Bio – Lab 2024 – Virtual

RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab 2024

Howard Emanuel

Howard Emanuel is a disabled writer who graduated from USC’s grad screenwriting program in 2023, where he was an Annenberg Fellow. He most recently won The WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Lab and Write LA. His TV and film writings have made The Bitch List and won a number of other industry honors, ranging from film festival awards (SLO International Film Festival, Newport Film Festival, etc) to being optioned by a TV production company that swiftly closed shop after the option. (He swears his script had nothing to do with the company’s demise).

Tony Award-winning producer Tom Smedes is the Executive Producer of his play Sundogs. The play won the Great Plains Theater Conference’s top honor, The Holland New Voices Playwright Award. In 2020, Armie Hammer starred in an online production of Sundogs and was poised to bring the project to Broadway. Emanuel thinks Armie’s involvement has aged super well.

Emanuel’s plays and musicals have been developed and presented by The Roundabout Theater Company, New York Theater Workshop, Naked Angels, Penguin Rep, The Lark and The Flea. They have starred such talents as Academy Award-nominee Chloë Sevigny, Emmy-winner Penny Fuller, and the late, great icon Chita Rivera.

Emanuel co-EPed and co-wrote a screenplay with Keith Powell, who played Toofer on 30 Rock. The result was the independent feature Train Baby. It starred Keith Powell, Adapero Oduye (Pariah, 12 Years a Slave), Judy Reyes (Scrubs) and Rich Sommer (Mad Men) and is available on Amazon.

Emanuel wrote and directed Tony Award-nominee Tony Yazbeck’s critically acclaimed club act The Floor Above Me. An album of the effort is available through P.S. Classics. He lives in Los Angeles with his partner, wedding planner, Joey Perniciaro, their two cats, and two parrots, an African Grey and Blue and Gold Macaw.

Learn More

After an extensive search and interview process, 25 individuals were invited to participate in the Virtual Cohort of RespectAbility’s 2024 Entertainment Lab taking place May 7 – September 24, 2024. This 5-month Lab aims to develop and elevate the talent pipeline of disabled entertainment professionals working behind-the-scenes in television, film, and streaming, while connecting them with industry professionals and creatives. Participants include people with physical, cognitive, sensory, mental health, and other disabilities ranging in age from people in their 20’s through their 60’s. The Lab is a recipient of The Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award.

RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab 2024

Jacquelyn Revere

Jacquelyn Revere’s life journey began with adversity, as she developed a severe stutter at the age of three. However, she defied these early challenges, earning a master’s degree in acting and venturing into stand-up comedy and advocacy work, teaching improv classes to fellow stutterers across the globe. Her path took a new turn when she became a devoted caregiver for her mother and grandmother, who battled dementia. Embracing her role, she shared her caregiving journey on TikTok (@MomOfMyMom), amassing a substantial following and using her platform to connect with other young caregivers. Revere’s story resonated widely, leading to her Op-Ed in the LA Times and a feature on NPR, all while she maintained an unwavering optimism, emphasizing resilience, and the positive impact she strives to make despite life’s challenges. Revere specializes in crafting family-centered half-hours and feature films that center on themes of disability and caregiving, exploring how characters navigate these challenges in a society often unaccommodating to their needs. Revere has completed The Disruptors TV Writing Fellowship and Mentorship Matters, where she received guidance and has become the permanent mentee of Showrunner Monica Macer.

Learn More

After an extensive search and interview process, 25 individuals were invited to participate in the Virtual Cohort of RespectAbility’s 2024 Entertainment Lab taking place May 7 – September 24, 2024. This 5-month Lab aims to develop and elevate the talent pipeline of disabled entertainment professionals working behind-the-scenes in television, film, and streaming, while connecting them with industry professionals and creatives. Participants include people with physical, cognitive, sensory, mental health, and other disabilities ranging in age from people in their 20’s through their 60’s. The Lab is a recipient of The Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award.

RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab 2024

Jennifer Berry

Jennifer Berry is an award-winning screenwriter/director and playwright based in Los Angeles. In 2020 Berry was awarded The California Distinguished Achievement in the Arts by Congressman Adam Shift. Her short film The Exchange was the opening short film at The Madrid International Film Festival 2020. Her film Motherload is in post-production.

All of Berry’s films are produced with 90% female/non-binary cast and crew while also using additional crew with disabilities.

