IRIS GROSSMAN
President
MARION ROSENBERG, O.B.E.
Chair
BETSY POLLOCK
Vice President, Treasurer
LILLAH McCARTHY
Vice President
HOLLACE DAVIDS
Secretary
IVY KAGAN BIERMAN
President Emeritus
JUDY CHAIKIN
DEIRDRE’ DIX HUNT
GHEN LARAYA LONG
KIM OGLETREE
NELL SCOVELL
DANA SIMS
NANCY RAE STONE
LUCY WEBB
BARBARA WEINTRAUB
Beginning her career as an assistant at the talent agency ICM, Iris Grossman quickly climbed the ranks and was upped to talent agent. After several years with the agency, she was given the opportunity to become the Senior Vice President of Talent and Casting for Turner Network Television (TNT). In that capacity, Grossman oversaw all talent and casting issues related to TNT Original Films and series. Grossman was instrumental in bringing TNT such top-name stars such as Diane Keaton (Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight); Robert Duvall (The Man Who Captured Eichmann); Gary Sinise and Angelina Jolie (George Wallace) and Tommy Lee Jones (The Good Old Boys). She also cast Alec Baldwin (Nuremberg); Julianna Margulies, Angelica Huston and Joan Allen (The Mists of Avalon); Chazz Palminteri (Boss of Bosses); William H. Macy (Door to Door) and John Turturro (Monday Night Mayhem). Grossman spent nine years at TNT, and in October 2001, returned to ICM Partners as a talent agent. In 2013, Grossman joined Paradigm’s Talent Department for three years before moving to Echo Lake Entertainment as a talent manager in 2016.
Grossman is a former two-term President of Women In Film and is WIF’s President-Emerita. She won a CSA award for casting George Wallace, and received an Emmy nomination for the same. Grossman has received awards from Big Sisters, Hadassah and NOW.
Marion Rosenberg graduated from the Universities of Manchester, England and Grenoble, France. She began her show business career in the Bands and Acts Department of MCA. From 1960 to 1976 she worked in production on both sides of the Atlantic, on such films as I COULD GO ON SINGING (Judy Garland), THE BEST MAN (Henry Fonda), WHERE EAGLES DARE (Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood) and as Associate Producer on THE MISSOURI BREAKS (Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson). In 1976 she became head of EMI Films in Los Angeles, and set up such productions as THE DRIVER, CONVOY and Academy Award winner THE DEERHUNTER, on which she served as Associate Producer.
In 1979 Rosenberg became Vice President of The Lantz Office, a talent and literary agency, whose clients included Bette Davis, Milos Forman, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Shaffer, Daryl Hannah, Theresa Russell, Liv Ullmann and Nastassja Kinski. In l989 she formed The Marion Rosenberg Office, representing such clients as Paul Verhoeven, Jeroen Krabbe, Claire Bloom, LeVar Burton, Jane-Howard Hammerstein, Norman Lloyd and Piper Laurie. In 1999, she transferred her company from agency to personal management and production. She also serves as Consultant to the Estate of Elizabeth Taylor
She served as Executive Producer on Columbia’s HOLLOW MAN and in 2001 produced an updated version of Agatha Christie’s MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS for CBS television. She was the Executive Producer of REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, directed by Sam Mendes for Dreamworks. Marion’s most recent production is a documentary entitled STUNTWOMEN – THE UNTOLD HOLLYWOOD STORY, a history of the stuntwomen in our industry from the early black-and-white “flickers” to the multi-million-dollar epics of today. It was released in 2020.
Marion co-founded BAFTA LA and was its Co-Chair from 1987 to 1995. Until 2008 she served as Chair of the UK Film Council US Advisory Board. She has served on the Board of the Association of Talent Agents, is a member of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences and has served on the Board of the North American Foundation for the University of Manchester (NAFUM). She has also served on the Board of Women In Film and on the Board of Trustees of the Women In Film Foundation. In 2017 she co-founded GreenLight Women, a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting women over 40 in the entertainment industry.
She received the Britannicus Award from the British-American Chamber of Commerce in 1996. In 2001, Queen Elizabeth II made her an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) for services to the British Film Industry. In May of 2019 she was inducted into the Personal Managers Hall of Fame.
Betsy Pollock is Associate Dean of Production and Director of First Year Production Services at the American Film Institute (AFI) in Hollywood, California. She created the comprehensive program designed to introduce students to the “real world” challenges of filmmaking, and it is highly respected throughout the industry. The program admits over 130 new students every year, and with them, Pollack produces up to 85 short films.
