SEPTEMBER 17-23, 2024
#SOHO15 #SIFFNYC
CARLOS E. HERNANDEZ
Talent Manager & Founder
IKIGAI Management
MARCI PHILLIPS
Executive Director of Casting
ABC TV Network & Disney+
DARYN SIMONS
Producer / Talent Agent
Cohesive Entertainment Group
CADY MCCLAIN
Actor / Director
VICTORIA CORDOVA
Writer / Producer l Director l Comedienne
2021 MEMBERS OF THE JURY
ERNABEL DEMILLO
Broadcaster l Journalism Professor
FABIO GOLOMBEK
Producer l Director
F.J.Productions, Inc
CHRIS KIELY
Talent Manager/Producer
Authentic Talent & Literary Management
#SOHO12 MEMBERS OF THE JURY - BIOS
MARCI PHILLIPS is the head of the New York office covering the entire East Coast talent pool for ABC Television Network and Disney+. For over twenty years she has cast for ABC and ABC Studio pilots, new series regulars, alternative series, recurring roles and numerous guest star roles. She previously worked as a Casting Assistant for Steven Bochco Productions and MGM Studios, and cast the independent film “Let It Snow”, which was featured at the Sundance Film Festival. She has also co-produced two off-off Broadway plays and is the author of the book “The Present Actor - A Practical and Spiritual Guideline to Help You Enjoy the Ride”.
FABIO GOLOMBEK is a veteran producer and director with over 30 years experience in the entertainment industry. As president of F.J.Productions, Inc. since 2002, he has created and supervised a number of shows including: The Hollywood News Report (HBO), 5 Looks (Discovery), TNT Buzz (TNT), Hollywood News 3D (SKY-Italy, Orange-France), APH and Sonywood News (Sony), Hollywood Uncut (Syndicated), Planeta Brasil (Globo TV), Less is More (Discovery) and many more. His films have participated and received awards in most major film and TV festivals: A Dangerous Place (2020), In Vino (2019), Saving Flora (2018), In Vino (2019), Abe (2018), Experimenter (2015), Breaking Through (2016), Like Sunday Like Rain (2014) to name a few. Fabio Golombek started his career as an assistant director at Bandeirantes TV Network in Brazil. He moved on to direct several documentaries including "The Making of Kiss of Spider Woman" (Babenco’s Academy Award winning film), "Morocco, A New Africa" and "80 Years of Japanese Immigration" (Winner of The Japan Foundation Award) among others. Fabio is a member of the PGA, NALIP and IDA.
ERNABEL DEMILLO is a veteran and Emmy-award winning New York City broadcaster and journalism educator. For 10 years, she worked as a reporter and anchor on the Emmy-award winning FOX morning news show, “Good Day New York.” Before coming to New York, she was a reporter for the Orange County News channel and the CBS-affiliate in Sacramento. She currently hosts and reports for CUNY-TV’s 7-time Emmy-nominated program “Asian American Life” http://www.cuny.tv/show/asianamericanlife, a magazine-style show focusing on the tri-state’s Asian American community. She is an award-winning journalist, cited by the Governor of New York for her service and contributions to the Asian American Community and was honored with a Folio Award for Best Environmental Reporting. She also made Buzzfeed’s list of 34 Epic Filipinos in the United States. Along, with her work as a journalist, Ernabel managed to find success in a second career. She is a tenured Journalism professor at Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City, N.J. and is faculty chair of the Department of Communication and Media Culture. Ernabel is active in the Asian American community. She has served on the boards of several organizations including: Vice President of Broadcast for AAJA, board member for Apex for Youth, an AAPI mentoring organization and board member for the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF). She currently serves on the board of Advancement for Rural Kids (ARK), a non-profit helping build schools and empowering communities in developing countries. Ernabel grew up in San Francisco and now calls herself a Jersey girl. She lives on the Jersey Shore with her husband, John Muller, an anchor for PIX11News and their 17-year-old daughter, and rescue dog, Stella. Follower her on Twitter @ErnabelD
CADY MCCLAIN - A Three-time Emmy© Award winning actress and fierce advocate for the female voice in film and television, Cady McClain's award-winning feature documentary, Seeing is Believing: Women Direct, won multiple festival awards including the Audience Award at the SOHO FF, Best Doc at the Ridgewood International FF, and Best Documentary Pro Action at the Artemis FF. The film opened theatrically for the Oscar-Winning film Nomadland (directed by Chloe Zhou) at the ArenaCinelounge in Los Angeles. Distributed by Collective Eye, it can now be seen on PBS stations and Kanopy. McClain received the International Matrix Award from the Association of Women in Communications for her work related to the film and has two Emmy© nominations for her work on the team directing the LGBTQ series Venice the Series. Her short doc on foster girls struggling with addiction, Burnt Feathers, Broken Wings, won Best Social Justice Film at the Santa Fe Film Festival and Best Documentary Short at the Mystic Film Festival and can now be seen on IndieFlix. She is proud to have produced Angie: Lost Girls - a narrative film on child sex trafficking directed by Julia Verdin, which won Best Social Justice Film at Raindance 2021. She is currently attached to direct the feature film Paint Made Flesh - with the adapted screenplay written by McClain and playwright Howard Meyer earning a place as a quarterfinalist at the BlueCat Screenplay competition. McClain is currently an Ambassador for The Chimaera Project and a Creative Partner for the US Coalition on Sustainability.
