Continuing our mission to cultivate opportunities for and about female creators and directors, SeriesFest, in partnership with Shondaland, is proud to announce the winner of the Women Directing Mentorship 2020 competition as Tamika Miller.
“From her application video to her film reel, Tamika Miller was an exceptional choice for this year’s prestigious mentorship,” said Randi Kleiner & Kaily Smith, co-Founders at SeriesFest. “Both the SeriesFest team and our partners at Shondaland were blown away by her as a director, a visionary, and an artist who is ready for the next step in her career. We will be watching Ms. Miller very closely, as we are certain she will be at the helm of a major series in no time.”
The Women Directing Mentorship, which first launched in 2018 in partnership with Shondaland — the prolific storytelling company founded by Shonda Rhimes and long known for inspiring inclusion in front of and behind the camera — offers a unique opportunity for a rising female director to shadow an already established episodic director on a Shondaland produced series. The recipient of the inaugural 2019 Women Directing Mentorship, Rachel Myers (“Wendy’s Shabbat”), shadowed director Tessa Blake on Episode 306, “Ice Ice Baby” of the Shondaland series, “Station 19” (ABC).
In addition to announcing the winner, nine semi finalists were selected for recognition. Those semi finalists are: Robin Cloud, Lauren Fash, Tiffany Frances, Liann Kaye, Lidiya Korotko, Mandy Marcus, Chelsea Odufu, Talia Osteen and Shayla Racquel. The winner and semi finalists were selected by a panel, which included both SeriesFest and Shondaland teams.
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ABOUT TAMIKA MILLER:
Tamika Miller is an award-winning commercial and narrative director living in Los Angeles, California. In 2019, SHOOT Magazine chose Tamika as 1 of 32 NEW directors to watch and presented her work at the Director’s Guild of America in New York. Tamika was selected as one of only six directors, from over 400 applicants, to participate in the Commercial Directors Diversity Program – a DGA/AICP initiative created to increase the representation of women and under-represented directors in commercial advertising. Tamika has received numerous awards and recognitions including Best Commercial at the LA Femme Festival, Showtime Black Filmmaker Showcase Grand Prize for Best Narrative, Outfest Audience Award for Outstanding Short Narrative, San Francisco Black Film Festival Award for Best Short, Reel Sisters Film Festival Award for Best Short Narrative and many others. Tamika is currently developing her much-anticipated feature film UNDERCARD, starring actress/comedienne Wanda Sykes in her first dramatic role.
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ABOUT SHONDALAND:
Shondaland is the pioneering storytelling company founded by award-winning writer and producer Shonda Rhimes. The company is rooted in the ideals of creating content that changes culture, changes perceptions and writes the future. To tell these various stories, Shondaland has an exclusive partnership with Netflix where the company is currently in production on “Bridgerton,” “Inventing Anna” and “Notes on Love.” The company has also expanded beyond television with the website Shondaland.com, part of the Hearst Digital Networks, and Shondaland Audio, part of the iHeartPodcast Network.
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For more information about this and other initiatives and how to submit/participate, please visit www.seriesfest.com.
SeriesFest: Season 7 will take place from June 24–July 11, 2021 with a robust package of live and virtual events, new competitions and much more. Submissions are now open for all pilot competitions.
