MENTOR BIOS

Lauren E. Banks is a professional actor, writer, director and producer, though more simply put: Lauren is a storyteller.

Most recently, Banks’ work captured global audiences in Paramount+’s hit TV series LAWMEN: BASS REEVES, where she played the young matriarch, Jennie Reeves. The show quickly became the most watched series premiere across Paramount+ and CBS with over 28 million households tuning-in worldwide. Lauren’s performance was said to have been played with "warmth and great feeling” by the New York Times.

Banks can also be seen starring opposite Kevin Bacon as the ambitious young attorney and community activist “Siobhan Quays” in all three seasons of Showtime’s Boston crime drama CITY ON A HILL.

A native of Durham, North Carolina, Lauren is a graduate of the historic Hillside High School and has been recognized by Durham Public Schools in their DPS Notable’s Series for her advocacy of arts education.

While attending Howard University, Lauren founded Camp Usanii in her hometown to mentor middle school and high school students via acting, dance, music, creative writing and visual art.

To date, dozens of graduates of Camp Usanii have since matriculated through top theater programs across the country and into the profession, turning their dreams into tangible realities.

In 2017, Lauren completed her classical training and graduated from the Yale School of Drama with a Masters Degree in Acting, and was awarded Yale’s Carol Finch Dye Award for actors, whose previous recipients include Frances McDormand and Meryl Streep.

By 2020, Lauren founded the multi-media production company, Visionary Village. She has produced and/or directed multiple internationally acclaimed independent projects and live events under the banner, stimulating film production in Los Angeles, New York and Durham, North Carolina.

In the fall of 2024, Banks made her Off-Broadway debut as the lead in Katori Hall’s THE BLOOD QUILT at Lincoln Center. Other work credits include the anthology series ROAR (Apple), GASLIT (STARZ), MANIAC (Netflix) and THE DUTCHMAN (2025), an American thriller film directed by Andre Gaines, based on the ‘64 play of the same name by playwright & poet Amiri Baraka.

Ideal Mentee: An actor who wants to break into television or film. We are looking for individuals who are primarily actors.

Cliff Charles seeks to create images that resonate through a wide range of projects from award winning documentaries to scripted series. With 2 Emmy Nominations for Outstanding Cinematography on When the Levees Broke and If God Is Willing And Da Creek Don’t Rise for Spike Lee, Cliff continues to lens documentaries including Welcome to Rap City, Baltimore Rising, Who Killed Malcolm X, Venus and Serena, A Ballerina’s Tale and Chris Rock's Good Hair. His work in scripted include the indie features Planet Brooklyn, Big Words, the Spirit Award nominated film, Jellysmoke as well as Shottas, a Jamaican Gangster film turned cult classic. His series work includes 2 seasons of Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger, Shots Fired, Flatbush Misdemeanors, seasons 1 and 2 of Swagger and the most recent season of The Equalizer. His commercial credits include spots and promos for ESPN, HBO, the NBA, Converse, and State Farm, along with music videos for artists like Mos Def, Wale and Wyclef Jean.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Cliff loved movies but the possibility of entering this field never felt tangible until Spike Lee came on the scene. Upon earning a BA with a dual major in Film and TV/Radio production from Brooklyn College, he pursued and landed a spot as a Lighting intern on Spike Lee’s Clockers and spent the next few years working in lighting while simultaneously building his DP reel.

With 30 years of experience, Cliff Charles continues to lend his talents to a host of creatively diverse and challenging projects.

Ideal Mentee: An emerging Director of Photography who fully understands the role. Directors need not apply.

