Join NewFilmmakers Los Angeles (NFMLA) and the Organization of Black Screenwriters (OBS) for a conversation with entertainment industry creatives and experts about how the seismic shifts in the entertainment industry and social landscape of the country impact the mission and voices of Black screenwriters and other creatives. The panel will feature professionals who are members of the Organization of Black Screenwriters and will speak to their experiences in the industry , including advice for emerging creatives.
Find the bio’s of the scheduled panelists below.
Cherrelle éLan
Actress/Filmmaker/Activist
About Cherrelle éLan:
Cherrelle éLan is the change she wishes to see in the world. Since childhood, she has dedicated herself to the pursuit of truthful storytelling through creative media. Blending activism and the arts, she unleashes her voice as an actress and director in Los Angeles. Her mission: to be the powerful change for Black Americans in Hollywood to have a clear path and a valid voice.
Cherrelle made her television debut as winner of Miss Teen DC and a contestant for Miss Teen USA on CBS, yet she began her career behind the camera. She pitched compelling story ideas and assisted producers for PrimeTime and 20/20 News Magazines and participated in suspenseful undercover consumer investigations. While working with ABC’s news team during 9/11, Cherrelle received a Peabody Award for her participation in conducting interviews of victims and heroes.
Having appeared in the film Knight of Cups, Beyond The Lights and Primetime Television shows like CBS’s Criminal Minds and HBO’s Enlightened Cherrelle éLan is an Actress and Filmmaker. She also performed as “Ms. Muller” in the Play Doubt on The Rep East Stage, and starred as “Ms. Blond” in the stage play Reservoir Bitches — the adaptation of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.
The D.C.-born creative attended The Duke Ellington School of the Arts, where she would later go on to initiate the first school-wide Media Day, earning her both a National Association of Multi-Ethnicity In Communications (NAMIC) award and a feature in The Newseum. A Magna Cum Laude graduate from Howard University, and Masters graduate from Syracuse University Newhouse School of Communications, she is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority; she had the honor of assisting her sorority sister, now Vice President Kamala Harris, during her visit to Los Angeles in 2013 during the 7th Annual Asomugha Foundation Gala.
Kevin Bourne
Filmmaker/Journalist
About Kevin Bourne:
Kevin Bourne is a Toronto-based TV/film producer, screenwriter, entertainment journalist, and TEDx speaker. His years of work as an entertainment journalist, including serving as the founder and editor of the media platform SHIFTER led to him being named one of only 340 Golden Globe® Awards voters in the world and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-Approved critic. Kevin went on to co-found SHIFTER Entertainment, alongside his wife, Koliah, and has produced narrative short films, two digital series, and the Bell Fibe TV1 unscripted reality series A Date In The Life, serving as showrunner, writer and co-director. Along the way, he completed a number of professional development programs, including the Canfro x Warner Bros Access Discovery Canada Diversity Showrunner Bootcamp led by The Office writer Anthony Q. Farrell.
V. Efua Prince
Author/Professor
About V. Efua Prince:
V Efua Prince‘s work often takes an interdisciplinary form as history, poetry, drama, and performance, to transform the history of black women into political art. The central questions guiding her research seek to unpack the dynamics of black family life. Prince’s screenplay is set against the backdrop of post-Civil Rights Era Washington, DC at the funeral of a man, revealing the fractured offspring produced by his own enduring love. Her current work represents a refinement of themes she has been considering for more than 20 years. She is the author of Kin: Practically True Stories (2024) and the co-author of Crazy As Hell: The Best Little Guide to Black History (2024) with Hoke Glover III. Prince was awarded a 2023-2024 Wayne State University Humanities Center Faculty Fellow to complete her manuscript titled, Laundry, which explores laundry as metonymy, in order to understand critical aspects of African American women’s historical relationship to home, family, work, and industry. Prince is a professor of African American Studies at Wayne State University. She received her PhD from the University of Michigan in English Language and Literature and has served as a director of Black Studies at Allegheny College, the Avalon Professor of Humanities at Hampton University, a visiting scholar at the University of Virginia’s Carter G. Woodson Institute, and a fellow at Harvard University’s W. E. B. Du Bois Center.
Sandra Campbell
Screenwriter/Poet/Contract Adviser
About Sandra Campbell:
Sandra holds a degree in psychology and a minor in political science from the University of Houston. As a former contributor and on-air talent expert for StudioD, her work has appeared on websites such as Livestrong, eHow, Global Post, Modern Mom, and The Classroom.
Sandra’s screenplay, “Hyde Park,” received an honorable mention in the Fort Bend Writer’s Guild First Ten Screenplay and Novel Competition in 2009. Also, in 2009, Sandra was awarded a poetry fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center, and her short story, “Running on Fumes in 1999,” was published by Crack the Spine Literary Magazine in May 2014. Additionally, she was a quarter-finalist and semi-finalist for the 2016 Mary Ballard Poetry Prize. Sandra’s feature scripts “Article V” and “Bare” were official selections of the 2015 and 2016 Oaxaca Film Festival, respectively. Her script “Article V” won the Outstanding Drama Award at the 2017 Sacramento International Film Festival, and her psychological thriller “Fade to Black” was a quarter-finalist in the 2018 Scriptapalooza screenplay contest.
She is the author of “A Practical Guide to Learning American English: Useful Tips for High Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced English Students.” Sandra is an active member of the National Writers Union and serves as a contract adviser for the National Writers Union Grievance and Contract Division Committee. She also serves on the National Writers Union Executive Board as an At-Large Representative. “Article V” has been selected as a finalist for 2020 Scriptwriters Houston Pitch and Screenplay Competition.
Kameishia Wooten
Filmmaker
About the moderator:
Kameishia Wooten is an award-winning filmmaker based in Los Angeles, known for her inclusive and thought-provoking storytelling. She has written and directed seven short films, including the critically acclaimed and Oscar-qualified Choices, which was supported by the WIF/Google Shorts Lab and recognized at over 50 film festivals worldwide, including Emerging Cannes, HollyShorts, and NewFilmmakers Los Angeles.
Kameishia recently received NFMLA’s New Narratives Grant for her feature screenplay Your Secret Is Safe With Me, adapted from Choices. She was also a semifinalist for the Academy Gold Fellowship for Women and a recipient of the WIF Directing Fellowship. Additionally, she was selected as a Ryan Murphy Half Initiative Directing Fellow and participated in the Sundance Financing Intensive.
Holding an MFA in Directing from Columbia College Chicago and a BA from UNC Chapel Hill, Kameishia has built a dynamic career that includes roles at Disney, Paramount, and Netflix. She is a member of the Television Academy and was recently honored as an Emeritus Board Member of Alliance of Women Directors for her years of dedicated service while on the Executive Board.
Inspired by her multigenerational African American heritage, Kameishia’s storytelling blends humor, drama, and adventure—celebrating culture, inclusivity, and community.
IMPORTANT DETAILS:
This panel will take place virtually over ZOOM. Ticket purchasers will receive a ZOOM link to this panel 2 hours before the published start time. If you don’t already have the ZOOM app, please make sure to download on your device before the panel start time.
If you purchase an All-Access Pass for our February Festival events prior to the date of this panel, you will also receive admission to this virtual panel, included as part of your pass.
If you are a current Annual Member of NFMLA, please email info@nfmla.org to receive a complimentary ticket to this panel. If you are not an Annual Member of NFMLA and would like to join, you can become a member here.
