MICKEY GUYTON (The Principal)
Making history as the first Black female solo artist to earn a Grammy nomination in a country category, Mickey performed “Black Like Me” at the awards ceremony. Her album, Remember Her Name, released on September 24, 2021, further solidified her presence in the industry. With her remarkable achievements, Mickey has garnered widespread attention, featured by esteemed publications and media outlets such as The New York Times, Billboard, and Rolling Stone. Guyton, born in Arlington, Texas, discovered her passion for singing at an early age through church performances. Influenced by powerful voices like Dolly Parton, CeCe Winans, Whitney Houston, and LeAnn Rimes, she signed with Capitol Records Nashville and made her debut at an all-star concert at the White House. Her self-titled EP, released in 2015, featured her breakout single “Better Than You Left Me,” leading to her first Academy of Country Music Award nomination. Over the years, Mickey delivered captivating performances at the ACM Awards, including a stirring rendition of “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” accompanied by Keith Urban. Her EP, Bridges, garnered critical acclaim, with “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” hailed as country music’s song of the year and “Black Like Me” recognized as one of the top songs of 2020.
MATTHEW MITCHELL ESPINOSA (Bobby)
Matthew is an actor based in Los Angeles, California. He was lauded for his leading performance in Quentin Lee’s coming-of-age feature film, Last Summer of Nathan Lee. Having performed on stage, short films, commercials, and print ads, some of his most notable work includes Canary, Manong, and the role of Puck from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He has appeared in advertisements working with companies such as Apple, Honey, Pokemon Go! and Pocky. Matthew is managed by LAU.
IAN STEVEN PETERSON (Jimmy)
Ian is a CalArts trained actor, filmmaker, and sailboat Captain hailing from Silicon Valley. Ian has been performing since the age of 7 where he started in theater and then transitioned to Film/TV in 2020. As an actor recent credits include: Yolo Promo, Adult Swim; ZZZ, Felipe Vargas; Murder Camp, Clara Aranovich; Secret Society of Lies, Brian Skiba; and Yellow’s Foghorn, Anthony D’Eredita which won “Best Acting Ensemble” at Indie Short Fest and LA Film Awards. He is represented by Sovereign Talent Group and Kerry Jones Management.
HOUSTON RHINES (Adult Mike)
Growing up as “Just A Kid from Akron”, Houston Rhines was on a steady diet of NBA, Hip Hop and Married with Children reruns. Once in college he was asked to be in a neighbor’s student film and then started going to film club meetings.That is when he discovered that actors aren’t mythical creatures that live on top of Mount Olympus but actually weirdos just like him.Houston then made off to NYU where he made another discovery, humidity in New York is awful. So he quickly ran off to Los Angeles where he booked shows such as Grey’s Anatomy,Criminal Minds, and a healthy dose of Lifetime movies.
ASHLEY DULANEY (Ann)
Ashley was born in Tupelo, MS getting her BFA in acting from ole miss and moving straight to la where she began acting along side Joan and Melissa Rivers. She’s appeared in numerous tv and film productions. Including Recurring on 911 Lone Star, Days of our Lives, Justified and Hulus The Act.
VIRON S. WEAVER (Young Mike)
At the age of 7, Viron Weaver is already a seasoned actor. His first performance was as an infant and he hasn’t slowed down since. Born in Los Angeles to an industry family (all 3 siblings and both parents are in show business), his precociousness and mature work ethic have served him well as a guest star in prime time network series as well as in his recurring role as Wiley Quartermaine-Corinthos on General Hospital (49 episodes and counting). Viron is currently interested in dinosaurs, coding and earning his black belt in hapkido.
Barry “Baz” Iodoine – Director of Photography
“Baz” has worked on some of Hollywood’s most successful productions, with Rogue One, American Sniper, Vice and True Detective on his CV. His recent work on The Mandalorian earned him an Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single Camera Series.
Cynthia Pusheck – Cinematographer
Cynthia co-founded and co-chairs the ASC Vision committee that supports people from under-represented groups who hope to build a career in cinematography. She was the first woman to serve as Vice-President of the American Society of Cinematographers.
JOHN VISCOUNT – WRITER, DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, THEME SONG CO-WRITER
John is a screenwriter, composer, author, and branding specialist. His film, Admissions, stars Academy Award® nominee, James Cromwell, and addresses the Middle East conflict and the power of forgiveness. It has now won over 30 International Awards, and has been translated into Italian, Hebrew, German, Arabic, Farsi, and Spanish, and broadcast to 80 million homes worldwide. The film continues to screen in important venues all around the world and is featured in the renowned forgiveness curriculum of The Stanford University Forgiveness Project. His original theme song in the end credits, The Time Is Now, was a finalist in The Global Peace Song Awards.
