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Becky Bruhn is a Seattleite, born and raised. She graduated from Queen Anne High School, has a BA in Economics from Western Washington University, and an MBA from Seattle University. After a short career in banking, she became a writer, co-founded a small theater, co-founded and ran a playwrights’ support organization, and has been a non-profit fundraiser for a genetics research institute for 13 years. She has been a playwright at 14/48 Theater Festival many times, has read her work on stage at Annex Theater’s Spin-the-Bottle and other venues, was on the board of Rain City Projects for seven years, is a volunteer cat foster parent through Seattle Animal Shelter, and won the blue ribbon at the 2021 Washington State Fair sourdough bread competition. In 2021, she began a video series called A Year of Baking Dangerously and a YouTube channel where she continues to explore the power of video storytelling.

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Matthew Dresden is an entertainment attorney based in Seattle. He provides finance, development, production, and distribution legal services for filmmakers and other creative artists, and has worked on behalf of film studios, cable channels, production companies, video game developers, magazines, restaurants, wineries, international design firms, product manufacturers, outsourcing companies, and computer hardware and software companies. He also advises a wide range of businesses on their corporate and transactional matters, with an emphasis on media and entertainment, international intellectual property, and cross-border work. Matthew is widely viewed as an expert in Chinese intellectual property law, and is regularly quoted in publications from the New York Times to The Economist to Variety.

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Mujale has a background in graphic design, videography, photography, and publishing arts. Combined with 12 years of experience being a small business owner and 5+ years of teaching Art and Animation classes in the greater Seattle area. Being a visual artist/business owner/ teacher and having a desire for community building has given Mujale the opportunity to work with many organizations and community builders on various projects and services. He hopes to further develop his skill sets and inspire innovation and a creative way of thinking that positively impacts communities.⠀

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Lawrence Alexander III, known professionally as LexScope, is a filmmaker, content creator, and Seattle Film Commissioner. He is the founder and director of scope screenings, Seattle’s underground film festival dedicated to uplifting underrepresented voices in film. With over a decade of experience in film production, digital content, and event curation, Lex has collaborated with Converge Media, Alaska Airlines, and UNCF, among others. His work as a producer and videographer with Converge Media has been featured on FOX 13 Seattle and NPR, and his creative reach spans over 50 million views online. Lex continues to champion community-driven storytelling and create platforms that highlight diverse perspectives.

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John DeShazo is a woodworker, theatre and film technician, firefighter, and actor. He was the manager of the Little Theatre from 1999 to 2001 and joined the board of Film Forum in 2001. He has collaborated creatively on projects with Northwest Film Forum, Annex Theatre, Empty Space Theatre, Firehouse Theatre Project, Typing Explosion, The Film Company, Megan Murphy, Matt Wilkins, Web Crowell, Susannah Anderson, John Castro, Kyle Loven, Herbert Bergel, Harry Kollatz, Jr., Amie Oliver, Ampersand, Implied Violence, Michael Chick, John Kaufmann, SJ Chiro, Matt Smith, Paige Barnes, Allie Hankins, Mary Margaret Moore, Corrie Befort, Paul Budraitis, Carl Lawrence, and Saint Genet, among many others. He lives in Norfolk, CT, where he is Deputy Fire Marshal and is on the Board of Education and the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department. He directs the theatre program at NW Regional 7 High School and is the Fire Marshal in Salisbury, CT.

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Kathy Fennessy serves as Planned Giving Coordinator at Cascade PBS (formerly KCTS 9), where she has worked since 2009, primarily in the Philanthropy department. She grew up in Connecticut, California, and mostly, Alaska. She graduated with a degree in studio art from Whitman College, and has lived in Seattle since 1988.

Kathy is a former music director, disc jockey, and/or specialty host at KWHL in Anchorage, AK and KCMU (now KEXP) and KNDD in Seattle. She is a proud member of IBEW Local 46 and SAG-AFTRA, and provided voice work for Microsoft, a former employer, for nearly 10 years. She has also worked at Cellophane Square (R.I.P.), Nordstrom, and Amazon, and written about film and music for Minneapolis’s City Pages, Resonance, Seattle Sound, Tablet, and other long-extinct publications. She got her start in Seattle’s film community by volunteering for the Seattle International Film Festival and Northwest Film Forum, and is a longtime supporter of both organizations. She currently writes for Rock and Roll Globe, Video Librarian, and Seattle Film Blog. She is a Tomatometer-approved critic, and currently serves as President of the Seattle Film Critics Society.