An accomplished and experienced producer, writer, educator, film-curator and fundraiser, Pollock started her career in publishing in New York. Relocating to Los Angeles and joining the film business, Pollock worked her way up the ranks as a line producer, a unit production manager, a first A.D., a co-producer and a producer. She has produced over 75 feature-length and short films, commercials and music videos. Pollock co-produced the 2004 Academy Award® winner for Best Short Film, Two Soldiers.
Prior to AFI, Pollock was head of the producing department at University of North Carolina. She has maintained her unique “dual careers” in producing and education throughout her professional life.
A long-time Board member for Women In Film, Pollock co-founded two successful programs for the non-profit – the PSA Program and the Film Finishing Fund. A jury of industry professionals selected annually 4-5 unfinished films for funding. The grants have resulted in two Academy Awards®: for Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, which won Best Documentary in 1994, and Freeheld, which won for Best Documentary, Short Subject in 2007.
Pollock is a member of the DGA.
Lillah McCarthy is a television producer and entertainment consultant whose extensive career includes senior management positions at three networks, studio executive, producer, manager, actor, and director.
As Senior Vice President of Original Programming for TNT and TBS, Senior Vice President of Series Programming for the Fox Network and as an Executive Producer at Sony Television, Lillah developed and produced an extraordinary roster of hit shows including The Simpsons, Married…With Children, Chris Elliott’s cult classic Get A Life, Early Edition starring Kyle Chandler, The Closer, Saving Grace, Rizzoli & Isles, My Boys, Men of a Certain Age, The Last Ship and Falling Skies, among many others.
Beginning as an actress in New York and regional theatre before joining the television executive ranks, Ms. McCarthy quickly rose from a current programming executive at ABC to senior executive positions at three networks, first at Fox and later at Turner where she supervised the development of all series programming at TNT and TBS for more than twelve years and worked with such talent as David E. Kelley, Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay, the late Stephen Bochco and Sam Raimi, to name a few. In between those positions, McCarthy supervised television development for the late Stephen Cannell and had an overall deal at Sony Television where she produced and directed both comedies and dramas. After her years at TNT and TBS, Lillah was named Head of Television for Allison Shearmur Productions. Presently working as an independent producer, Lillah has projects in development with various venues. She is also an active industry consultant—she traveled to China pre-pandemic to work for Imagine Entertainment on a local Chinese television series-- a script consultant, a career coach and an adjunct professor at the AFI.
The daughter of actors Kevin McCarthy and Augusta Dabney, Lillah is a member of the Directors Guild of America, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Hollywood Radio & Television Society, Screen Actors Guild, Women In Film, and is Vice President of GreenLight Women.
Hollace Davids has spent most of her career planning and executing events – from dinner parties for 10 to premieres for 10,000. Currently, she serves as Senior Vice President of Special Projects at Universal Pictures in the Feature Film Marketing Department. She is responsible for planning and implementing all Universal’s movie premieres, most recently Fate of the Furious, Girls Trip, Despicable Me 3 and Pitch Perfect 3. Davids also works on the Academy® and other award campaigns, film festivals and special projects including retreats and meetings.
Davids began her career at the Los Angeles International Film Exposition where she was the Filmex Society Coordinator. She became a publicist at Columbia Pictures and was promoted to Vice President, Special Events. Before joining Universal in 1995, Davids ran her own marketing and special events consulting agency, with Paramount Pictures, Turner Pictures and the William Holden Wildlife Foundation as clients. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Producers Guild of America. Davids served as President of Women In Film from 1978-2000 and served on the Board of Women In Film. In 2000, she was honored with the Jim Yeager Award for Public Service from the Publicists Guild and was named as the Mother of the Year by California Mothers Association.
With her husband, Paul, Davids has written seven books, including Star Wars novels, and has produced the independent films Starry Night, the Saturn-award winning documentary The Sci-Fi Boys, Before We Say Goodbye, The Life After Death Project and Marilyn Monroe Declassified. Davids holds an A.B. in Psychology, cum laude from Goucher College in Baltimore, and an Ed.M. in Counseling Psychology from Boston University.
Effective 2018, Davids will re-open the Hollace Davids Company and continue to consult on events, awards and film publicity.
Ivy Kagan Bierman is Chair, Entertainment Labor Practice at Loeb & Loeb, LLP, where she represents entertainment and related companies in high profile transactional and litigation matters. She is Director, Entertainment Track of the Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Program at the University of Miami. Bierman was honoured as “Entertainment Lawyer of the Year” in 2015 by the Beverly Hills Bar Association. She has also been recognized in The Hollywood Reporter’s list of industry “Power Lawyers” and Variety’s “Legal Impact” Power of Law issue, among other accolades.
