Bio – Lab 2024 – Virtual

RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab 2024

Stephen Nolly

Stephen Nolly is a biracial, Japanese/Jewish Air Force brat who cut his teeth in New York’s theater scene. After graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, he was a resident artist at TriBeCa’s Flea Theater (Drama Desk, OBIE Award). After his start in downtown theater, Nolly found that the film & television world was lacking the diversity of stories that he wanted to tell – and he realized he was the only person suited to tell them.

Nolly is a Finalist for the Paramount Writers Mentorship and the Warner Brothers Writers’ Workshop Finalist. He was accepted into Soho House Script House Lab (with Barry Jenkins and Lulu Wang), received the CA Individual Artist Fellowship, won the Thriller Genre in the ISA Fast Track Fellowship, and been included on The Naughty List, and The Originals Bureau. His scripts have advanced at the Austin Film Festival, Sundance Episodic & Feature Labs, Slamdance, PAGE, and most recently been a Finalist for Film Pipeline, WeScreenplay Diverse Voices, and the Circle of Confusion Discovery Fellowship.

Nolly enjoys high-concept, socially conscious stories, is an amateur locksmith, dabbles in horology (watchmaking), writing musical theater, was a competitive international ballroom dancer, and a member of Mensa.

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

Toj Mora

Toj Mora is a filmmaker, producer, and editor with more than a decade of experience. He is especially passionate about capturing and crafting the most compelling and authentic deaf stories of our generation.

His recent post-production and editing credits includes Netflix’s DEAF U (2020), and Marvel’s ECHO (2024) streaming now on Disney+ and Hulu. Mora also worked in editorial on the first season of a Starz series starring and executive produced by Lauren Ridloff and Josh Jackson. The series was shelved in the aftermath of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

As a producer and filmmaker, Mora’s work includes commercial productions like Beyond Inclusion (2016) and small indie projects such as Hamburger Airplane (2020). In 2023, Mora was the Director of Photography for a docu-series on deaf music artists, where he led a crew of five deaf cinematographers. He is also slated to edit the series, which will be released on a new streaming platform Vsyn+.

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

Tyler St. Pierre

Tyler St. Pierre was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia before moving to Portland, Oregon as a young child. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Film from Portland State University in 2017 and has been involved in the local film community in Portland since high school, when he convinced a local producer to allow him on set as his shadow for the second season of NBC’s Grimm.

In 2016, St. Pierre began working with the Oregon Media Production Association (OMPA), an organization that champions Oregon film, on a campaign to help increase the tax incentive for the state and bring in more projects. He helped craft digital marketing materials to highlight various aspects of Oregon Film & the #MadeInOregon campaign that were sent to the Oregon Senate, and assisted in hosting multiple events to educate the legislature on the benefits of growing the Oregon Film community. These efforts were successful as the legislature voted in support of raising the incentive. Since then, shows like Shrill for Hulu, Trinkets for Netflix, Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists for FreeForm, and Timmy Failure for Disney+ have all come into town.

St. Pierre has an MFA degree in Creative Producing from Columbia University and currently is developing several projects with several collaborators. The two latest projects he was involved with, Max & Taco (Get Their SH!T Together) and Feed Me, are currently wrapping up their award-winning festival runs. Both films were written & directed by Caitlin Ferrell.

While at Columbia, he was awarded the 2020 Arthur Krim Memorial prize. He was most recently the Assistant Director of Production Management for Columbia’s film department, where he oversaw 70 domestic and international short film productions.

In his free time, you can find him listening to Taylor Swift.

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

Faith Alabi

Faith Alabi is a writer, director and actor from London with an interest in nuance, intersectionality, and self-contradiction. Faith explores this in all her work using surprise; challenging assumptions and stereotypes.

Selected for the 2024 Prime Video Director’s Workshop at the National Film and Television School, a RespectAbility Entertainment Lab Fellow 2024, and with support from the BFI Network Film London Elevate programme, Faith is currently developing her debut short film “BABES WITH MOBILITY AIDS”. Her filmmaking sets out to celebrate humanity with heartfelt humour, using fresh, distinctive narratives.

After graduating from Guildhall, Faith began her career working on-screen as an actor alongside Directors such as Oscar/BAFTA Nominated Luca Guadagnino, playing Jenny in WE ARE WHO WE ARE (HBO). She has most recently shot her returning role of Aurore Adekunle in INDUSTRY S3 (HBO), and played Pearl Thomas in 2024 GLAAD Media and NAACP Image Award nominated BLACK CAKE (Hulu/Disney+) produced by Oprah Winfrey.

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.