Michael Cooke is an award-winning director and cinematographer from Atlanta, Georgia, with a career that spans genres, mediums, and continents. From music videos to narrative film, from global campaigns to festival circuits, Michael has spent nearly two decades crafting stories that center family, legacy, and the unseen systems—fate, politics, capitalism—that shape our lives. He began his career as a Director of Photography, lensing music videos for some of hip-hop’s biggest names. That visual foundation evolved into commercial work for major brands like Apple, American Express, and Walmart, before his passion for storytelling led him into narrative filmmaking. Michael’s directorial debut, Across the Tracks, won multiple international awards, including Best Diaspora Short at the African Movie Academy Awards. His recent project Freeman Hospitality—a sci-fi drama set in 2055 that rings eerily close to our current events—and Yogurt Raisin, a layered story about friendship and over-policing, continue his commitment to socially resonant storytelling with cinematic depth. Now, as one of the most respected emerging voices in independent film, Michael is passionate about giving back. As a mentor, he’s here to offer clarity, real-world knowledge, and creative insight to the next generation of filmmakers—those navigating a constantly shifting industry and searching for stories that matter.

Ideal Mentee: A Director/Producer or Cinematographer with an entrepreneurial mindset looking to break into branded content.

Traci A. Curry is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, producer, showrunner, and writer of powerful stories. She has spent more than two decades creating compelling, in-depth narratives for multi-media platforms across both long- and short-form. Most recently, Traci spent 18 months directing National Geographic’s upcoming five-part documentary series Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time. This meticulously researched series culls thousands of hours of archival footage, combined with first-person accounts, to bring revelatory insight into the causes and consequences of Hurricane Katrina two decades later.

Traci, alongside Stanley Nelson, co-directed ATTICA, a Showtime documentary which received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Documentary Feature in 2022. Traci also served as Producer on ATTICA, which premiered opening night at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. The documentary revisited the largest prison uprising in U.S. history and the brutality of state violence on the 50th anniversary of the tragedy. The documentary was selected for the 2021 DOC NYC feature film shortlist, earned three 2022 Critics Choice Awards nominations, including for Best Documentary Feature and Best Director; the 2022 Ridenhour Documentary Film Prize; the 2022 Award for Social Justice from the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA); and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Documentary.

In 2023, Traci served as showrunner of Onyx Collective’s Emmy-nominated eight-part documentary series Searching For Soul Food. The series chronicles iconic Black chef Alisa Reynolds as she explores the origin stories of soul food around the world. Previously, Traci worked as producer on the 2020 ESPN “30 for 30” documentary VICK, a comprehensive look back at each chapter of the rise, fall, and polarizing return of the standout former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, Michael Vick. She also served as producer of BOSS: The Black Experience in Business, which aired on PBS and revealed the untold story of African-American entrepreneurship. Her broad experience also includes serving as a producer for several national cable news shows, and her work has been featured across a variety of networks, including PBS, ESPN, MSNBC, BET, HGTV, TV One, CNN, and ABC. Traci is the founder and owner of her production company, B.Free Media, named to honor her hero, pioneering journalist Ida B. Wells and her newspaper, The Memphis Free Speech, which was burned in 1892 following Wells’ groundbreaking exposé of lynching in the South. A resident of Brooklyn, New York, Traci received a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Journalism, and a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ideal Mentee: A documentary filmmaker looking to break into the independent scene. A filmmaker who will be in production between June and December 2025.

Naimah Jabali-Nash is a Director and Producer whose work has earned her six Emmy Awards, five PGA Awards, two Peabody Awards and a Critics Choice Documentary Award. After working on HBO’s critically acclaimed news magazine show, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Jabali-Nash decided it was time to challenge herself as a storyteller and ventured into the world of long-form documentary filmmaking. She collaborated with renowned director, Stanley Nelson, as a Producer on Netflix’s Crack: Cocaine, Corruption, Conspiracy, which was selected as a 2022 duPont-Columbia Award finalist.

She served as a Director and Producer on the six-part Hulu documentary series, The 1619 Project based on the Pulitzer-Prize winning journalism of Nikole Hannah-Jones. Jabali-Nash won an Emmy Award and a Critics Choice Documentary Award in 2023 for her contribution to the series. She is dedicated to telling stories that give marginalized groups a platform to be seen and heard in hopes that the work makes people feel less alone. She thrives off collaboration and loves making "dope things with dope people," which is why she created Fearless Minds Productions to fearlessly push the boundaries of storytelling with other creatives.

