Daisy Friedman is a writer and director based out of New York City. Daisy uses her experiences as a multi-organ transplant recipient to create stories about underrepresented communities with a focus on disability and chronic illness. Her short film, As You Are (2023), has screened at various prestigious film festivals such as Frameline, Outfest, and The National Film Festival For Talented Youth and other festivals internationally. She received the 2023 Colin Higgins Youth Foundation Grant. Daisy has worked in production offices at FilmNation (Promising Young Woman, The Imitation Game) and Saturday Night Live. Daisy is a rising senior at Barnard College of Columbia University majoring in Film Studies.

Dr. Beth Bienvenu is the Accessibility Director at the National Endowment for the Arts, where she manages the NEA’s technical assistance and advocacy work devoted to making the arts accessible for people with disabilities, older adults, veterans, and people in institutional settings. She provides guidance and support to state arts agency staff and professionals working the fields of arts access, creativity and aging, arts and health, universal design, and arts in corrections. Prior to her work at the NEA, she worked as a Policy Advisor for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), where she analyzed public and private sector policies and practices related to the employment for people with disabilities. She also served as an adjunct professor for George Mason University’s Master of Arts in Arts Management program, where she taught courses in arts policy and comparative international arts policy, and she has a background in performing arts management. Prior to coming to Washington DC, she worked in public relations for classical and folk musicians, managed a youth chorus, and served as assistant director for the Bloomington Early Music Festival in Bloomington, IN. Dr. Bienvenu received her bachelor’s degree in sociology and music from Alma College, master’s degrees in sociology and arts administration from Indiana University, and her Ph.D. in organizational leadership from the University of Oklahoma. In addition to her arts policy work, she is a percussionist and she sings of both classical choral and eastern European folk music.

Andrew Reid is a disabled Afro-Caribbean storyteller who tells stories grounded in drama but not bound by genre. He is the recipient of the African American DGA Student Award and is an MFA graduate from the USC School of Cinematic Arts. He was recently nominated at the NAACP Image Awards, HBOMax Latino Short Film Competition and Best of NewFilmmakers LA. His award-winning projects have screened at over 70 film festivals worldwide. Reid’s recent accolades include being selected for the SFFilm Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities Grant, the Spinal Cord Injury Artist Innovator Fund, Inevitable Foundation Elevate Collective and the Arts Council of Long Beach Creative Corps. Furthermore, he has been selected as a finalist for the NBCU Launch TV Directors Program and has previously participated in the Paramount ViewFinder Emerging TV Directors Program. He is currently engaged in the development of feature films, episodic content, and commercial projects, all of which have garnered support from several institutions including the Tribeca Film Institute, Film Independent, The Gotham, and the Sloan Foundation. Reid was also selected as a directing fellow for Film Independent’s Project Involve and was a semi-finalist for the Student Academy Awards. You can learn more at www.ReidtheStory.com

Lauren Appelbaum is the SVP, Entertainment & News Media, at RespectAbility, a diverse, disability-led nonprofit that works to create systemic change in how society views and values people with disabilities, and advances policies and practices that empower disabled people to have a better future. As an individual with an acquired nonapparent disability – Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy – she works at the intersection of disability, employment, and the entertainment industry. A big part of Appelbaum’s work is to increase hiring initiatives of people with disabilities behind the camera and to enrich the pool of disabled talent in Hollywood by connecting them to those who can assist with their careers, both on the creative and business sides of the industry. She is a founder of RespectAbility’s Entertainment Lab and Children’s Content Lab, with goals of building the disability community within the industry and connecting Lab Fellows to opportunities. A recipient of the 2020 Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award, Appelbaum partners with major studios and serves on a variety of industry councils. This work helps increase diverse and authentic representation of disabled people on screen, effecting systemic change in how society views and values disabled individuals.