Throughout her career, Ms. Bierman has committed herself to giving back to the entertainment industry and to the community through social, political and philanthropic endeavours. She has been actively involved with the Anti-Defamation League for more than twenty-five years, and is currently serving as the Chair of the Pacific Southwest Region. Bierman serves on the Hollywood Radio & Television Society Board, served for many years on the Women In Film Board and is one of the founders of GreenLight Women, a newly-formed entertainment industry women’s alliance.
Bierman is passionate about the advancement of women and diverse individuals across the legal and entertainment industries. She is a member of her firm’s Diversity and Inclusiveness Committee and one of the heads of her firm’s Women’s Affinity Group. She is also a member of American Women for International Understanding (AWIU), an organization that works to support girls and women globally. She regularly speaks on panels and at events addressing diversity issues.
Bierman received her J.D., cum laude, from Northwestern University School of Law and her B.S., magna cum laude, from Duke University.
Judy Chaikin is a graduate of AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women and is best known for writing, producing and directing the Emmy® nominated PBS documentary, Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist. Her short romantic comedy, Cotillion ‘65, appeared in over 30 film festivals winning Best Short, Best Comedy, Best Director and Audience Choice Awards.
Chaikin performed in and directed improv comedy, working with groups such as the Committee Workshop, The Synergy Trust and The Groundlings. She directed the comedy pilot, On The Television,for Nickelodeon and the reality pilot, American Families, for Fox TV.
A Supervising Producer and Director on the ABC series, FBI: The Untold Stories, Chaikin also co-produced the CBS Movie of the Week, Stolen Innocence. She wrote and directed the bi-lingual PBS documentary, Los Pastores, and won the Blue Ribbon at the American Educational Film and TV Festival for the docu-drama, Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I A Woman, featuring Julie Harris.
Chaikin’s current film, The Girls in the Band, won six Best Documentary Awards, premiered theatrically at Lincoln Center, was a NY Times Critic Pick and is currently showing on PBS both nationally and internationally. Her feature length comedy screenplay, Ai! Chilito, won first place at the Broad Comedy Screenplay Competition, was a runner-up at the ScreenCraft Comedy Competition and was selected as a “Pitch Project” for the 2017 PGA “Produced By” weekend.
Chaikin comes from a family of musicians and played piano and trumpet until the age of 13, when she realized that the music business was no place for a girl. So she quit music and became a director…what was she thinking???
Deirdre’ Dix Hunt is an award winning, Emmy© nominated producer, director and president of Edge Of A Dream Company. Her company’s impressive client roster includes corporations, tech companies, CEO’s, celebrities, and non- profit organizations. Her expertise in developing and growing strategic alliances / partnerships with brands focused on engagement and connecting with their consumers through content, is the catalyst behind her success. Whether she’s leading her team to develop new brands, refreshing existing brands or creating multi-cultural marketing strategies or producing digital content in today’s competitive global market, at the core, she brings an inspired style of work and creativity. She has produced and supplied programming to ABC, Discovery, Fox, NBC, BET, CBS and the CDC. Currently consulting with HBCU’s and global companies which includes her alma mater, Howard University, Southern University Law Center, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Canada’s Bridal Fantasy and Silicon Valley start-ups. She’s working exclusively with CEO’s, and C-Suite leadership teams to create and develop culturally inclusive infrastructures. For two consecutive terms Dix Hunt served as Vice President of Strategic Planning on the executive board of Women In Film. An active Director member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the Producers Guild of America (PGA) she has served as the co-chair of both the African-American Steering Commi ee and the Women’s Steering Commi ee of the DGA. A member of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and National Association of Minorities In Cable (NAMIC), she is also a producer/director mentor for aspiring TV directors and producers. She is also former board member of United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and continues to be highly active in supporting the recruitment and hiring of HBCU graduates into sustaninable careers in entertainment.
Dix Hunt is an honors graduate of Howard University’s School Of Communications and has an MFA from UCLA, and Certification in Leadership from Harvard Women’s Leadership Program in Cairo, Egypt.
Ghen Laraya Long is an experienced international technology and entertainment attorney. She specializes in transactional contracts for the creation, production and distribution of all forms of content over traditional and new media platforms. Long has a roster of technotainment clients ranging from producers, directors, writers, musicians, and actors and large multimedia companies to small startups for whom she provides advice, in-house counsel and production attorney services. Prior to recent stints with Disney and Red Bull Media, Long was VP Business and Legal Affairs for Mandalay Digital Group Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Digital Turbine Inc., Assistant General Counsel and Director of Mobile Partnerships for CBS Corporation, International Corporate Counsel for Amp’d Mobile and Business and Legal Affairs Counsel for Tokyopop! Inc. Long is currently a board member of Echo Training and Film2Future and has served on the board of Women in Film. She is a co-founder of Greenlight Women and a board member. Long is an active member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and serves on her Peer Group Executive Council. She is qualified to practice law in Ontario, Canada and California and is a polyglot.
