Team Bios
About Us
THE PRINCESS DIARIES
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Michèle Stephenson
Rada Studio Co-Founder/ Director/ Producer
Emmy award-winning filmmaker, artist, and author Michèle Stephenson draws from her Haitian and Panamanian heritage and experience as a social justice lawyer to transform non-fiction storytelling. Through a Black Atlantic lens anchored in the Black radical tradition, Stephenson creates emotionally powerful narratives of resistance and healing that emphasize the lived experiences of communities of color across the Americas and the Black diaspora. Stephenson reimagines storytelling by weaving together fiction, immersive, experimental, and hybrid forms in her work. In 2023, her films Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project and Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games were Oscar-shortlisted, with Going To Mars winning the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and the prestigious Creative Arts Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. Black Girls Play received significant accolades, including the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Video and Best Short Doc at Tribeca. Her feature, American Promise, earned three Emmy nominations and won the Jury Prize at Sundance, while Stateless was nominated for a Canadian Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. Stephenson co-directed The Changing Same, a magical realist VR trilogy that premiered at Sundance’s New Frontier XR Program, won the Tribeca Grand Jury Prize for Best Immersive Narrative, and was Emmy-nominated for Outstanding Interactive Media: Immersive. In 2024, she received the NYWIFT Nancy Malone Muse Directing Award and is currently in post-production on True North, a feature hybrid doc on the Black Power movement in Canada. She is a Guggenheim Artist Fellow, Creative Capital Artist, and member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Joe Brewster
Rada Studio Co-Founder/ Director/ Producer
Joe Brewster is an Emmy award-winning filmmaker and a Harvard-trained psychiatrist. He leverages his medical background to tackle social issues through his films. Brewster made his directorial debut at the Sundance Film Festival in 1995, drawing on his experience as a prison psychiatrist at the Brooklyn House of Detention; The Keeper” received a Truer Than Fiction runner-up nod at the 1996 Spirit Awards. Over the past three decades, Brewster has directed and produced narrative and documentary films and immersive media. His feature documentary, American Promise (2014), received three Emmy nominations and won the Sundance Jury Prize for Merit in 2013. More recently, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (2023 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner) and Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games (2023 Tribeca Short Documentary Grand Prize winner) were shortlisted for an Oscar. Going To Mars garnered over 30 awards, including two Cinema Eye Awards and the prestigious Creative Arts Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. Black Girls Play (2023) won the Cinema Eye Best Short Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Video. Brewster’s groundbreaking room-scale production, The Changing Same, premiered at Sundance and won the 2021 Tribeca Grand Prize for Best Immersive Experience. His subsequent AR/VR projects include O-Dogg: On Othello, featuring Tariq Trotter, which premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Brewster has produced work for notable organizations, including PBS, HBO, Amazon, Al Jazeera, ESPN, Comcast, and Disney. He is a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow and is a member of both The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Karem Orrego
Associate Producer
Karem Orrego, born in Lima, Peru, is a filmmaker and multimedia artist passionate about elevating minimized voices with thought-provoking and experiential film projects. She co-directed Shattering The Pictures In Our Heads, an award-winning immersive film installation showcased at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art in 2022. Karem graduated in 2016 with a BA in Film & Media Arts from the University of Utah, where she was recognized with an Outstanding Senior Award. Since 2014, she has overseen the Filmmaking Mentorship Program for Edge of Discovery Co-Creation Studios, collaborating on over 40 short documentaries with the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes. At the Utah Film Center, Karem developed a VR media literacy series focusing on refugee media representation, reaching over 2,000 K-12 students and educators. Her recent project challenges stereotypes of Indigenous peoples through collaboration with the Sho-Pai Tribes. Shattering blends traditional and 360-degree video formats, celebrating voices of Indigenous activists across the Mountain West, and earning acclaim with the Best Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Award at the Anthem Awards. Karem continues to explore new cinematic languages that deconstruct the legacy of colonialism that has shaped her birth country. She is also a Baldwin for the Arts fellow and joined the HessenLab artist cohort at the B3 Biennial of the Moving Image in Frankfurt, Germany.
Kendi King
Program Coordinator, Rada Collaborative
Kendi King was born in Atlanta and raised in Brooklyn. She began her studies at NYU Tisch Film School, and completed a B.A. in Documentary Filmmaking at Spelman College. She is an ambitious writer/director of both stage and screen with advanced technical skills in sound mixing and editing. Her passion lies in uplifting unheard stories from underrepresented communities, inspiring radical change through art. Kendi has professional experience in film production & post across all genres, from traditional narrative features and documentary series, to cutting-edge interactive media and video games. She’s worked for industry leaders such as Netflix (inaugural post-production intern), HBO (assistant sound editor, ‘Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show’), and NBCUniversal (Original Voices Fellowship). She is an Emmy-nominated director (Sports Emmys ‘24), and was most recently named the Mountainfilm Emerging Filmmaker of the Year (’24). She is also a graduate of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences ‘Gold Rising’ program. Her most recent projects as writer/director include “MUSE”, a 360-degree VR short film funded by the Spelman Innovation Lab, and the pilot episode of her coming-of-age TV series for Black and Brown girls “12 to 21”.
Nan Collymore
Development Consultant
Nan Collymore is a seasoned Arts Development Consultant working in the nonprofit and cultural sectors. She holds a Master’s degree in Gender, Culture and Modernity from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Nan’s work is characterized by strategic acumen and a commitment to authentic systemic transformation. She guides organizations through stages of growth and is known for instilling practices that are long-term and sustainable. With a collaborative, practical, and hands-on approach, her work is underpinned by a comprehensive understanding of the arts and culture sectors. Nan has a proven track record of successfully securing funding and building sustainable development strategies for various arts organizations. Her expertise lies in strategic planning, grant writing and donor cultivation. She is passionate about helping arts organizations articulate their mission, connect with their audience, and achieve their financial goals. Nan has served as a consultant for emerging arts organizations, providing guidance on development strategies, board development, and capacity building.
She is a member of film curatorial collective, The Black Aesthetic and an artist whose work in video, collage and publishing is an attempt at understanding the relationship between body and land.