A television producer and screenwriter, Maya Perez was most recently a co-producer on a romantic drama series starring Joshua Jackson and Lauren Ridloff and produced by Ava DuVernay for Starz. Prior to that, she was an executive story editor on Showtime’s American Rust S2 and an executive producer on the unscripted interview series Austin Film Festival’s On Story on PBS for eleven seasons. Nominated for two Lone Star EMMY Awards®, On Story won a Lone Star EMMY Award® for Best Interview/Discussion Program Series in 2018 and for Best Arts/Entertainment Program in 2014. Maya’s feature screenplays have been optioned for production and recognized by fellowships from SFFILM/Westridge, Sundance Institute, and NY Stage & Film.

Maya's short stories and essays have been published in Texas Monthly, American Short Fiction, Joyland, Electric Lit, and more. In addition, she co-edited three collections of interviews with filmmakers published by the University of Texas Press: On Story — Screenwriters and Their Craft (2013), On Story — Screenwriters and Filmmakers on Their Iconic Films (2016), and On Story — The Golden Ages of Television (October 2018).

Maya received her BA from Vassar College and her MFA in Screenwriting as a fellow at the Michener Center for Writers. She grew up in Kenya, Zambia, and the United States and now lives in Austin, Texas, where she teaches screenwriting and is the Area Head for Screenwriting at The University of Texas at Austin.

Christian Meola is a writer and director from Albany, New York. He graduated from Florida State University in 2016 and lived in Los Angeles for six years before enrolling in the University of Texas at Austin’s MFA Film production program. Christian works in a variety of mediums, ranging from narrative to video art and theater. He's particularly interested in how individuals form their identities based on larger societal constructs. Recently, he’s been exploring the relationship between between straight and gay men, as well as how masculinity and a need for vulnerability influence male behavior. He’s interested in meeting other UT students with an interest in researching and creatively exploring these topics. His work has been screened at Indie Memphis, Oak Cliff Film Festival, Sidewalk Film Festival, Adirondack Film Festival, Buried Alive, Sick 'n' Wrong, Sydney Underground, Electric Forest Music Festival, and on PBS, NoBudge, and Beyond the Short. In 2020, he won Sick n' Wrong's "You're Special" award.

Luis Rivera-Figueroa is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Radio-Television-Film department at The University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on the transnational production networks of Latin Music in the United States, Latin America, and the Hispanic Caribbean. His work can be found in the Journal of Latin American Communication Research and Flow TV. In addition, Rivera-Figueroa has worked on the editorial team of journals such as the Journal of Latin American Communication Research, The Velvet Light Trap, Designis, and Flow TV.
 

NGUYEN Luong Hang is a director, producer from Ho Chi Minh City interested in exploring the Vietnamese female identity and its relationships with family and grief in film. Her debut short THE STORY OF US (2014) screened at the 2016 Focus on Asia Fukuoka FF. She served as producer to Trinh Dinh Le Minh's award-winning debut feature GOODBYE MOTHER (2019), considered one of the first LGBTQ films out of Vietnam to participate in the international cinematic scene and selected by prestigious festivals in Busan, Hawaii and Toronto before its distribution on Netflix Vietnam. Her latest short as director, SUPERMARKET AFFAIRS (2022), is currently on the festival circuit and has screened at Osaka Asian FF, CAAMFest and Palm Springs ShortFest. She is also an alumna of Singapore IFF's Southeast Asian Film Lab, Locarno Open Doors Lab and EAVE Ties That Bind. At the moment, she is pursuing an MFA in Film Production at the University of Texas at Austin with a Fulbright scholarship. Her MFA thesis ROOFTOP LEMPICKA received the 2022 AFS Grant for Short Films and is in post-production with an anticipated festival run in the fall of 2023. The debut feature project of the same name is in development, has been selected for the Munich Film Up! residential program and Full Circle Lab Philippines - Fiction Lab. 

I am an impassioned writer and disability rights activist. My research focuses on media's aesthetic investments in warfare, carceral biopolitics, and affect at the intersections of identity, bodily autonomy, and ability. Born from this emphasis, I analyze how media frames the human as a rhetorical space of power. I love to read, cook, play the violin, and hang out with my cat.

MJ is a multi-generational Deaf and queer filmmaker that graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2013 with a BFA in Film. She is currently in the Radio/Television/Film MFA Film Production program at the University of Texas in Austin. She worked with the award-winning Motion Light Lab housed at Gallaudet University as their production specialist, and is the Media Director for Copper & Water, where she collaborates on video projects for the Deaf community.

An avid cinematographer, she is licensed to film underwater with the PADI underwater videography certification. She also loves filming with 8, 16, and 35mm film.
 
She has directed and produced over 10 short films that have been submitted to various international film festivals. The Pastman, starring Sandra Mae Frank (New Amsterdam and Daybreak) and Russell Harvard (There Will Be Blood) was selected for 10 different film festivals, including “Other Worlds Austin,” and it won best Actress at the Shanghai International Deaf Film Festival and Clin d’Oeil Festival in France. Dimensions, a motion-capture short co-directed by MJ, was selected for 7 film festivals and won best 3D Animation at Clin d’Oeil.
 
MJ wants to share amazing stories from the Deaf community created by talented Deaf individuals with the rest of the world.

Monika Jane Browatzki, aka MJ Watz, grew up between the saguaros of Arizona and the redwoods of Northern California. She tells stories using magical realism and horror.

Monika earned her Bachelor of Arts in Film Production with a concentration in Cinematography and a Theater minor from UCLA's School of Theater, Film & Television. She studied sketch writing at Upright Citizens Brigade, where she wrote the short films: "Nite Terrors" and "Zara Bagan's Ghost Experiences."

Her previous directing work includes the sketch comedy short "Datch" produced by Funny or Die, 12 music videos - ranging from folk to hip-hop, PSAs for organizations such as UCLA's Healthy Campus Initiative, and the surreal found-footage thriller "Devil's Claw". Monika has also directed theatrical productions of "The Vagina Monologues," a fundraiser; "Murder in the Key of G," a murder mystery dinner; and "Bloody Awful," a double feature for the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

Her first feature "Leash Leader", which she wrote, produced, directed, and self-distributed, was selected for festivals including Straight Jacket Guerilla Filmmaking, Poor Life Choices Comedy Film Festival, and Tucson Terrorfest. In 2021, her documentary, "Hans Ulrich Browatzki Immigrates to America'', won Best Documentary in the LACC Cinema & Television Awards.

Jay is a MFA Film Production Candidate at the University of Texas at Austin. Jay found his way to Texas by way of Kentucky where he completed a double major in Acting/Directing at Western Kentucky University. After 10 years of performing/developing theater in New York City, Jay became interested in filmmaking. His first short film (For Hope) was his gateway to a new career. Since then, Jay has helmed 4 short films with two in pre-production. Jay works diligently as a TA for UT and where he excels in pre-production and development work. More information about his film can be found at Jwilliamthomas.com