Leila Jarman is an accomplished filmmaker and the creative director of Women’s Voices Now. She has been featured in outlets such as VICE, Afropunk, MTV, The Creator’s Project, and more. Her work focuses on the human body and dimensions of time, space, and reality. But at the center of everything, she focuses on women’s rights. Leila also is the current creative director of Women’s Voices Now, a nonprofit that advocates for women’s rights through film. Via an international online film festival, workshops, advocacy events, and the organization works to educate and support women, truly showing the power of arts intersecting with activism.

Sonejuhi Sinha is nothing short of remarkable. Her start in film took root in editing but soon moved to producing and directing. She’s won Gold Lions at Cannes as well as a number of awards at the Little Rock Film Festival, and the Minnesota Film Festival amongst others. For her next narrative short film, Love Comes Later, she was a recipient of Tribeca All Access development grant. She’s also finished Tribeca Film Institute’s Through Her Lens program where she was mentored by Dee Rees, Catherine Hardwicke, Rashida Jones among others. Sonejuhi truly shines as a filmmaker to watch and we’re excited to share her knowledge.

Theresa Gambacorta is an NYC based actress, writer, and director with “the Motherlode” currently in production. Centering around some of her own experiences as a mother, the web series is about the obstacles that come with being both a creator and a mother. Growth seems to be something that many perceive stops in your teens or 20s- however, through this cast of actresses 35+ plus we dive into the messy, tragic, hilarious, touching, and real life scenarios that have no age.

Tilane Jones holds many titles, each one more impressive as the list goes on. Director’s Assistant of the 2014’s blockbuster, Selma. Producer of Academy Award nominated documentary 13th. Executive director of ARRAY Now… and many say Ava Duvernay’s right hand. We spoke to Jones about ARRAY Now, how she feels about diverse media, and forging your own path.

Kat Lazo is Latina director, writer, and actress from Queens, NY with more than 1 million views on her YouTube channel, a residency as a YouTube partner, and bragging rights as the first East Coast video producer for “We Are Mitu” a digital only media company for Latinos. Her webseries with “We Are Mitu”, The Kat Call has garnered more than 4 million views in its first season. By harnessing the power of her identity and creating video content for a group television often ignores, Lazo has found a way to undermine the lack of diversity otherwise around her.

Or Die Trying is truly the answer to our binge watch dreams. We don’t know about you, but a series about women in film, by women in film, with WOC is our wildest dream. ODT answers that dream so much so that it’s been featured as IndieWire’s Project of the week and has been one of our first choices for an interview since before the The Light Leaks was born. We spoke to the creators of what’ll be the hottest series of the summer.

Breezy Granzow is a 24 year old filmmaker from Austin, Texas currently living in Brooklyn. She’s a video editor for Refinery29 and cofounder of production and arts company TEMPER. With her identity as queer female and millennial, she aims to focus her work in feminist, political/current events issues and advocating for representation.

Rosemary Rodriguez is a Film and Television Director originally from New Hampshire. Her first feature film Acts of Worship premiered at the Sundance film festival and was nominated for two Independant Spirit Awards. You’ve probably seen her television directing during your last binge watch session. With Jessica Jones, Empire, The Good Wife, Rescue Me, and so much more under her belt- she is absolutely #WorkWeAdmire. Rosemary also serves as the 4th VP of the Director’s Guild of America.

Breonna Rodriguez is a writer, designer, and filmmaker currently living on the Upper East Side. Her dynamic skills, outgoing personality, and determination have landed her in incredible places. Originally from NJ, Breonna is the lead digital designer for Sesame Street, Founder of Zenfulie, and Staff Writer at HERMag.com.

Louise Hutt is a 24 year old bisexual woman from New Zealand starting a deep conversation on disparity in the NZ film industry via her Master’s thesis. She is a multi talented photographer, graphic designer, and filmmaker who created “Online Heroines”, a webseries that encompasses her research, as a way to educate others on the struggle of marginalized voices in film and to inspire resistance to the status quo.

Lauren Tepfer is a 17 year old whose eye for photography has her at 16.4k followers and counting (which is, funny enough, actually double the population of her town). Her photography work, which focuses on themes of suburbia, nostalgia, and beautiful lighting, calls to mind feelings of isolation and simultaneous hope. With her work shown in exhibits across the country, the high school senior is now gearing up for graduation and her future.

Hannah Rimm is the 24 year old queer female artist and marketing coordinator/social media manager at GKids, a distribution company for animated films. Although an office of around 10 people, Gkids has amassed nine Best Animated Feature Oscar nominations since 2009. Originally from Boston, Hannah is a writer, actress, and musician who focuses her work in queer representation, mental health, and animation.