Missy Hernandez is a New York based writer and filmmaker. She graduated from Columbia University Columbia College with a B.A. in Cinema Studies and is a current MFA candidate at Columbia University School of the Arts Film Division with a concentration in Television and Screenwriting. After studying Meisner acting at the William Esper Studio in New York City, she co-founded Buds of May Productions with which she developed and produced original content for stage, film, and new media. She teaches a Lab in Narrative Screenwriting for Columbia University undergraduates and is the Director for Northwestern University’s National High School Institute Film and Video Program where she has taught Screenwriting, On Camera Acting, Character Acting, Script Analysis, and Comedy Writing. After completing her Writers Room Internship with Comedy Central/Jax Production on Season 4 of Inside Amy Schumer, she was hired by the production team to work on a Comedy Central pilot titled Storytime based on a web series by Chioke Nassor. Missy’s short films, Still and Leonard Peres, have screened at the California Women’s Film Festival, CineFestival, Cine Las Americas, and The International Puerto Rican Heritage Film Festival. She is teaming up with the creators of The Mother Line Story Project on a web series adaptation of their inspiring theatrical productions.
John Wakamaya Carey is a Los Angeles based cinematographer who received his MFA from Columbia University. While attending school, he lensed over 40 short films in 8 different countries including Above the Sea; a short film shot in Shanghai, China that received the Gold Medal at the 41st annual Student Academy Awards. John also has shot various campaigns for Adidas Originals and won best cinematography at the Adana International Film Festival for his work on Deniz Seviyesi, a Turkish-American feature film that also won the Audience Award and Jury Honorable Mention at the 2015 Slamdance Film Festival. In 2015 he was nominated for an American Society of Cinematographer's Student Heritage Award for his work on Two Sisters, a film about a young girl leading her sister across the Chinese border while defecting from North Korea.
Originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Miguel Silveira lives and works in NYC. After wrapping his first feature-length documentary I Am a Visitor in Your World (Official selection - Woodstock Film Festival, Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, Athens Film + Video Festival) Miguel completed his thesis film at Columbia University, a political thriller titled Devil's Work. The film received the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation production grant, the Caucus Foundation award for excellence in filmmaking, the DGA award for best film in its category and was a one of the Jury Selects for the 2014 Columbia University Film Festival. Miguel developed and directed the Venezuelan chapter of MTV’s documentary series Rebel Music, which aired worldwide in 2015. Miguel has taught in institutions such as Columbia College Chicago, EICTV in San Antonio de Los Banos, Cuba as well as Columbia University. After receiving his MFA from Columbia University, Miguel co-founded NoPort Films and is currently in post-production for the feature film American Thief and in development for DROPHOUSE, a political-thriller to be shot in Detroit in 2018.