LATV Festival

TRACI A. CURRY is an award-winning television journalist and producer, who has spent almost a decade pursuing her passion of story-telling. She paid her production assistant peonage dues at CNN’s Washington bureau. But Traci decided what she really wanted to pay were more student loans, and went on to enroll at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Since moving back East, Traci has established herself as a New York-based freelance television producer. While at BET News, she was honored for her work looking at crystal meth in African-American communities, as well as for a special news report about the genocide in Darfur. She's currently working on a one-hour documentary about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Washington, D.C.

LILIAN DE LA TORRE-JIMENEZ is the vice president of Jimenez Communications Inc, a publishing house that produces the award-winning Bodas USA La Revista, the only Spanish-language bridal magazine in the United States. Her multimedia company is working on the production of a half-hour TV show in Spanish about weddings to market in the US and in Latin America. On September 2009, Lilian will launch another magazine titled, Mujer Empresaria, the first Spanish-language digital magazine for US Latina Entrepreneurs. Mujer Empresaria includes rich media components such as video, audio and animation.

As a start-up her company has win many accolades, including the Hispanic Digital Innovation of the year for its digital bridal magazine. Bodas USA La Revista became the first Hispanic magazine in the US to incorporate mobile and utilize text message options in editorial, advertising and promotional pages.

Lilian is a former La Opinion senior reporter and a former newspaper editor with The Press Enterprise.

Lisa is an established producer in non-fiction television and film [see her most recent newsclip by clicking here]. In four years she executive produced two independent documentary films, “China & Irvington:Trading Places” and “PROJECT WOW:Men On The Down Low” for BET J Black Stories. Her career began in front of the camera in 1996 as the host of the popular Cablevision magazine show “Brick City” and she quickly advanced to segment producer during her four year tenure. Lisa next took on pilot projects like college drama, “Freshman Seminar” and cooking show, “Che’s Kitchen,” both as associate producer. In 2000, Lisa launched her production company, Lisa Durden Unlimited Productions were she executive produces her commentary talk show, “The Lisa Durden Show.” She also has consulted on projects like the BET News Special, "The Down Low Exposed" and associate produced the docu-reality mini-series "Brick City," debuting on the Sundance Channel fall 2009. Lisa’s documentary feature, “PROJECT WOW:Men On The Down Low” won the “Best Documentary Award”at the Pocono Mountains Film Festival 2006, “The Best Topic Award” at Urban Film Series 2006 and the audience choice award, “The Velvet Cuffs,” at the Through Her Eyes Women Of Color Film Festival 2005. She appears on network programs like the Fox “Morning Show with Mike & Julliet” and My9 News as a featured expert about down low men. In spring 2009, Essex County College Women’s Empowerment Forum honored her for outstanding contributions and service to the community. Lisa frequently keynotes graduations and motivational speaks around the country. She writes a social commentary blog for the Newark Star Ledger and is an adjunct instructor at Essex County College. Lisa graduated with a BA in Communications from Seton Hall University. Lisa is an active member of The National Association Of Television Program Executives, the 2009 LATV Festival Diversity Fellowship and the Leadership Newark Fellowship.

DENISE HENDRICKS is an award winning producer and writer. She currently works as an associate producer for the The Oprah Winfrey Show, now entering its 24th season.

Denise’s passion for storytelling has helped her to carve an illustrious career in media, as a producer for ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX news affiliate TV stations throughout the country and for CNN in Atlanta.

During her last five seasons at The Oprah Show, she has booked interviewed, written, and field produced segments for several notable guests.

Denise is also founder of an Atlanta based Youth mentoring group and serves on the board of directors for Power Girls, Inc., Youth Communication Chicago, and the Black Women Film Preservation Project. She has B.S. in Journalism from Florida A & M University.

Rollin was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts by a Cuban mother and a Haitian father. He has lived in Los Angeles since the mid nineties. While attending Baylor University, he produced his first play to celebrate Black History. That play was submitted to the USC Graduate Screenwriting Program and two years later, he was accepted. He went on to graduate from USC with Distinction.

Rollin’s ultimate goal is to produce network and cable TV shows. Though he has produced mostly reality shows, he has also produced an award winning, short film titled “Fortunate Son”, which aired on SHOWTIME and BET NETWORK.

Alejandro Seri is an award-winning, bilingual screenwriter and director with a firm grasp of story telling. Alejandro began his career by forming Cyberpix, an underground film school. He has shot his first feature film starring Francesco Quinn (The Shield, 24, Platoon). The film won four awards at the NY Independent Film Festival.

Since then, Alejandro has written a few award-winning screenplays. After working as a copywriter at Intralink Film and New Films International, Alejandro joined Final Draft, Inc., where he has risen through the ranks to become Final Draft, Inc.’s Marketing Director and Studio Liaison.

ANGELA SHELF MEDEARIS is the author of more than 95 award-winning children’s books and 6 cookbooks for adults. Her newest books are THE KITCHEN DIVA! THE NEW AFRICAN-AMERICAN KITCHEN and TEN INGREDIENTS FOR A JOYOUS LIFE AND A PEACEFUL HOME (Lake Isle Press, NY). More than 10 million copies of her books have been sold in 7 different languages world-wide.

Medearis is the Executive Producer and host of THE KITCHEN DIVA! a syndicated television cooking/lifestyle and radio show. THE KITCHEN DIVA! lifestyle/recipe column is distributed by Hearst/King Features to 1300 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. She is President of Diva Productions, Inc., a multiplatform company that produces radio, television, film, Internet, and animation projects. She lives in Austin, Texas. Her website is www.divapro.com.

Ian Skorodin graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and began his directing career with an award winning feature film, entitled TUSHKA, based on the murder of a Native American activist’s family. After premiering at Sundance in 1998, TUSHKA went on to win Best Feature at the Arizona International Film Festival. In 2000, TUSHKA was distributed to DirecTV for domestic television distribution.

Skorodin directed continued in television with CRAZY IND’N, a stop motion animation short. CRAZY IND’N went on to screen in England, Finland, New York and won best animation at the Cherokee International Film Festival. CRAZY IND’N was distributed to Aboriginal People’s Television Network in Canada, DishNetwork in the United States and will soon be on Finnish Television.