About Us
Who we are and what we do
The Black TV & Film Collective was created to provide opportunities for Black and African descent artists to achieve economically sustainable careers in all areas of content creation. BTFC is a collective of screenwriters, directors, producers, content creators, editors, cinematographers, animators, agents and other media professionals.
The Black TV & Film Collective started in 2015 with a small group of artists on a mission: friends helping friends create their projects. What started as a simple act to create work, given the dearth of opportunities for Black filmmakers, eventually blossomed into a dynamic and effective meetup group. Our very first office was located in a desolate industrial neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York.
By 2017, we were given 501(c)(3) non profit status, and it has been blue skies ever since. Our members hail from all over, including the continents of Africa, South America, and Europe. BTFC members work in front of the camera, behind the camera, and everywhere in between. Presently, we have members in 5 major media centers in North America: New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Raleigh and Toronto. As we grow, what continues to be at the heart of the Black TV & Film Collective, is friends helping friends create.
Today, with over 1300 members in major media hubs across North America, the Black TV & Film Collective is a development and production hub for Black and brown content creators and professionals. BTFC has supported over 200 projects since its founding in 2015. Our members have created award winning work that is screened nationally and internationally, on the big screen, TV and streaming platforms such as Hulu, Mubi, Netflix and Amazon.
Board of Directors
Kibi Anderson
Co-President & Chair
READ BIOKibi is an LA based business executive and Emmy Award winning producer with over 18 years of experience in strategy, business development, media, entertainment, tech, finance and entrepreneurship. Working in Executive roles at Red Table Talk (President), Bloomberg Media (Head of Digital Strategy & Business Development), ABC News (Senior Manager, Business Strategy and Operations), and Broadway Federal Bank (VP/ Business Development Manager) she’s become recognized for her ability to mix comprehensive industry insight, entrepreneurial acumen, and strategic communications skills to build digital businesses and brands globally.
Kibi received her MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and is a Cum Laude graduate of Harvard University, where she earned a BA degree in East Asian Studies.
You can follow her on FB, Twitter or Instagram @kibianderson.
Lemu Coker
Co-President & Chair
READ BIOLemu is an executive at Google within the Global Media and Entertainment Partnerships organization supporting broadcasters, sports leagues, and entertainment firms monetize their content. He has more than 15 years’ experience in strategy, business development, and operations within the Media and Technology space having worked at Google, Twitter, Verizon Media, MTV Networks, Apple, and Myspace.
He has served on the advisory board of AdColor, leadership positions within the Black Googler Network, and advised numerous startups and entrepreneurs. He is a proud husband and father of a son and 5-year-old English bulldog, Madiba.
Lemu received his MBA from the University of Michigan, and his B.A. from the University of Connecticut in Mass Media and Marketing Studies.
Huriyyah Muhammad
Founder/Board Member Emeritus
READ BIOHuriyyah is an award-winning writer, director and producer whose projects have been invited to the Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, New Voices in Black Cinema, American Black Film Festival and many others. She is a 2018 Sundance Creative Producing Fellow and recipient of the 2020 Sundance Creative Producing Award for Farewell Amor, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival in US Dramatic Competition.
Huriyyah is also co-founder of the Black TV & Film Collective, a 1400-member 501c3 dedicated to developing and supporting artists of color. At the Collective, Huriyyah wears many hats, most of which can be summarized as leading this awesome team and being inspired every day by our members.
Chris Gorges
Communications Committee Chair
READ BIOChris is an independent brand strategy and design consultant, and the founder / CEO of Thompson & Prince and Everharbor. Previously, he was Managing Director at Infinia Group, leading Infinia Ventures, a practice dedicated to serving the startup ecosystem. Before Infinia, he was at Havas Worldwide following a stint as a freelance strategy consultant at creative agencies including Droga5, Clear M&C Saatchi, CHI&Partners, and Firstborn.
Chris has done strategy consulting work in brand, digital, and growth strategy for a wide range of clients including Google, IBM, Spotify, TIAA, Amtrak, Wiley, NYCEDC and the US Department of Defense. Chris mentors and advises startups via a number of accelerator, incubator, and venture capital organizations, including Big Idea Ventures, Acceleprise, XRC Labs, RetailXelerator, VentureOut, Lambda School, First Flight Venture Center, Launch Chapel Hill, and WeWork Labs.
Early in his career, Chris worked for IBM and Booz Allen Hamilton in Washington, DC. He holds an MBA from NYU Stern and an undergraduate business degree from UNC-Chapel Hill.
Okema T. Moore
Programming Committee Chair
READ BIOOkema T. Moore is a seasoned producer, writer and director who started as a child actor on Sesame Street, cultivating quite a life of experiences since then. These experiences include sharing an EMMY Nomination for a PSA she AD’d, produced and voiced, premiering as a digital series producer at Tribeca Film Festival’s Tribeca N.O.W. 2019, producing the NAACP nominated doc series UNLADYLIKE2020 for PBS, and producing the American Black Film Festival 2019 Best Web Series, Little Apple. She can be seen as a hologram in Brian Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative Legacy Museum in Montgomery, AL and in successful web series such as Makeup X Breakup and the Emmy Nominated Pillow Talk.
Behind the scenes, Okema holds a BS in finance and business from Brooklyn College and a Producing Certification from NYU’s SPS. A member of the Board of Directors of the Black TV & Film Collective, Okema leads Programming.
Ejeb Dema
Board Member
READ BIOEjeb Dema is an entertainment executive based in NYC. From working at Facebook and Google, she garnered 7 years of partnerships and business development experience by managing $100M in revenue in the direct-to-consumer (D2C) and ecommerce verticals. Her belief that media inspires empathy and education drives her passion for the industry. She’s packaged deals and experiential for CultureCon, MVAAFF, and SXSW, most notably launching the first Black space at Tribeca Film Festival with Johnnie Walker x Kenya Barris. Ultimately, Ejeb aspires to EP Black stories across TV/film, music, books and Broadway and
Recently, she was selected to Diverse Representation’s Black Entertainment Executive Program (1.2% acceptance rate) and served on the 2020-22 ADCOLOR Advisory Board. Ejeb loves the local library, banana bread, magazines and witty banter – say hi if you see her around!
Sharon Liggins
Board Member
READ BIOSenior PR executive Sharon Liggins is SVP, Head of Communications for FIFTH SEASON (formerly Endeavor Content), a leading global, premium film and TV studio. FIFTH SEASON is the studio for the ensemble comedy 80 FOR BRADY, Oscar-nominated THE LOST DAUGHTER and the Emmy-winning critically acclaimed series SEVERANCE on Apple TV+. Sharon was previously VP, Publicity at Ava DuVernay’s narrative change and social impact collective ARRAY as well as an independent PR consultant, working with such clients as the CIAA (Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association), documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson/Firelight Films and the Broad Museum. Earlier in her career Sharon held executive positions at global media companies NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment and the Walt Disney Company-ABC Entertainment. Sharon also served 2 terms on the board of governors of the Television Academy and co-chaired the Diversity Committee. While governor, Sharon initiated the Academy’s first ever Emmy reception celebrating nominated people of color.
Ron McCants
Board Member & Parity Project Founder
READ BIOMFA, TV writer, playwright; WGA member who has written for Speechless. His plays have been produced in LA, New York and London. Ron’s been a writer for the Disney ABC Writing Program and recipient of multiple playwriting awards and the Fred Rogers Memorial Scholarship for children’s television.
He was most recently a staff writer on Chicago Fire, but he’s written a music video for Nas and worked on Marvel’s Falcon and The Winter Soldier. He runs an organization aimed at improving the career outcomes of marginalized writers through data.
Derrick Pete
Board Member & Parity Project Advisor
READ BIODerrick Pete received his MFA from UCLA’s acclaimed Film & TV Screenwriting graduate program. While in the program, he was honored with the prestigious Showcase Award for best screenplay, gaining the attention of Hollywood agents and producers. Recently, Pete has turned his attention toward expanding his creative territory, adding producing and directing to the equation.
To date, he has produced and directed three music videos and four short films. He produced the award-winning short film, Six Letter Word, starring Rumer Willis for AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women.
Anthony Santagati
Board Member
READ BIOWith nearly 25 years of experience in industries including fashion, luxury, media, and tech, Anthony has provided design and marketing solutions for international brands including Burberry, Lacoste, HBO, FX, AMC Networks, Airbnb, and the University of South Carolina. As a creative director, he has developed the look and feel of a variety of consumer-facing projects, from websites to e-commerce platforms, storefronts to live events. In digital-strategy roles, he has demonstrated an uncommon ability to predict emerging trends in technology and social media, bringing the best of what’s new to traditional markets.
Anthony’s education combines artistic vision with academic rigor: He holds fine arts and law degrees from Howard University (BFA, 1999; JD, 2005) and continually updates his knowledge and skills by attending conferences on design, innovation, and creativity across the globe. And as a leader in his field, he has shared his own expertise and experience with everyone from international colleagues to aspiring college students. A native of South Carolina’s Sea Islands, he currently lives with his wife in Brooklyn.
Avril Speaks
Board Member
READ BIOAvril Speaks has been carving out her path as a bold, innovative content creator for several years, not only as a producer and director but also during her former days as a professor at Howard University. Avril produced the award-winning film Jinn, which premiered in Narrative Competition at SXSW and won Special Jury Recognition for Writing. Jinn gained distribution through MGM/Orion Classics and continues to be seen throughout the world.
Avril has also produced several films including Hosea and the upcoming comedy Dotty & Soul, starring Leslie Uggams, Gary Owen, David Koechner and Margot Bingham. Her latest projects include the South African film African America, which premiered at the Pan African Film Festival, and the docu-series Black America Is…, which has received support from The Blackhouse Producer’s Lab, the CNN/Film Independent Docu-Series Intensive, and the Kettering Foundation.Avril was an Associate Producer on the TNT docu-series “American Race” and has helped produce both scripted and unscripted content for BET, Coca Cola, Essence, and others. She was recently a producing consultant for Wayfarer Studios’ Six Feet Apart Experiment film project, and was producer of the short film Black Prom, which aired on Netflix Film Club.
Avril has been selected for producing labs with Film Independent, Sundance, IFP, Rotterdam and Cannes, and Sundance. Avril serves as board chair for Level Ground, an award-winning artist collective and production studio creating experiments in empathy, and she is a contributing writer for DearProducer.com. She has also directed two feature films, The Round Table and the award-winning Sophisticated Romance.
Advisory Board
Kai Akira
Director, Story Artist, Character Designer (Netflix)
Thembi Banks
Writer, Producer, Director (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Only Murders in the Building)
Janine Sherman Barrois
Showrunner, Writer (Criminal Minds, ER, Claws)
Effie Brown
CEO & Producer (Gamechanger Films)
Deniese Davis
CEO & Producer (Reform Media Group)
Cassian Elwes
Producer
Guetty Felin
Filmmaker/Teacher/Curator
Hilliard Guess
Producer/Writer (Hilldog Productions)
Eric Haywood
Writer/Director/Producer (Mill Road Media, Inc.)
Mynette Louie
Emmy-nominated producer (The Tale, I Carry You With Me)
Jeff Melvoin
Showrunner/Producer/Writer/Author (Killing Eve)
Kaita Mpambara
Writer
Huriyyah Muhammad
Producer/Writer/Director
Ekwa Msangi
Writer/Director
Ramfis Myrthil
Filmmaker/Producer/Writer
Arinze Onugha
Attorney, Sullivan & Worcester LLP
Kemp Powers
Writer/Director (Soul, One Night in Miami)
Peter Ramsey
Director, Sony Pictures Animation
Aida Rodriguez
Comedian/Writer (Dancing With Raymond Productions)
Bianca Sams
Writer/Actor
Malcolm Spellman
Writer, Prouder (Empire, Falcon and the Winter Soldier)
Aaron Rahsaan Thomas
Writer, Producer (BET Studios, SWAT)
Eric Wallace
Actor
Ben Watkins
Showrunner/Writer/Director/Producer (Blue Monday Productions)
Partners
Gotham Film & Media Institute
The Gotham Film & Media Institute is a not-for-profit dedicated to finding, developing and celebrating the people and projects that shape the future of story.
Tribeca Film Institute
Tribeca Film Institute champions storytellers to be catalysts for change in their communities and around the world.
Wavelength Films
Wavelength is an award-winning film studio committed to developing, producing and financing films that tell great f**king stories.
Cinereach
Vital stories, artfully told.
Ablecine
Supporting content creators with equipment, services & knowledge.
TCS Films
TCS provides cinematographers and productions with professional motion picture equipment rental and support as a leading supplier in New York for 40 years.
Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television Inc. (SPT) is an American television production and distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, it is a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment and a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation.
Department of Motion Pictures
The Department of Motion Pictures produces narrative and documentary features and series, with a focus on ambitious, cinematic, and emotionally resonant storytelling.
National Association of Latino Independent Producers
NALIP seeks to change media culture by advocating and promoting the professional needs of Latinx artists in media.
NYC Women Filmmakers
NYCWF is a non-profit 501c3 organization dedicated to advancing the careers of women, non-binary & GNC creators in Film, TV & Media.
Impact24PR
Impact24, Inc. is a full-service entertainment public relations agency.
News & Events
Read what we’ve been up to lately, and check out our upcoming calendar of events