ONLINE EVENT | November 11th, 2021, 7pm PST
Diverse Storytellers: Finding Your Voice
& the Future of Story
ALL ENTRANTS
Join us for this lively and informative webinar with our guests as they discuss their careers, challenges, creating diverse stories and navigating a changing industry.
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Register for our live online event November 11th to hear from Cate Carson, Hilliard Guess and Cara Jade Myers as they discuss the importance of developing your unique voice and brand to help you break in or to break back in. Additionally, our guests will share their thoughts on how to create and sustain momentum by finding resources online, attending fellowships, and producing your own work while navigating a rapidly changing industry. Bring your questions for the Q&A.
CATE CARSON
Director/Writer
Cate is a former detective and military intelligence globetrotter turned writer/director with award-winning feature screenplays and short films, including the national wildcard-winning Lionsgate short "Masque,” which also earned her a directing award at the Crystal & Lucy’s and had over 3 million views. As a director selectee for the Alliance of Women Directors Short Film Program grant, “Of Mine” premiered at Disney Studios in 2018.
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Her latest film, "The Plumber" is a grand jury award and several best of fests winner and is screening at Oscar qualifying fests this year. Also in 2021, she was selected as 1 of 9 fellows in the “Future Directors of Studio Features Initiative” by Blackmagic Collective.
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Previously, she served ten years as a decorated military police officer and instructor, and transitioned to Intelligence during Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom, with an additional six years spent as a civilian detective. This "spectrum of humanity" experience with everyone from villain to hero helped shape her passion for storytelling. Her specialty is adventure/suspense, and genre narrative films- often with humor, heart, and bold and atmospheric visuals. She has also traveled to thirteen countries and has a great respect and appreciation for culture and nature.
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Together with her disabled, Chilean-American producing partner, Cate is in development of several features and they are actively seeking collaborations with established producers.
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IG and Twitter @catecarson
HILLIARD GUESS
Writer/Producer
Born in Detroit, raised in the ‘hood near San Francisco, youngest of five in a family pegged “The Cosby Show in the Ghetto.” Hilliard’s a fun, 80s style MOD/Afro Punk with a knack for writing underdog/ redemption stories in the bio, music, horror or murder-death-kill world.
His knowledge of the craft and instinct for unique, flawed characters have won him attention or awards at Sundance, Nicholls Fellowship, Scriptapalooza, The PAGE Awards and NEXTV, to list a few.
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Hilliard was recently staffed on the Russo Bros action SYFY series DEADLY CLASS and is an EP on the new rotating genres Digital Series TICKER. He keeps the lights on as an “assignment writer” and is busy developing TV & Film projects for some of the top producers in town. He serves on the following WGAW Committees: Co-Chair - Committee of Black Writers (w/Michelle Amor & Bianca Samms), Co-Chair - The Education Committee (w/Showrunner Jeff Melvoin) and he’s also a member of the LGBTQ+, Latinx and Genre Committees.
You can also find Hilliard on the cover and featured in the popular iTunes book “THE TOP 100 INDIE WRITERS IN THE WORLD.” Through his company Hilldog Productions, he produces TV Pilots, Films, POC’s, Shorts, Web Series and Music/Historical Documentaries.
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A partial list of Hilliard’s produced projects are: TICKER a dark anthology series, MERMAID an award- winning drama, DEADLY CLASS (SYFY) genre series, THE PROVIDERS a drama pilot, ARCHITECTS OF CRIME a sci-fi film, FULL CIRCLE - STORY OF THE NEW DIMENSIONS a 60s music/bio documentary, TAINTED a supernatural teen pilot, FAUX SHOW a comedy series (starring Tiffany Haddish & Kim Coles), MOUTHPIECE a comedy feature (starring Lamonica Garrett), THE UNWRITTEN RULES a hit comedy web series, BLACKOUT a horror film, TROUBLESOME a critically acclaimed drama and THE LAST GIRL an award-winning martial arts action film.
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Hilliard also interviews A-List writers at the WGAW Theater, 3rd & Fairfax Podcast and his very own “Hilliard Guess’ Screenwriter’s Rant Room.”
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Twitter: @ScreenwritersRR @HilliardGuess
CARA JADE MYERS
Writer/Actress
Cara Jade Myers is a Native American actor and writer who is an enrolled member of the Wichita tribe.
She was born on September 2nd in Phoenix, Arizona to Sharon Campbell (Wichita) and Bennett Hill (Kiowa). Her grandfather, Bobby Hill, was a well-known Native American artist who painted under the name White Buffalo and her great grandmother was an acclaimed bead crafter whose work has been displayed in the Smithsonian.
Raised in a turbulent household in Prescott Valley, she left home at the age of 17. She married her high school sweetheart, Josh Myers, at the age of 19. Cara began taking acting classes with a fiery passion, driving 2 hours to the class and 2 hours back, 3 times a week while living in Prescott Valley. She likes to say it prepared her for LA traffic.
In 2011, she and Josh headed to Hollywood where she got involved in acting classes and started writing. She was accepted into the 4th Annual Native American Writers Lab where she developed a TV pilot from pitch to 3rd draft. The same year, she was a semi-finalist in the ABC/Disney writers’ program. In early 2020, Cara was among 12 selected as part of A3 Artist Agency’s The Colony program, creating a TV pilot that is now in pre-production. She finished the year as a fellow of the Native American Feature Film Writers’ Lab.
Over the years, she’s acted in a variety of indie and short films. In 2019, she was cast in an episode of the Emmy-Award winning series, “This is Us." She recently wrapped her role as Anna Brown in Martin Scorsese’s upcoming film, "Killers of the Flower Moon."
Cara is actively involved in the Native American Media Alliance and dedicated to helping the Native American community overall. She enjoys helping others and while in acting class in LA, created CRASH Cares whose main focus is to create care packages for the homeless in Hollywood.
Cara is repped by Chris Roe Management. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Josh and their two pups.
​IG @cara.jade.myers
ERIN ENBERG
Host, Program Director - AIM
Writer/Director
Erin Enberg is a screenwriter/director from Maine (a spooky Stephen King town in the woods where "The Mist" takes place) and has worked in production on film and TV in New York City and Los Angeles for NBC, A&E, Travel Channel, TLC, HBO and more.
She also once traveled extensively throughout the U.S. in an old renovated city bus with nine other people for three months - while working on a Columbia University documentary about unique roadside attractions with cinematographer Chris Teague (Emmy-winner "Russian Doll"). Erin's short films have won various awards including several best shorts and audience awards, and her screenplays have garnered accolades including Second Rounder at Sundance, and finalist selections in the Final Draft Big Break Contest and Cinestory. Her most recent short, "The Getaway," is currently on the festival circuit.
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Erin volunteered for PEN America from 2016 - 2019 as a fundraising coordinator and was invited to teach a screenwriting workshop for the University of California Merced for their Collaboratorium: Create & Connect event in 2021. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast Program.
Most recently she worked at HBO in the Production Department and at HBO Max in Original Content, and currently works as Program Director for Age Inclusion in Media. This fall, Erin received a scholarship from Sundance to attend their nine-week Directing course.
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IG @erin.enberg
Twitter @ErinEnberg
Age Inclusion in Media - Twitter @ageinclusion