Writing without Limits

Elizabeth Kaiden co-founded The Writers Lab with Nitza Wilon and Kyle Ann Stokes in 2015, and co-produces it with Nitza and New York Women in Film & Television. She is also a founding Partner, with Nitza, of Women in the Script Trade (WIST), where she works individually with exceptional women screenwriters. WIST also ran script-development labs in NY and LA for the Athena Film Festival 2016-2020. Elizabeth previously served as Head of Development at Tangerine Entertainment, an independent production company that produces films directed by women, and has mentored at Stowe Story Labs. A former theater and film critic and graduate of Princeton and the Yale School of Drama, she lives in New York with her family.

Nitza Wilon co-founded The Writers Lab with Elizabeth Kaiden and Kyle Ann Stokes in 2015 and is a founding partner of Women in the Script Trade (WIST) with Elizabeth. WIST ran the script-development labs for the Athena Film Festival (NY and LA) and co-produces The Writers Lab with NYWIFT, and provides individual support for exceptional women screenwriters. Prior to committing to script development for women, Nitza was an actor, journalist, and magazine and book editor. She earned her BA from the Annenberg School of Communications at UPenn. In addition to her work advocating for women in film, Nitza is a writer and voice actor. She lives in New York City with her family.

Charise Studesville is an award-winning writer and director via her production company, Lotus Girl Films. She began in the business as a weekly Chicago-LA commuter Hollywood intern while working for Debra Martin Chase as her entry into the entertainment business. She is the founder of Hollywood Chick Mafia, “a community of creative rebel chicks in Hollywood, supporting each others’ badassery,” and hosts weekly rooms on Clubhouse supporting women in the industry. Charise has several projects in film, television, and publishing, including the first-ever mixed-media memoir, a tale of a biracial girl’s coming of age amidst the circus of 1980s New York City zeitgeist, that includes 50+ original mixed-media artworks. The 2023 companion art shows will mark the first time her art has been publicly shared since Jean-Michel Basquiat put a paintbrush in her hand. This year, a women-driven design business venture will be launched with business partner Ananda Lewis. Charise is a 2022 WIF Multi-Hyphenate Mentee under mentors Marta Cunningham and Alissa Bachner. With the 2022 release of Aged To Perfection, Charise became a USA Today Bestselling author, with a follow-up release, The Perks of Being A Hoodoo Rose, set for Spring 2022.

Donna Bonilla Wheeler is a mixed-race writer, director, and filmmaker. She writes about underdog non-mainstream characters fighting oppressive cultural norms and who possess extraordinary powers, talents, humanity, or insight. Her original screenplays are Nicholl SFs, Austin 2nd Rndrs, Slamdance, Gotham NoBorders, STOWE Story Labs selects, Sundance Lab and FLICKERS finalists, The Writer’s Lab, and CineStory SFs, Sedona Fest QFs, DTLA Film Fest screenplay award winners, among others. Donna created and is developing the CannesMIPTV invited TV series CLASH, a Latina-led political mystery drama. Her feature and short films are sold at Cannes and Berlinale markets, screened in global festivals, and streamed on international SVOD / AVOD platforms. She is a MIPTV Producer-to-Watch, Alliance of Women Directors Executive Board Member, Industry Support Fellow, Film Fatales member, a #Startwith8Hollywood, #ReadLatinxWriters, and Women in Film mentee, Sundance Institute Collab member, and Outfest Directing Shadow. She serves on the Board and Jury of the comedy film / TV festival for women, Broad Humor Film Fest, and is the creator of the Alliance of Women Directors’ #MentorLatinaDirectors initiative. She additionally writes and directs branded commercial content for global clients

Stacie E. Hawkins is an independent filmmaker from the Midwest who now lives in Los Angeles. She received her M.F.A. in Film & T.V. Production from Chapman University and studied T.V. writing at UCLA Extension. Her feature, The Rise and Fall of Miss Thang, is about a tap dancer who returns to dance after a family tragedy. It won Best Feature at The San Francisco Women’s Film Festival and The Independent Black Film Festival of Nashville and is streaming on Tubi T.V. Stacie currently has two shorts on the festival circuit, and they both screened at the Oscar-qualifying 2022 Pan African Film Festival. Her original one-hour fantasy pilot script, Night Watchers, is an Expanding Communities selection for the 2022 Gotham TV Series Lab. Becky Clements of Tomorrow Studios was mentoring her through the Unlock Her Potential Program and was a finalist for the 2022 Orchard Episodic Lab and the 2021 Nantucket Screenwriters Colony.