Ideal Mentee: A documentary producer/director who wants to break into the independent scene.

Shantira Jackson is an Emmy nominated writer, producer and comedian based in Los Angeles. She has written for Big Mouth, The Amber Ruffin Show, and Clean Slate. She was most recently a writer on CBS's late night show After Midnight.

Ideal Mentee: A comedy screenwriter looking to break into late night comedy, sitcoms or adult animation.

Angela Latimer, an African American editor based in Los Angeles. Angela grew up in Chicago, Illinois. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art and Science from Chicago State University. Her introduction to filmmaking occurred during her undergraduate studies. Following her B.A., Angela pursued freelance editing opportunities in Chicago. Her exceptional ability to craft compelling narratives that resonate with diverse audiences led her to the American Film Institute’s editing program in the heart of Hollywood in Los Angeles.

Angela earned her Master of Fine Arts in Editing from the American Film Institute, further honing her editing expertise. Her career began as an Assistant Editor, and her dedication and proficiency in editing have opened doors to diverse projects. Angela has served as an Editor for notable series such as NBC Peacock’s Bel-Air, Apple’s Swagger, and Freeform’s Grown-ish. Additionally, she is an alumnus of ACE’s diversity mentorship program.

Angela’s recent credits include her role as an Editor for the CW series All American Homecoming and the Netflix series Forever.

Ideal Mentee: An editor looking to break into scripted television.

Mamoudou N’Diaye is a Muslim Mauritanian and Malian-American comedian, writer, director, DJ, and educator.

N’Diaye’s been a correspondent for digital media companies, a consultant for countless social justice nonprofits, and a recipient of two Sundance fellowships (in 2020 for TV and 2022 for features), a Film Independent fellowship (in 2021), and a winner of the inaugural Yes And Laughter Lab (in 2019).

N’Diaye has written for Hulu’s dramedy How To Die Alone, Apple TV+’s animated kid’s show Shape Island, Netflix’s comedy Space Force, ABC’s drama Queens, and has a feature in development with Lionsgate.

Whether it’s layered comedies or self-examining speculative fictions, N’Diaye chases projects that are authentic above all else, deal in the exchange of intercultural narratives, and ultimately allows him to follow his curiosity and leave the ego behind.

Alumni of The College of Wooster, with a degree in Neuroscience, currently an adjunct professor at NYU in the Department of Dramatic Writing.

Ideal Mentee: A comedy or dramedy screenwriter looking to break into TV or features.

Dallas Rico is originally from — you guessed it — Dallas, TX. The cowboy hats he wears every day probably give it away. He spent several years as a high school Spanish teacher in Los Angeles and New York City while honing his voice as a writer. His work nimbly moves between comedy and drama, and through it, he seeks to celebrate Black, queer, and cowboy culture. A self-proclaimed hopeFUL romantic, love stories naturally sneak into everything he writes. Dallas sold his pilot LESSONS to NBC and, through the Disney Writing Program, was staffed as a writer on Hulu’s REASONABLE DOUBT, where he wrote and produced the second season finale.

Ideal Mentee: A drama screenwriter looking to break into television.

Monica Sorelle is a Haitian-American filmmaker and artist born & based in Miami. Her work centers on cultural preservation, alienation, and the lived experiences of diasporic communities.

Monica’s feature directorial debut, Mountains, had its world premiere at Tribeca Festival, where it was awarded a Special Jury Mention in the U.S. Narrative Feature competition. Mountains later had its international premiere at TIFF, and went on to receive awards from numerous festivals such as BlackStar, Miami Film Festival, and Indie Memphis. Mountains was nominated for two Film Independent Spirit Awards, with Monica receiving the Someone to Watch Award.

Ideal Mentee: An independent filmmaker working on a feature or short in the drama or comedy space.