveen Bilal is an award-winning empathic creator excited to tell thought-provoking stories that are socially impactful and envision an inclusive world. Bilal has quickly become a voice to reckon with in the Muslim community and on the World Cinema stage. Invested in “raising while rising”, her past films have led to measurable shifts in causes they championed. She has not only formed initiatives to uplift her community in film and tech but has also championed causes that are traditionally unpopular to support. Bilal initiated the formation of the Pakistani Oscar committee and is the founder of QALAMBAAZ, Pakistan’s first professional screenwriting lab, now in year ten. Iram is also an active mentor for women in film and tech. Spotlighted as 1 of 8 directors to watch by the Alliance of Women Directors, a board member of the Film Fatales, she is also a Film Independent, Watson fellow and multiple time Women in Film awardee. She has been profiled by the New York Times, featured on NPR, BBC, Bloomberg, Filmmaker Magazine among others. She is a proud graduate of Caltech and the USC Peter Stark Program. When she isn’t telling stories, she is dancing to Bollywood tunes or nerding out with fellow Caltech engineers. She believes genuine curiosity is the only antidote to fear. Her biggest and boldest work to date, feature film Wakhri (English Title: One of a Kind) just returned from a critically successful World Premiere at the Red Sea Intl. Film Festival, a nationwide theatrical release in Pakistan is all set for its high profile North American premiere to be announced soon.

Julia Weisberg Cortés is a writer and director based in Mexico City and Los Angeles. She became the first woman in her family to pursue a creative higher education, receiving her bachelor’s in screenwriting from LMU. Julia has gone on to pursue her passions as a filmmaker; directing and writing award-winning shorts, features, and television. Her work proudly integrates the survival stories of the women in her family with the often lost or overlooked voices of the Mexican-American woman. Currently, Julia is in post for her film, Desde la Tierra Muerta, in development for her TV series, The Golden Children. and in pre-production for her next feature The Whorer Story. Her pilot won her a spot in the renowned Humanitas ‘New voices fellowship,’ and is a semi-finalist for indeeds ‘Rising Voices.’ Her feature Script The Whorer Story won an accolade from Slamdance (2019) for riveting drama. Julia is an alumni of both the Tomorrow Filmakers Today program and Warner Brothers Discovery (directing Television.)

Kate Tsang is a Cantonese-American artist, filmmaker, and Emmy-nominated writer creating imaginative, offbeat stories with heart. She’s especially drawn to stories about outsiders, finding connection, and seeking light in darkness. Kate‘s debut feature film, Marvelous and the Black Hole, premiered at Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews, landing on the must-see lists of The Los Angeles Times, Buzzfeed News, Vox, and Teen Vogue. The film stars Miya Cech (Always Be My Maybe) and Rhea Perlman (Cheers, Barbie). It was funded through AT&T/Tribeca Film Institute’s Untold Stories million dollar grant and is available now on Showtime. On the TV side, Kate has written on the hit shows Adventure Times: Distant Lands (MAX), Fionna and Cake (MAX), and Steven Universe Future (Cartoon Network), for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy. Her award-winning live action and animated shorts (So You’ve Grown Attached and Welcome to Doozy) have been watched by millions online and broadcasted nationally on PBS. She’s currently in development on her next feature, Sprout, which has received support from Sundance’s Momentum Fellowship and Catalyst programs.

Award-winning filmmaker Maya Table is known for her talent in crafting genuine and uplifting narratives of flawed characters. As a former modern dancer and athlete, Maya’s work upholds an impeccable track-record of driving cultural conversations through motion. Recognized as a 2021 Adweek Creative 100: Visionary Director and a 2021 Adobe Mentor, Maya has directed a wide range of short films, commercials, music videos and digital content for renowned brands such as Hulu, TNT, Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, Google, SELF magazine, Discover Card, Target, Honda, PBS, Make-A-Wish, and Head & Shoulders. She’s also directed music videos for acclaimed artists including Lil Wayne, OffSet, and Travis Scott. Additionally, the bright creative wrote and directed three shorts: Reclaiming Nappy, a documentary featured at Facebook’s 2019 Sundance Festival panel, Dating App, a short film featured by Issa Rae and FoxSoul, and Hit The Road which won Best Editing at the BWFN film festival. With a diverse background that includes a BFA in film and over 10 years of digital strategy experience, Maya brings a unique perspective to her directing work. A creative pluralist, the incredibly skilled director-editor-producer’s work is deeply rooted in her personal experiences. Her work has been called “inventive and scrappy” for the way it embraces controversial topics in enchanting ways that spans the genres of action, drama, and comedy.

Nicole Taylor-Roberts is a director, screenwriter and an Emmy-nominated producer. The Baltimore native was featured in a Free the Work’s Creator Spotlight in 2020. She was a director in the 2022-2023 class of NBCU Launch TV Directors Program | Female Forward. She made her Network TV directorial debut in 2023 on the NBC/Dick Wolf show Chicago Med, on the heels of directing Go To Bed, Raymond for Season 3 of 20th Digital Studio’s Bite Size Halloween on Hulu. Go To Bed, Raymond was a critic favorite in the New York Times Best 2023 Films | ‘Five Horror Movies to Stream Now’. This same film played in FOFIF‘s 2nd annual MoMA screening series. Also in 2023 she was a one of 10 female filmmaker finalists selected for S1 of HBO‘s Project Greenlight: A New Generation produced by Issa Rea and Kumail Nanjiani. She was a 2020 Future of Film is Female grant recipient. Some of highlighted works include, 410 Stamped, starring Eden Duncan-Smith (See You Yesterday), Slumflower, starring Christina Jackson (Devotion), and Botes al Amanacer, starring Jose Yenque (Miss Bala). Her feature script, A Girl from Haiti, won several awards and was one of four projects selected by the Almanack Screenwriters (formerly known as Nantucket Screenwriters Colony). She directed an episode of the BET Her: The Waiting Room anthology series. Her episode, The Battle of Lexi Smith, featuring Keshia Knight-Pulliam and Jean Elie. She’s an alum of the Ryan Murphy‘s Half initiative, the AFI Directing Workshop for Women, the Commercial Diverse Directors Mentorship 50/50 Program, and NALIP’s Diverse Women Director’s Program. Nicole got her start in commercials and music videos in the early 2000s. Since then, she has written and directed many award-winning short films that have aired on HBO, Hulu, BET, Paramount + and have screened in numerous festivals including Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Sundance, HollyShorts, Festival de Cannes, SeriesFest, Urbanworld, and Cleveland International Film Festival. She graduated from Northwestern University RTVF Program and Columbia University School of the Arts MFA Film Program.

Stacie E. Hawkins is an independent filmmaker originally from the Midwest who now lives in Los Angeles, She received her M.F.A. in Film & TV Production from Chapman University. Her feature, The Rise and Fall of Miss Thang, is about a tap dancer who finds her way back to dance after a family tragedy. It won Best Feature at both The San Francisco Women’s Film Festival and The Independent Black Film Festival of Nashville and is streaming on Tubi TV. Stacie currently has two shorts on the festival circuit and her original one-hour fantasy pilot script was selected for the 2022 Gotham TV Series Lab. She has also been a finalist for the 2022 Orchard Episodic Lab and the 2021 Nantucket Screenwriters Colony.