Berry’s noted play Big Pharma toured nationally for five years. Berry is the author of several additional plays including Ojalá,  which had its premiere at Casa 0101in Los Angeles. Ojalá was later optioned as a screenplay. Her play After, All was produced at The Pasadena Playhouse and will be adapted into a feature film. Her play The Maid’s Daughters was a semi-finalist at The Eugene O’Neill Theater Conference. Berry has been featured in Ms. Magazine and several other feminist publications. Most recently, Berry’s monologue from her play This is How it Begins and Ends is featured in “The Best Women’s Stage Monologues 2023.”

Also well versed in directing operas, Berry was named resident stage director for the Colorado Opera Troupe’s productions of Carmen, Otello, and Salome, in which she created original script adaptations while incorporating dance, music and text.

Learn More

After an extensive search and interview process, 25 individuals were invited to participate in the Virtual Cohort of RespectAbility’s 2024 Entertainment Lab taking place May 7 – September 24, 2024. This 5-month Lab aims to develop and elevate the talent pipeline of disabled entertainment professionals working behind-the-scenes in television, film, and streaming, while connecting them with industry professionals and creatives. Participants include people with physical, cognitive, sensory, mental health, and other disabilities ranging in age from people in their 20’s through their 60’s. The Lab is a recipient of The Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award.

RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab 2024

Johnny Bauers

Johnny Bauers is a writer and townie from Jersey City, New Jersey. He graduated from NYU’s Dramatic Writing program and has written for publications like The Onion and The New Yorker. His father is a jazz musician, and his mother was an Irish immigrant and Medicare advocate. If he had followed in their footsteps, he’d make Irish jazz (the worst genre of music ever).

Learn More

After an extensive search and interview process, 25 individuals were invited to participate in the Virtual Cohort of RespectAbility’s 2024 Entertainment Lab taking place May 7 – September 24, 2024. This 5-month Lab aims to develop and elevate the talent pipeline of disabled entertainment professionals working behind-the-scenes in television, film, and streaming, while connecting them with industry professionals and creatives. Participants include people with physical, cognitive, sensory, mental health, and other disabilities ranging in age from people in their 20’s through their 60’s. The Lab is a recipient of The Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award.

RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab 2024

Julia Ralenkotter

From her experiences at Upright Citizens Brigade to FX, Julia Ralenkotter has found that humor is the quickest way to the hearts of others. By connecting bridges via her love for television writing, she hopes to give back to the Deaf community. Her connections in the theater and television have allowed for intrinsic exploration of her talents and unique voice. Ralenkotter is passionate about creating opportunities for Deaf representation onscreen.

Learn More

After an extensive search and interview process, 25 individuals were invited to participate in the Virtual Cohort of RespectAbility’s 2024 Entertainment Lab taking place May 7 – September 24, 2024. This 5-month Lab aims to develop and elevate the talent pipeline of disabled entertainment professionals working behind-the-scenes in television, film, and streaming, while connecting them with industry professionals and creatives. Participants include people with physical, cognitive, sensory, mental health, and other disabilities ranging in age from people in their 20’s through their 60’s. The Lab is a recipient of The Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award.

RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab 2024

Maddy Ullman

Adopted from Hong Kong to America, Maddy Ullman is a writer, photographer, and storyteller based in Dallas, TX. Her experience as a Chinese adoptee with cerebral palsy propels her storytelling working in Hollywood. With her deep love of story and collaborative spirit, Ullman is dedicated to raising authentic portrayal of disabilities in Hollywood. Most recently she was a disability authenticity consultant for the character Dahlia in the Disney Animation Film Wish.

Learn More

After an extensive search and interview process, 25 individuals were invited to participate in the Virtual Cohort of RespectAbility’s 2024 Entertainment Lab taking place May 7 – September 24, 2024. This 5-month Lab aims to develop and elevate the talent pipeline of disabled entertainment professionals working behind-the-scenes in television, film, and streaming, while connecting them with industry professionals and creatives. Participants include people with physical, cognitive, sensory, mental health, and other disabilities ranging in age from people in their 20’s through their 60’s. The Lab is a recipient of The Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award.

RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab 2024

Nancy Pickett

Nancy Pickett is a disabled filmmaker with a focus on documentary and nonfiction content. She independently produced her first feature-length film, a documentary about pediatric cancer, in high school. The Golden Truth is available to stream on Amazon Prime. Her short films, which cover a range of topics from human trafficking to arts education, have been recognized by film festivals across the country and the News and Documentary Emmy Awards, where she received the prestigious Mike Wallace Memorial Scholarship for her coverage of U.S. healthcare reform in Is Healthcare a Human Right? which used her personal experience with chronic illness to explain the Affordable Care Act.