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Emilie is an intellectual property attorney in Seattle with a focus on arts & entertainment law. She provides legal services and trademark and copyright counseling for artists and creators, as well as for production companies and studios. In addition to the arts and entertainment industries, Emilie provides legal services for clients in the aerospace, food and beverage, fashion, and cosmetic industries. Her trademark enforcement and prosecution work is both domestic and international. Before attending law school at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Emilie lived and taught English in Lyon, France on a post-graduate fellowship, and later worked as a Travel Advisor and Assistant Tour Guide for Rick Steves Europe, where she was lucky enough to lead groups on European adventures. Emilie is invested in promoting the arts and firmly believes that the arts can (and should!) be used to foster kinder, more creative, and stronger communities.

Emilie was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and spent much of her youth and early adulthood exploring the mountains of the southwest and mountain west. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, reading, watching movies, and going to the beach with her husband and dog.

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Louise Maxwell has been working in nonprofit communications for 16 years. She works as Director of Communications at Pacific Northwest Research Institute and has held various communications roles at Seattle Children’s, including overseeing video production for nine years.

Previously, Louise was a Los Angeles-based actor working in local and regional theatre, primetime television, independent films, and radio drama.

She earned a Master of Communication in Digital Media at the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting at Boston University.

Louise was born and raised in New York City and New Jersey and has made Seattle home for 20+ years.  In her spare time, she enjoys reading, traveling, adapting stories for different mediums, performing in radio dramas, attending theatre, Flamenco, and museums, and relaxing with her husband and their two cats.

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Angela Moorer is a writer and producer at Cascade PBS, where she develops multimedia content for digital and broadcast platforms. She serves as the host of Northwest Explorer, a travel and culture series highlighting stories across the Pacific Northwest, and lends her voice to a range of documentary and educational projects as a voiceover artist.

In addition to her role in public media, Angela is an independent filmmaker whose creative practice explores themes of identity, displacement, and justice. She holds a BA in Communications and Political Science from the University of Washington and is pursuing a Master of Arts in Visual Anthropology and Documentary Practices from the University of Münster. Her latest project examines the housing displacement of Black communities in Seattle’s Central District and South End.

Outside of her media work, Angela guides meditative sound and restorative yoga practices. She is also the lead vocalist for Ava Jade, a jazz and neo soul band known for reinterpreting classic and contemporary music.

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Alan Pruzan has been creating entertainment professionally in one form or another since the 1980s, as an artist, activist, and media arts enabler. He has served as a consultant, investor, and executive producer on many feature films, including THIN SKIN, THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF LITTLE DIZZLE, FRANK VS GOD, and the documentary SWEETHEART DEAL. He was a founder and principal of Forrest-Pruzan Creative, a prolific board game invention and design studio in Seattle. His company created and licensed hundreds of game titles over the years, including several multi-million selling titles. He retired from the toy industry after selling his company in 2019. He has served on the board of Northwest Film Forum since 2000.

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Peter J. Vogt is an award-winning filmmaker with over 30 years experience in the film industry. His work has premiered at festivals such as Sundance, New York Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, and Bumbershoot, as well as art centers such as the Center On Contemporary Art. His work regularly runs on regional and local PBS, and his 2004 Up Thornton Creek aired nationally. Highlights include: Hype! which premiered at Sundance and achieved worldwide theatrical release; Nuts&Bolts, winner of a special jury prize at the 2000 Seattle Film Festival and shortlisted for the prestigious AFI’s digital film award. Peter is part owner of Optimistic Camera.

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Austin grew up in the South, but he’s been part of the NW film community for over 20 years. His films frequently highlight the lives of artists and musicians, balancing compelling narratives with poetic visual detail. His short documentaries have premiered at SXSW, the Seattle Int’l Film Fest and others. Austin’s storytelling elevates the familiar to the extraordinary, revealing that how and why we work is as compelling as what we produce. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America, an alumni of the USC Cinematic Arts program and proud to have volunteered at the Northwest Film Forum back in the early 2000s.