Kimberly Ogletree is a producer of over 200 music videos. She has produced over 20 films and television shows for Viacom, Universal, TV One, Bounce TV, the Urban Movie Channel and more. As Supervising Producer for Special Projects and Development at BET, she oversaw ten original TV movies and was the music supervisor on nine. Ogletree operated her own production company at Sunset Gower Studios for ten years where she developed and produced content for multiple studios.
Ogletree recently produced the ten-episode docu-series Courtside Jones for Hartbeat Productions, which explores life after basketball through the eyes of great legends who played the game. She also produced the six-episode television series The Experiment, which explores four couples in troubled marriages who embark on an invasive and powerful social test by swapping spouses in the hope of healing their wounded relationships, and will air in 2018. Ogletree attends the Sundance Film Festival regularly and is a member of the DGA, the PGA and Women In Film. She is also a Board Member for GreenLight Women, which has partnered with the New York Film Academy Women’s Club to present a monthly film series.
Nancy Rae Stone has been a producer, an executive and a consultant in the motion picture industry for over 20 years. For nearly a decade Stone was Executive Vice President of Production at Beacon Pictures, where she supervised physical production of numerous high profile films which became global theatrical successes, including Air Force One ($315M), starring Harrison Ford, Spy Game ($143M), starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, the cheerleading drama Bring It On ($90M), starring Kirsten Dunst, The Family Man ($143M), starring Nicholas Cage and Don Cheadle and 13 Days ($66M), the Cuban missile crisis drama starring Kevin Costner.
As an independent producer, Stone’s credits include festival favorite and BAFTA-nominee The Last Seduction, starring Linda Fiorentino, who won the New York Film Critics Circle Best Actress Award. She also produced Femme Fatale, starring Colin Firth, Playing God, starring Angelina Jolie and American Heart, starring Jeff Bridges.
Stone was Executive Producer of 2014’s Words & Pictures, starring Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche, which was theatrically released in the U.S. by Roadside Attractions. She recently produced the dramatic short Here Now, starring Amy Brenneman and is developing several projects, including a character-based crime drama inspired by true events and a documentary.
Stone is presently Director of the California Film Commission Film & Television tax credit program. She created and oversees an expanded strategy that allows California to provide competitive incentives, resulting in economic development statewide. She is an Executive Board Member and one of the original founders of GreenLight Women.
Producer, writer, actress and comedienne Lucy Webb has been a supporter of women and independent filmmakers for over 30 years. A native of Tennessee, Webb’s career has encompassed feature films, television and the New York stage. Her production company, Calm Down Productions, Inc., was founded in 1991 and has produced projects for HBO, Warner Bros. Television, CBS, FX, and NBC.
Webb started her career as an actress and stand-up comedienne and appeared in numerous comedy television shows most notably HBO’s Not Necessarily The News. Webb went on to win 5 Cable Ace Awards for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, before redirecting her career into production and development, and shingled her prod at Warner Bros. Television.
In 1997, Webb joined the non-profit Women In Film where she served on the Executive Board and became Vice President of Special Events. Webb produced numerous events including five Crystal + Lucy Award shows. The event honored world-class women in entertainment including Kathle
Women In Film In Park City, one of the Sundance Film Festival’s most popular events, was originated by Webb and she produced the event for 10 years. In 2007, WIF became an official Associate of the Sundance Film Festival, largely attributed to Webb’s commitment and passion. Webb supported female directed films AWOL, L Train, and Volta with film grants.
An avid supporter of documentary filmmaking Webb moderates many industry discussions for filmmakers throughout the year. She currently sits on the 2017 Board of Directors for Women In Film and holds the position of Vice President of GreenLight Women.
Barbara Weintraub has been a producer, a network executive and an entertainment career advisor. Her first job in the business was as an actor in a Martin Scorsese film, which convinced her she wanted to work on the other side of the camera.
Weintraub sharpened her production skills working with producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson on Beverly Hills Cop and Top Gun. She moved on to the senior management team and helped launched Movietime, which became E! Entertainment Television, the first cable channel exclusively programming entertainment content. During her tenure, she produced The Hollywood Reporter Executive Report with top Hollywood filmmakers including Brian De Palma and Ivan Reitman.
Launching her own production company, Weintraub produced a variety of television shows that included an NBC comedy special with Kelsey Grammer, Jason Bateman and Tony Shaloub, Diva Detective, a reality series for Women’s Entertainment Television (WE TV), 195 episodes of a game show for the USA network, and The New Adventures of Robin Hood, an action adventure series for TNT.
Weintraub is currently the Chair of Industry Outreach and Professional Development at the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles.