“Give Yourself The Greenlight”
In Partnership with SAG-AFTRA
Friday, June 3, 2022 1:30PM PT | 4:30PM ET
Virtual Panel - Live on YouTube
Open to the Public
SAG-AFTRA National Latino Committee members and actors discuss their experiences, the challenges they face as Latinos, and how they have navigated the industry to build their careers, generate work, break barriers and stereotypes, and elevate Latino representation on screen by creating their own opportunities in the entertainment and media industries. Moderated by Fanny Grande (formerly Véliz) (Our Quinceañera, Homebound), panelists share how they've had to become a multi-hyphenate by writing, directing, producing, promoting, and distributing their own content for visibility. Panelists include Michelle C. Bonilla (911: Lonestar, Clemency), Loren Escandón (Purple Hearts, Casa Grande), Gabriela Fresquez (host, writer, producer of Imagen-award nominated NBCU Telemundo’s Radar), Valeria Maldonado (Sisters, Coco), Marco Parra (Shameless, The Shrink Next Door).
Click here to tune in on the day of the event.
Moderator
Fanny Grande
Fanny Grande (formerly Véliz) (Our Quinceañera, Homebound) is a Venezuelan- American award- winning filmmaker, actor, and director with more than 20 years of experience in the entertainment business. Grande, who was born in the US, grew up in Venezuela performing from a very young age. She returned to the States to attend college, she quickly realized that the roles available for her and other Latinos were very limited and often portrayed negative stereotypes. So she decided to start creating her own content. A three-time Imagen Award nominee, she has received several recognitions for her work both in front and behind the camera. She was one of 8 fellows selected by Geena Davis for the See it, Be it fellowship.
Her films focus on creating content that celebrates diversity and her main goal is to transform the way Latinos are portrayed in the media. 6 years ago she co-founded Avenida Productions with her husband Nelson Grande. Avenida is a consulting and production firm that specializes in empowering independent media content creators with a focus on diversity. To date, Avenida has helped raise millions of dollars via crowdfunding for many projects and they recently opened Avenida Studios in the heart of Los Angeles, a facility with standing sets that independent filmmakers and creators can use to film their projects. In February of 2022 Avenida received financial backing from L’attitude VC to launch a proprietary crowdfunding platform called Support Our Story.
It is her mission to create more opportunities in the entertainment industry for diverse voices by empowering independent creators.
Speakers
Michelle C. Bonilla
Michelle is a proud Chicana writer, actor, voiceover artist, producer, and director, born and raised in Hollywood, CA.
Along with her 29-year career in film and television, with more than 170 acting credits to her name, she is an avid supporter of LGBTQ rights and advocacy. She has used her skills as a writer and producer to create projects such as her award-winning short film “Slip Away”. Most recently, Michelle made her directorial debut with "I Just Wish You Told Me". Ms. Bonilla wrote, produced, and starred in the project which has gone to screen at many film festivals.
Michelle C. Bonilla is a recipient of the Inaugural Gift of Life Entertainment Media Award from the National Kidney Foundation presented to the cast of ER. She is also the winner of The ALMA (American Latino Media Arts Award) Award for her portrayal in PBS's Award Winning Foto-Novelas Series, Seeing Through Walls, and is honored to have received the prestigious recognition of being awarded the Resolution from The City of Los Angeles, Special Honoree - Latinas In Pride, for her work in the Arts and for promoting and advancing LGBTQ Rights.
More on Michelle at www.michellecbonilla.com.
Gabriela Fresquez
Gabriela Fresquez (host, writer, producer of Imagen-award nominated NBCU Telemundo’s Radar) is a Mexican-American actress and television host. As a multi- hyphenate talent, she recently hosted, produced, and wrote on all 48 episodes of the multi award-nominated NBC Universal Telemundo show “Radar.” It’s the first-of-its-kind English-language millennial/gen Z focused-news show geared toward a bicultural, Latinx audience. “Radar” was nominated for the 2021 Imagen Awards and NY Film & TV Awards.
In 2018, Fresquez created a series called the LatinXpert distributed on her social media, which caught the attention of the producers at NBC Universal and helped secure her national show. Gabriela got her start performing at a young age in theater before attending the USC Annenberg school for Journalism. It was in those formative years that she realized her true calling was storytelling in any form.
Her acting career has allowed her to work with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars including Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Danny DeVito, and Zooey Deschanel. She can be seen in television projects such as “Jane the Virgin,” “Rizzoli & Isles,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and “American Crime Story,” to name a few. Giving voice to the Latinx and LGBTQ+ community as well as domestic violence victims is at the forefront of Gabriela’s life outside of Hollywood. She is heavily involved in her community, creating The Untitled Women’s Project which is organized by Black and Brown women to uplift underrepresented women in the industry.
Loren Escandón
Loren Escandón (Purple Hearts, Casa Grande) is an award-winning AfroLatinx Colombian actress and filmmaker. She focuses on portraying stories of women of color and exploring their realities as direct results of demographic, socio-economic, and cultural backgrounds.
Loren has extended experience in dance, theater, television, and film. She earned a degree in Theater with a minor in Communications at Universidad del Valle. She is an Alum of the Warner Media and HFPA Tomorrow's Filmmaker's Today Class of 2021.
As a director, her latest Short Film Los Patines, won Best short at San Pedro International Film Festival, Best Latino short and Director at NYC Downtown Short Film Festival, Best Screenplay at the Panamanian International Film Festival/LA among others, The film is a love letter to her mother and her childhood experience as a domestic slave.
As a theatre-maker, Loren has toured with her one-woman show, Montera, across sold-out venues in NYC, Madrid, Moscow, and La Habana. She was awarded Best Performer for a Solo Show at the HOLA and ACE awards.
As an actress, Loren can be seen in the anticipated film Purple Hearts on Netflix premiering summer of 2022, and the series Casa Grande recently acquired by Warned Bros.
Marco Parra
Marco Parra (Shameless, The Shrink Next Door) is an Actor/Filmmaker, born and raised in Nogales Arizona. Marco's acting credits include network shows such as: Showtimes critically acclaimed series SHAMELESS, John Singleton’s FX crime-drama SNOWFALL, Hulu/Freeform’s new PARTY OF FIVE, The SHRINK NEXT DOOR working alongside Will Farrell and Paul Rudd and most recently, Nickelodeon’s DANGER FORCE.
Although Marco was booking acting work, there was still something missing, he found the missing piece in volunteering for the Young Story Teller’s program where industry professionals help elementary students write a short screenplay. Marco learned the basics of screenwriting along with his 10 year old mentee, and has been writing and producing his own projects ever since.
Marco’s recent project PREGGERS, a dark comedy about pro-choice which he wrote, produced and acted in is an official selection of the Philadelphia International Latino Film Festival, the Nueva Onda screening series and won Best Comedic Short at the 30th annual Arizona International Film Festival.
Valeria Maldonado
Valeria Maldonado (Sisters, Coco) is the cofounder of Las Caminantas Films alongside Marta Cross and Virginia Novello. Their most recent endeavor being SISTERS, a feature film written by, produced and starred by latina women that will be going to the Cannes Festival Film Market this upcoming May. The film stars the three cofounders as well as Cristo Fernandez (who also EPs) mostly known as Ted Lasso’s Dani Rojas, cause football is life! And so is film.
Valeria was born in San Diego, CA and grew up in Queretaro, Mexico. As an actress she is known for her work on the Academy Award winning film COCO and said work became viral when she starred opposite Chris Evans in a LALA commercial that is now a part of Mexican Pop Culture. You have also seen her in Better Things, NCIS, Castle, Casual, Saving Paradise (where she starred opposite William Moseley),Jimmy Kimmel Live, Single by 30 and Nicky, Ricky, Dicky and Dawn.
Valeria also has a career in Mexico, acting in feature films such as En Las Buenas y En Las Malas, Locos por la Herencia, Así es la Suerte, Travesia del Desierto and El Efecto Tequila and Joe Rendon’s film Aquellos Ojos Verdes that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. She travels back and forth between Mexico and the US working in film and television internationally, and is a passionate advocate for latinx representation. LAS CAMINANTAS FILMS is her new portal in which she can create, produce and empower latinx stories that break stereotypes and shed a new light on the representation of the community.
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