Marilee Talkington is a professional theater, television, film, voice-over, commercial, print, and motion-capture actor. She recently made history again as Morgan Le Fey in Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of Camelot on Broadway. (She is the first self-identified legally blind actress to be cast in a principal role on Broadway). Her acting career has spanned over 25 years, during which time she has created and performed over 100 characters for Tony Award winning theaters in NYC and Regionally, and has been seen on Apple TV+’s SEE and Extrapolations; CBS’s NCIS & Law & Order; NBC’s FBI Most Wanted just to name a few. She will be seen on the big screen in Miramax’s The Home in 2024. Marilee is also the founder and Artistic Director of AC3 (Access Acting Academy) which is the world’s first professional acting studio for blind and low vision performers. Along with master collaborators she innovated new actor training techniques that remove the visual bias from traditional training and has since been a leading voice in the movement for evolved training and education of blind/low vision performing artists across genres. Marilee was also the founder and Artistic Director of two theater companies where she wrote, directed, video designed, choreographed, fight directed, and produced new experimental theatrical works, including 360 degree sound plays. She has written 7 full-length plays which have premiered in the U.S. and internationally, including her solo show, TRUCE, in which she played 18 characters. It ran across the United States and in the UK on BBC Radio 4. Marilee is the voice of the Guggenheim Museum’s award winning Mind’s Eye Visual Description program, which has had her describing seminal art works in the Guggenheim museums in NYC, Italy, and Spain. She was recently named as the 2024 AFB Helen Keller Achievement Awardee. And is also the recipient of NFB’s 2020 Dr. Jacob Bolotin award. Other awards and fellowships include the California Center for Cultural Innovation Grant for her innovative visceral stage design, a MacDowell Fellow for playwriting, Park Ave Armory’s 100 Women 100 Artists distinction, The American Conservatory Theater’s Carol Channing Trouper Award for excellent and dedication in the theatrical craft. She is currently on the National SAG/AFTRA board of Performers with Disabilities, was a member of the New York SAG/AFTRA board for Performers with Disabilities, a founding member of the Queens Theater Theatre for All program for actors with disabilities, was a founding member of ArtsNYC disability advisory board, and has been an expert presenter and keynote speaker for hundreds of panels, workshops, conferences and podcasts talking about the critical nature of wholeness, inclusion, equity, and authentic representation in story-telling and the arts. She was the keynote speaker in Amazon’s inaugural Accessibility conference and recently presented at CUSP (Columbia’s Distinguished Speaker Series) You can follow her on Instagram: @anartistwarrior

Brittany Franklin, the socially conscious creative behind award-winning content and powerful photography, reshapes narratives to champion equity for disabled women in film. Brittany founded the global initiative Minorities in Film (MiFILM), revolutionizing inclusion strategies and increasing visibility for BIPOC and disabled filmmakers. Born Hearing and now proudly Hard of Hearing, her advocacy, celebrated by leaders in the industry, embodies a profound commitment to land, culture, and wellness within marginalized communities. As a recipient of prestigious grants and fellowships, including the One Show Gold Pencil, Sundance Uprising Grant, and Carl Zydney Grant for Artists with Disabilities, Brittany’s impactful storytelling resonates where they matter within film, theatre, and immersive experiences. Beyond the lens, she finds joy in anime, science, travel, and baking the perfect loaf of banana bread.

Adam Linn is an a New York based writer/performer. His work has appeared in the New York Times and on NPR. His Moth Radio Hour story, “Dinner with Wonder Woman,” has over a million downloads. In “Sped Kid”, a heartfelt coming of age story, Adam takes us on a personal journey in a music-filled short bus ride through the gritty streets of 1984 Boston.

Jenna is a NYC based actor and disability rights advocate that has appeared in theatre productions across the country from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to The Public. She is currently performing in Suffs on Broadway. In addition to her work as an actor, she is the co-founder of ConsultAbility, a consulting firm that works with theatres to make the theatre industry more accessible for artists and audiences with disabilities. Since their founding in 2023 they have worked with Actors Equity Association, USITT, The New Group, and Rutgers University among others.

Ken Trush is a Co-Founder and the Managing Director of Daniel’s Music Foundation (DMF). He works closely with the management team in the strategic development of their music programs and the marketing, development and operational areas of the Foundation. In 2020, Ken created the concept of The Danny Awards, an annual global award show that recognizes the talents of musicians with disabilities and celebrates differences. He also oversees DMF’s record label, Just Call Me By My Name®, distributed by The Orchard, diligently working to help to build a more equitable future for musicians with disabilities. Formerly, Ken was a partner at Spring Advisors, a M&A advisory firm and the CFO and EVP of Corporate Development at Agency.com one of the first digital agencies in the 90’s that grew to 1,700 employees in 14 locations in 6 years (1995-2000).