Zoë Hartman works as a Production Accessibility Coordinator for Elle Jones Casting. The company was founded by her mother, Elle Jones Hartman. Zoë started her career by moving to Boston to attend college and pursue acting but soon turned her focus from acting to being a Production Assistant to becoming an Assistant Director working in New York and Boston. During this time, Zoë began to lose most of her vision and paused to focus on her health, but this did not deter her from pursuing her dreams of working in the film industry again. Elle Jones Casting was created partly to cast actors with disabilities and provide the needed accommodations. Since then, Zoë has been a Production Accessibility Coordinator for many projects, such as “The Runner,” which was part of ReelAbilities Film Festival LA 2022, The Black Skirts’ visual album “Teen Troubles in Dirty Jersey,” and is currently working on two feature films – one on the West Coast and the other Milwaukee based. Outside of film, Zoë has been an accessibility consultant on a PR campaign with the Miami Lighthouse and for the Retail Action Project and their certificate program.
Zoe is also an actor, stage manager, and comedian. As an actor, her favorite part was touring with Emerson Theater Collaborative, as the lead role of Melanie in Melanie Greenhouse’s autobiographical play “Chestina Vanessa Poulson.” More recently, she has trained with Jennifer Esposito and Susan Batson Studios. Zoë has stage managed with Emerson Theater Collaborative as well. As a comedian, she has performed stand-up at Gotham Comedy Club and other comedy clubs in Manhattan. She also enjoys writing and is working on a script about her story.
TapWaterz, the paraplegic hip-hop artist, has become a beacon of hope for those who face adversity, using his music to speak out against social injustices and inspire people to never give up. With an impressive resume that includes speaking at the White House, performing at the United Nations, and collaborating with icons such as Snoop Dogg and Stevie Wonder, TapWaterz has solidified himself as a force to be reckoned with in the music industry. Despite facing a life-altering tragedy as a teenager, when he was accidentally shot and left paralyzed, TapWaterz refused to let his setbacks define him. He co-founded the 4 Wheel City movement, aimed at creating more opportunities for people with disabilities and combating gun violence among youth.
TapWaterz’s dedication to making a difference in the world, has led him to speak on the first-ever Recording Academy panel on accessibility “Music Purpose and Community,” attend the first Disability Listening session with Grammy Leadership, and become a founding member of RAMPD (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities), the leading organization for accessibility and disability inclusion in the music industry.
Lauren Sowa is a New York-based actor and filmmaker.
As an actor, she has been featured on FBI (CBS), The Plot Against America (HBO), The Rainbow Experiment (Paramount+), and The Devil’s Well (Amazon Prime). Upcoming: The indie feature Paris is in Harlem (Slamdance ’22).
Training: BFA, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Proud member of BAFTA, The Television Academy, Actor’s Equity and SAG-AFTRA.
She is the co-founder of Form & Pressure Films, a production company dedicated to diversity and equality on set and on screen. Their first film, Marisol, won the 2019 HuffPost Impact Award and was licensed by HBO. Other films she’s produced can be seen on DUST, Tubi, Amazon Prime, Omeleto, and at film festivals all over the world. Select festival credits include: Slamdance, NEWFEST, Nitehawk Shorts Festival, San Diego Latino Film Festival, Soho International Film Festival, Immigration Film Festival, and Cinequest. She is also the co-president of PANO, a non-profit dedicated to women, non-binary, and gender non-conforming filmmakers and serves on the board of NYC Makes PPE.
Jerron Herman is a dancer and writer who is compelled to create images of freedom. His process is supported by personal histories and social legacies of disability aesthetics that undermine notions of production in favor of welcoming. The nuanced pieces Jerron exhibits contend with an early childhood desire to create many worlds in which others inhabit.
In addition to his award-winning works in 2019, Jerron’s pieces include PHYS ED (2018) which premiered at Gibney Dance Center following in-progress showings at Marlboro College and Snug Harbor. a Rest, a multimedia P.E. simulation involving looped video of the dance and an adjoining choreo-map, exhibited at the Dedalus Foundation in ABS’ Art & Disability Cohort’s show, Means of Egress, curated by Lisa Dent. Untitled Red (2019), was a cyclical movement response to Constantina Zavitsanos’ first solo show, L&D Motel, at Participant, Inc.