John is also the Founder & CEO of The Peace Entertainment Project (PEPSTAR.org), a new non-profit that offers fiscal sponsorship and mentoring to uplifting filmmakers and content creators who address global challenges, inspire hearts and minds, and “promote the kind in humankind.” Additionally, he is Co-founder of PeaceNow.com, a non-profit that creates platforms for strengthening the global Culture of Peace and gathers signatures in support of the establishment of Ministries & Departments of Peace in governments worldwide. These platforms include a peace and well-being campaign called “The Muscles of Peace 60-Second Workout” that John created. They also include a proposed United Nations Global Resolution called The Muscles of Peace Global Resolution for which John was a lead writer and which advocates for the creation of permanent governmental Infrastructures for Peace from the national down to the local level. John is also the author of the inspirational books, Mind What Matters: A Pep Talk for Humanity and The Mind Supplement. Additionally, he is the creator of the positive message YouTube Shorts Campaign PepTalk4Humanity – https://www.youtube.com/@Peptalk4Humanity/shorts
GAVIN BEHRMAN – PRODUCER
Gavin is a 28-year veteran of the movie and television industry. He has worked all over the world on the production of over 35 feature films – both Hollywood blockbusters and independently made film festival favorites such as The Call of the Wild, Blade Runner: 2049, Terminator: Genisys, Robocop (2014), The Adjustment Bureau, Valkyrie, Rosewater, Spider-Man, Erin Brockovich, and The Horse Whisperer. Gavin has recently moved into high-concept streaming television production. He is currently a Producer on Amazon’s Jack Ryan series, and has served as a Co-Producer on Showtime’s critically acclaimed Escape at Dannemora and Lucasfilm’s Mandalorian for Disney+. Gavin’s other projects include the award-winning short film Admissions, starring James Cromwell, and the upcoming The Principle, a dramatic parable about cyber-bullying. Gavin believes that important films can send a powerful message to the world, influencing society’s views and ultimately the destiny of humankind.
KENT LAND – PRODUCER
Kent is a creative director, artist and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. As founder of Brand67 he leads fortune 500 brands and start-ups through Transformational Branding initiatives. Kent’s work has been recognized by the Library of Congress, D&AD, Webby Awards, 4A’s, and AMA, among others. As an ASCAP member, he also composes and records music for stage, television and film. In his spare time, Kent launched Landoughs, a neapolitan-style pop-up pizza joint.
GAYLE PILSBURY CASTING DIRECTOR
Gayle is an LA-based Casting Director who grew up in Long Beach, California and received a BA in English and Film from USC. During her 30+ year career, she has been both a talent executive and an independent Casting Director with extensive experience across all genres, comedy, drama, animation, and commercials. As the Head of Casting at the then newly- formed Imagine Television, she was fortunate to work with visionary storytellers including JJ Abrams, Aaron Sorkin, Noah Baumbach, David Lynch and Peter Berg and oversaw the casting of many projects including “Felicity”, “Sports Night”, “24” and “Mulholland Drive”. In 2000, Gayle partnered with Bonnie Zane to form Zane/Pillsbury Casting and enjoyed a successful 20-year partnership casting such shows as “Pretty Little Liars”, “White Collar” “Burn Notice” & “The Purge” to name a few. She served as both casting director and co-producer on the indie film “Reminisce” directed by “Riverdale’s” Madchen Amick. Working in the indie film world has been an exciting new frontier and one she hopes to continue to expand within. Gayle lives in Echo Park with her husband and three children.
JULIAN HOWARTH SOUND MIXER
Born in the UK and with a background in music. Julian Howarth has been working in production sound on Film and Television shows for over 27 years. After working on the award winning BBC flagship show Doctor Who, Julian moved to the United States in 2010 to continue on his sonic journey. Bringing innovation and new workflows on films like Avatar and the Star Wars franchise, Julian has always strived to be at the cutting edge of new technologies and breakthroughs. He has used sound design on set, enabling new creative options for a Director and Cast, helping bring adventure and story telling to the big screen. Collaboration and teamwork is an important part of his work, from music playback and recording to building new systems to operate in underwater performance capture.
ALISON UNIFELDER COSTUME DESIGNER
Alison is primarily focused on episodic television, but has also designed a number of short films which have received recognition and awards at Sundance and SXSW. She is a member of both IATSE Local 892 Costume Designers Guild and Local 705 MotionPicture Costumers. When Alison isn’t working on a project, she is often found in her kitchen baking, or cheering on her son Rex at his baseball games.
KEITH WOULARD STUNT COORDINATOR
One of the top Stunt Coordinators and 2nd Unit Directors in Hollywood, Keith Woulard is known for his realistic, visceral and gut-punching action sequences. As a member of SAG for over 30 years and the DGA for over 20years, he has collaborated with some of the best in the business: Ridley Scott,Antoine Fuqua, Denis Villenueve, Jon Favreau, and was mentored by 2nd Unit Director Phil Neilson on films such as Black Hawk Down, Tears of the Sun, and GI Jane.
