SeriesFest Season: 7 Award Winners!

Chidinma Agbo is currently a senior at Stanford University studying Product Design and Film & Media Studies. As a first-generation Nigerian American raised in Los Angeles, Chidi’s close proximity to both Nollywood and Hollywood led her to fall in love with the world of entertainment. She’s eager to launch a career in TV development and work toward bringing underrepresented voices to the forefront.

Chidi is currently serving as a Development Intern at Trevor Noah’s Day Zero Productions and has previously worked at HBO, Annapurna Pictures, and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.

Dajae Gilliard is a writer, researcher, and educator from the Bronx, NY. She is fostering an executive-level career in television to advocate for diversity in youth media. Her research findings on advancing the positive messaging and representation for Black children in the media were presented at the National Council of Black Studies in a study titled “‘All These Kids White!’: A Media Analysis of Early Childhood Media”. This analysis would later serve as her Master’s thesis.

Dajae spent multiple years instructing Pre-K through high school grade students. These experiences influence her desire to create and support stories that center the joy, creativity, and everyday challenges of Black youth. Dajae has also worked with WonderWhy Consulting, the Children’s Media Association, and multiple education non-profits. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English from Spelman College and a Master of Arts (MA) in African-American Studies from Temple University.

As a mentee with SeriesFest, Dajae intends to enhance her knowledge of the entertainment industry. She looks forward to collaborating with other creatives who have a similar desire to enrich the entertainment industry with novel, authentic narratives.

Driadonna Roland is a recovering journalist and independent producer from Detroit who has navigated over a decade in the media industry. After being named Florida A&M University’s first-ever Journalist of the Year, she cut her teeth as a newspaper reporter before transitioning to digital media. 

As a staffer with outlets including BuzzFeed, REVOLT, and Complex, she wrote and produced viral content that ensured representation for creatives of color across music, film, and television. Then she became more determined than ever to create film and TV projects herself! Driadonna moved to LA on a mission to produce and develop soulful content that represents People of Color and reverberates beyond, and she looks forward to learning how to navigate the industry and create a legacy that has a great cultural impact from her Executive Elevation mentor. 

Salonica Hunter is a storyteller who enjoys working alongside talented artists in order to create meaningful, original content. She has a graduate-level education and on-set production experience. She recently completed two entertainment internships and is actively working towards her goal of becoming an innovator in the film and television industry. 

Tracy Ip is a self-proclaimed enthusiast. She is a producer and director at Levant Blanc, a production company that specializes in creating visual content that is a cross-fertilization of various philosophies and mediums. Her background in marketing, in combination with her filmmaking experience, has led her to work internationally in France, Germany, Hong Kong, Western Sahara, and Turkey. Her most recent clients have included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce, Destination Think!, and Visionary Women.

LeLe Park was adopted as a toddler from a village orphanage in South Korea and raised in Michigan suburbia.  A fish out of water, she found the family television to be a teacher of culture and English, not to mention inspiring.  She went on to train in film/video at Columbia College Chicago and now writes features and television.  Her original drama series pilot The Bliss Killer, short screenplay ACHE, and feature script Visceral Fatherland have all proven competitive winning/placing in dozens of competitions.  Additionally, she was pitch choice at Coverfly, staff pick at ScriptD, a guest speaker at Bucknell University, and moderated Coverfly’s Career Lab.  She currently is finishing her next feature, Nunca.   When she’s not screenwriting she is a mother to two tiny humans and an active advocate for refugee children.  She is represented by VERVE Talent & Literary Agency.   

Erich C. Smith has been a talent agent for over a decade. Smith ran the talent department at a boutique agency where he became known for identifying amazing comedic talent as well as diverse character actors. Since being at TCA, Erich has continued the work he was known for while expanding his portfolio to include staffed writers, produced playwrights, and indie film directors. 

Erich C. Smith was born and raised in Detroit MI, currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and 2 children, and is an avid contributor to Breast Cancer Research.

As an EMMY- and WGA-nominated writer and actor, producer, showrunner, and moonlighting DJ, Diallo Riddle has proven to be one of the most creative and multi-faceted talents in the entertainment industry today. Riddle is perhaps best known to the public for playing the character “Stevie” on the hit Netflix comedy Marlon starring Marlon Wayans.

Riddle, with his creative partner Bashir Salahuddin, have launched two critically acclaimed series to television: Comedy Central’s South Side and AMC/IFC’s Sherman’s Showcase. Both instantly hit 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, a rare feat for two series premiering within one week of each other. 