Jerron has served on the Board of Trustees at Dance/USA since 2017, most recently as Vice Chair. He’s been a Selection Committee member for the NY Performing Arts “Bessie’s” Awards and also served on panels for NYSCA, Dance/NYC, The Lark, Eyebeam, and Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. As a curator, Jerron facilitated the series Access Check 2.0: Mapping Accessibility for the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation. In 2021 he developed a speaking series for the Joyce Theater called Discourse: Disabled Artists at the Joyce, bringing together NYC-based disabled artists to showcase their work across three distinct conversations. In addition, his writings on arts and culture have been published in the US and internationally and his play, 3 Bodies, appears in Theater Magazine’s May/June 2022 issue. Read more
As Founder and Creator of The MS Stage and The MS Stage Method, Megan Evans has been living well with Multiple Sclerosis for over 19 years. After noticing a gap in the support community around MS, Evans created mindfulness practices through meditation, movement, and sharing stories that helped her on her healing journey and have now been proven to help others shift their mindsets around theirs. As an empowerment coach, Evans helps women around the world with MS become friends with their symptoms.
ASD Band, featuring four talented performers on the autism spectrum, was formed in 2019. The band debuted in grand style, playing alongside Roger Hodgson and a 43-piece orchestra for a performance of ‘Give A Little Bit.’ After recording cover songs including the Imagine Dragons ‘Follow You’ which the Dragons’ drummer called “such a great and inspiring performance,” ASD Band composed and arranged their first EP, ‘Fireflies’. Released in late 2021, the process of creating the album was captured in the feature-length documentary, “OKAY!”, which was awarded a prestigious Audience Award at the Hot Docs International Film Festival, won best Canadian feature film at Montreal’s FIFA Film Festival, and has played at film festivals around the world. ASD Band was featured at Canada’s largest outdoor festival, the Canadian National Exhibition, in 2022 and has recently been invited to play this summer’s event as well. In late 2022, they were invited to open Hayden’s ‘Dream Serenade’ benefit concert at Massey Hall for which they received a standing ovation. And most recently, ASD Band has been chosen to be on ‘Canada’s Got Talent.’
Andrew Simon is an award-winning writer, producer and creator who first made his mark on the Canadian documentary scene in 2017 with ‘Rivolta’, a Hot Docs featured short that told the story of Canada’s most notorious hacker, Michael ‘MafiaBoy’ Calce. From there, he went on to bring the story of Teodora del Carmen Vasquez to the screen, an El Salvadorian who spent over 10 years in prison after suffering a still birth in her ninth month of pregnancy. ‘Mothers of’, an examination of El Salvador’s hyper-strict abortion regulations, debuted at Hot Docs in 2019 and went on to win Best Short Documentary at the Annual Copenhagen Film Festival as well as SIMA Best Documentary. Andrew has been featured on CBC’s ‘The National’, ‘Metro Morning’, ‘Q’, CBC News, Global TV’s National News, TVO’s ‘The Agenda with Steve Paikin’, and has been profiled by both The Globe & Mail and the Toronto Star. He is also the host of ‘In Conversation with…’, a monthly Zoom series that profiles creative leaders from around the world.
Mark Bone is a passionate, award winning, documentary director based in Toronto, Canada. He has directed numerous documentaries, including ‘58 HOURS,’ which chronicles the heroic rescue of Jessica McClure the fallout from that event; ‘Rescate,’ which chronicles the heroics of volunteer paramedics in the Dominican Republic; ‘No Country is an Island,’ a first-hand look at the tragic Easter Bombings in Sri Lanka; and ‘Battleground’ which was awarded a Vimeo Staff Pick Premiere. His work focuses on characters in the midst of conflict or crisis, capturing their story with a dynamic cinematic verité style.
Julia Bruzzese is a 19 year old freshman college student in Brooklyn, New York. Ever since becoming severely ill with Lyme Disease in 2015, Julia has been advocating for patient rights. Julia’s primary focus is helping other patients and families find the right resources on their journey to wellness. Julia is also the main subject in a feature-length documentary about Lyme Disease, “The Quiet Epidemic”. Julia plans to pursue studies in biology on pre-med track.
Enrico Bruzzese is a father, husband, Respiratory Therapist, and a Cardiac Diagnostic Specialist from Brooklyn, NY. He is currently a caregiver for his daughter Julia, as well as a Lyme Disease patient advocate. He is featured alongside his daughter and family in a feature-length documentary about Lyme Disease, “The Quiet Epidemic”.