Thanks to generous support from the National Association of LGBTQ Journalists Facebook Journalism Scholarship, AAPD/NBCUniversal Tony Coelho Media Scholarship, and others, Pickett graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in telecommunication from the University of Florida Online. She now is pursuing her master’s degree in Public Interest Communication, where she is learning strategies to ensure that her films go beyond raising awareness to create tangible social change.

Learn More

After an extensive search and interview process, 25 individuals were invited to participate in the Virtual Cohort of RespectAbility’s 2024 Entertainment Lab taking place May 7 – September 24, 2024. This 5-month Lab aims to develop and elevate the talent pipeline of disabled entertainment professionals working behind-the-scenes in television, film, and streaming, while connecting them with industry professionals and creatives. Participants include people with physical, cognitive, sensory, mental health, and other disabilities ranging in age from people in their 20’s through their 60’s. The Lab is a recipient of The Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award.

RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab 2024

Nandi Bowe

Storytelling is Nandi Bowe’s passion. After the devastating diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, Bowe moved with her husband and sons to Mumbai, India for three years where she wrote her memoir, Hollywood to Bollywood. She currently is developing a television series based on that story. Bowe wants to utilize her global experiences of living in the USA, England, Africa, and India to tell universal stories that inspire and highlight audiences’ shared humanity.

Bowe began her professional career as a Production Assistant on a film directed by Sidney Poitier. She moved to Africa and worked on five films in Zimbabwe including Mandela and Cry Freedom.

Back home in the U.S., Bowe went on to work as an Assistant Director on Do The Right Thing, Daughters of The Dust, Sister Act 2, House Party, Hocus Pocus, Sneakers, Frankie and Johnny, To Wong Foo, Thanks…, Just Jordan, and many more films and television shows. Bowe was a Staff Writer on The Lone Gunmen, an X-Files spin-off.

Bowe was a DGA/Disney Directing Fellow and attended AFI as a Directing Fellow. She has written and directed eight short films. Statistically Speaking, starring Alfre Woodard and Garry Marshall, aired on Showtime, and was featured in a nationwide HBO screening tour. In February 2023, Bowe was awarded a DGA Award for her work as the 1st Assistant Director on the Apple+ show, Best Foot Forward.

Bowe has been a member of the DGA and WGA for more than 25 years and is a proud mother of three adult sons. She continues to take definitive steps toward realizing her lifelong goal of being an extraordinary storyteller who writes, directs, creates, and works on powerful stories that entertain, inspire, and uplift.

Learn More

After an extensive search and interview process, 25 individuals were invited to participate in the Virtual Cohort of RespectAbility’s 2024 Entertainment Lab taking place May 7 – September 24, 2024. This 5-month Lab aims to develop and elevate the talent pipeline of disabled entertainment professionals working behind-the-scenes in television, film, and streaming, while connecting them with industry professionals and creatives. Participants include people with physical, cognitive, sensory, mental health, and other disabilities ranging in age from people in their 20’s through their 60’s. The Lab is a recipient of The Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award.

RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab 2024

Saleem Nasir Gondal

Saleem Nasir Gondal (he/him) is a filmmaker based in New York. His work explores the power of conversation and sound to convey the interior lives of underrepresented communities onscreen.

Gondal’s work has been supported by The Black List, The National Board of Review, The Gotham, Pillars Fund, and MPAC Hollywood Bureau. ​He currently is in development on Tortilla Roti, a feature drama about a Punjabi Mexican community set during the Great Depression. This feature is supported by the Gotham Project Market.

Gondal’s short film Super Sonic has screened in five different countries, including the Austin Film Festival, TIDE Film Festival, and the Asian American International Film Festival. His short Post Term is a winner of the Focus Features | JetBlue Short Film Showcase.

Gondal has a BFA from NYU Tisch and MFA from Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema Brooklyn College.

IG: @saleemngondal

Learn More

After an extensive search and interview process, 25 individuals were invited to participate in the Virtual Cohort of RespectAbility’s 2024 Entertainment Lab taking place May 7 – September 24, 2024. This 5-month Lab aims to develop and elevate the talent pipeline of disabled entertainment professionals working behind-the-scenes in television, film, and streaming, while connecting them with industry professionals and creatives. Participants include people with physical, cognitive, sensory, mental health, and other disabilities ranging in age from people in their 20’s through their 60’s. The Lab is a recipient of The Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award.