Created, written, and starring Riddle and Salahuddin, South Side follows a rent to own business on the south side of Chicago. Shot on location in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, the series gives an authentic look into what life on the South Side is all about. The series has been picked up for a forthcoming Season 2.

Samantha Militante is a director of current series at FX Networks where she works on comedy, drama, and docuseries across all of FX Networks (FX, FXX, FX On Hulu). Currently, she is overseeing Atlanta, What We Do in the Shadows, Snowfall, Mayans, & the upcoming new series Reservation Dogs. In addition, she helped develop & launch the initial FX docuseries slate, including shows like Hip Hop Uncovered, The Most Dangerous Animal of All, & Hysterical. Before joining FX, Samantha began her career in the mailroom at Gersh and went on to work for multiple agents within the motion picture literary department. 

Samantha was born and raised in Buena Park, CA, and currently resides in Los Angeles.  She graduated from Chapman University in 2014 where she majored in TV Writing & Producing as well as Public Relations & Advertising. She is a proud member of Times Up A+, an organization dedicated to fostering community among AAPI woman working in entertainment. 

Aaliyah Williams – Producer and Founder, Just A Rebel

Peabody Award nominated producer Aaliyah Williams is the founder of JUST A REBEL, a television and film production company that focuses on contemporary stories that center and celebrate Black women. Its initial projects include the one hour drama adaptation of Marita Golden’s acclaimed novel, The Wide Circumference of Love, Kimberly Nicole Walker’s dark comedy Tight that is set up at Freeform with Regina Hall attached as an EP alongside Williams, and Kimberly’s feature film The Last Class to be directed by Tiffany Johnson with Marsai Martin attached to star.  Williams is also an Executive Producer of Erika Johnson’s one hour drama The Bottoms alongside Jason Bateman’s Aggregate Films. Just A Rebel’s first look deal with CBS Television Studios has been renewed for a second year where it has a few projects set up including the half hour HBCU dramedy, Homegoing, created by Bryce Ahart and Stephanie MacFarlane and co-produced with Wilmer Valderama Entertainment. Previously, Williams ran The Digital Studio at MACRO, where she developed and produced Gentefied which was acquired by and adapted as a half hour for Netflix. Williams is an Executive Producer on the series which just wrapped production on Season 2 and received a Peabody Award nomination for Season 1. She also serves as Executive Producer on Juel Taylor and Tony Rettenmaier’s half hour series Birth of Cool for which she produced the proof of concept that led to its sale to BET+.  As CCO she co-created the MACRO Episodic Lab with the Black List’s Franklin Leonard.  Additionally, she developed and produced 2018 Sundance selection LEIMERT PARK which is currently streaming on BET+ and the upcoming film Really Love starring Kofi Siriboe, Uzo Aduba, Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing, and Michael Ealy that won a Special Jury Recognition for Acting at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival. Originally from Arkansas and Oklahoma, Williams graduated from Harvard and is a Film Independent Project: Involve, Sundance (3 times) and active Ron Brown Scholar alumna.

Eric D. Upshur offers more than a decade of accomplishment-laden experience in the finance industry. Driving achievement of the highest priority sales growth, brand development, product launches, market share and operations efficiency goals. He is a high caliber sales professional, with a background, which exemplifies a successful track record of career accomplishments, which encompasses positions as an Executive Vice President, Senior Vice President, National Product Manager and a Division Sales Manager. Eric managed over 350 employees citywide for more than seven years, right up until the collapse of the Economy. Prior to banking, he worked in the family Farmers insurance business, where high- level directors and producers grew into his primary clients. These relationships rekindled his passion for the entertainment industry, which led to his ascent into producing. As a result of his path intersected with Martin Lawrence, actor/ producer, he joined the executive producing team to develop and executive produced one of his cable television comedies Love That Girl, TV One’s first number one comedy. He is an active member of the Producer’s Guild of America. Eric has been responsible for all levels of executive producing for independent production companies. He brings a proven track record of financial packaging, deal structuring and team management experience from the banking industry. His fierce competitive spirit keeps him current with financial resources and networking, distribution models, the assessment of project profitability, securing talent and brand integration for optimum project marketability and keeping a keen understanding of budgetary goals. His profound ability to move projects from concept to completion has been a key component in his long-term success.