CARLOS E. HERNADEZ - is the founder of talent and literary management firm, IKIGAI Management. Since his very first internship at HBO at age 16, Carlos has sought to elevate underrepresented voices in mainstream media.A first-generation Salvadoran-Angeleno, Carlos graduated from the University of Southern California (USC), where he studied Music Industry, Organizational Leadership & Management, and Communications on a full scholarship. He went on to study in Japan and the U.K, and worked at notable places like: AEG Live/Goldenvoice, Paradigm, HBO, and Creative Artists Agency where he spent several years working in the motion picture talent department. He then transitioned into management under the tutelage of Aleen Keshishian at Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Lighthouse Management & Media. His company, IKIGAI, brings an unparalleled pedigree in the industry and combines it with the passion to bring authentic and inclusive representation to the cultural landscape of Hollywood and beyond. Carlos is a current board member of Film2Future, a former board member of The Hollywood Radio & Television Society (HRTS) Associates branch, and an advisor to organizations such as the Smithsonian Latino Center and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. He is based in Los Angeles where he resides with his wife, Jazmín.
DARYN SIMONS - Daryn is a Producer, Talent Manager, Digital Strategist, Entrepreneur and past President of the Talent Managers Association. Daryn won The Heller Award for Talent Manager of the Year in 2015 and has produced the past three Heller Awards with Sharon Stone, Joan Rivers, Betty White and William Shatner. Prior to working in Management, she worked in development and production at Paramount Studios, Sony and Fox. Daryn recently produced Nelson Bixby Takes On The Whole Wide World for Disney, Locating Silver Lake with Finn Wittrock & Josh Peck and The Debt Collector, with Tony Todd, Louis Mandylor & Scott Adkins for Sony/Netflix. Daryn has also had the opportunity to cast features and a digital project and is prepping for the upcoming FnD Podcast. CEG is currently developing a major slate of film, television and digital projects. TMA MANAGER OF THE YEAR 2015
CHRIS KIELY - Chris Kiely joined Authentic Talent and Literary Management in 2012 after a 13-year career as a model agent at IMG and Marilyn Agency where he worked with the clients like Gisele Bündchen, Heidi Klum and Brooklyn Decker. It was when Decker began acting full time that he gained insight into the world of talent management and decided it better suited his skill set and interests. Merging these two worlds has helped him build a unique and cutting-edge roster of talent which includes Barbie Ferreira and Asia Kate Dillon, with whom he is producing several projects. His passion lies in development and helping emerging talent and creators find their voice.
VICTORIA CORDOVA is an international award winning writer, producer, director, and comedienne. She is known for Semi-Pro with Will Ferrell, What Just Happened with Robert De Niro, & family film Moo Moo & The Three Witches. Her films have screened at Sundance, Cannes, Broad Humor Film Festival, & LA International Shorts Festival. Other projects include over a dozen films she wrote, directed, & produced that were distributed from 2007-2019 on funnyordie.com. Currently, in development on international co-productions & US projects she is writing & producing.