Find YOUR Path! 2023 is a two-part professional event for students interested in arts and entertainment. We will demystify and make more inclusive pathways to careers in the art and entertainment industries!
PART 1: Join us on Wednesday, April 19, Noon - 1:30 PM for an in-person workshop at Digital Arts Research Center, Room 308, where we will get you started on your resume, cover letter, portfolio, and more!
PART 2: Then Join us on Friday, April 21, Noon - 1:30 PM on Zoom to participate in 2–3 panels featuring local and national employers, alumni, and creative professionals where you can ask your questions or receive advice!
If you have any questions about the event, please contact the lead organizer, Yasheng She.
Breakout Rooms: Get to Know Our Featured Speakers!
- Sarah Brothers - Arts Council Santa Cruz County
- Hanro Janse van Rensburg - Joffrey Ballet School
- Sarah Sanford - UCSC ArtsBridge
- Audrey Sirota - Santa Cruz County Office Of Education
- Professor Jennifer Otter Bickerdike - Popular Culture Lover, Author, Academic and Commentator
- Jessica Carmen Evanjelista - Arts Council Santa Cruz County
- Andrew Smith - Indexical
- Summer Red - Sonivore Inc.
- Andrea Alarcon - Sundance Institute
- Margie Chung - Independent Television Service, Inc. (ITVS)
- Teague Schneiter - Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Preservation) & Academy Museum
- Trisha Lagaso Goldberg - Artist and Independent Curator
- Museo Eduardo Carrillo
- San Jose Museum of Art
- Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
Theater Arts and Performance Spaces
Working in the Entertainment Industry
- Rishika Advani Tartaglia - CNN Original Series
- Margy Elliott - Prime Video & Amazon Studios
- Matthew Prescott - Editor at All American (2018 - )
Careers in Arts Education
Sarah Brothers - Arts Education Director | Arts Council Santa Cruz County
Sarah Brothers has her Masters in Arts Education and Arts Management and Community Arts. She has held various leadership positions in non-profit arts and education organizations across the country, and for the past ten years has been Arts Education Director for Arts Council Santa Cruz County.
Working with youth, teens, and adults from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, she has developed and provided engaging, enriching, and supportive arts and educational programs that meet educational, socio-emotional, and artistic needs.
Sarah believes the arts transform individuals and entire communities, and that participation in the arts empower, give voice, build esteem, provide valuable learning opportunities, and enhance quality of life. Her professional life has been dedicated to promoting the healthy development of students through standards based, sequential arts education in schools, and through culturally relevant and engaging after school community-based programs.
Sarah is committed to providing programs and resources to ensure equitable access to arts participation, and is dedicated to empowering others through creative expression to reach their full potential. Sarah is committed to pursuing equity, inclusivity, and justice through all of her work.
Through her work with the California Alliance for Arts Education, now CREATE CA, Sarah led local and state-wide arts education advocacy, coaching arts leaders across the state, and presenting on strategies for ensuring equitable access to arts education for all youth.
Throughout her time as an arts educator, manager, and advocate, Sarah has continued to create her own art. She enjoys painting, printing, and mixed media and playing music.
Hanro Janse van Rensburg - Director of Operations | Joffrey Ballet School
Hanro Janse van Rensburg (He/Him) is the Director of Residence Life and Administration for Joffrey Ballet School. He has worked for the company since 2017 and manages many departments including the Summer Intensives team. He graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University with a BA in Theatre and Music. Originally from South Africa, Hanro completed his college career in the United States and has nine years of Residence Life experience. Prior and during his college career, he spent a lot of time attending and working at summer programs in global cities such as Los Angeles, New York City, Las Vegas and Johannesburg. He has also worked as an acting, public speaking and modeling instructor, working with students of all ages. He has performed internationally as an actor, singer, host and model.
Sarah Sanford - Director | UCSC ArtsBridge
Sarah Sanford is the faculty director of UCSC ArtsBridge, which connects University faculty and scholars with classroom teachers and diverse student populations. These hopeful, skillful, and dedicated individuals form an eclectic community with a unified purpose: to spark the creative and academic development of youth, to cultivate a new generation of teaching artists, to provide arts resources to classroom teachers, and to create change within our schools and neighborhoods to fulfill our mandate of full access to arts education for all children in our region. Sanford is an artist and art educator whose practice incorporates photography, printmaking, drawing and installation to create hidden worlds of biological landscapes and scientific abstractions. Capturing the physical nature of light is a dominant component to the imagery she creates. Drawn to its’ ethereal properties and transient nature, her work explores themes of time passage, impermanence and interconnectedness.
Sanford is a Teaching Professor of Print Media and Drawing in the Art department at UC Santa Cruz. She holds a B. S. in Art Education from the joint program of Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Art and a M.F.A. in Printmaking from the Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland. Her creative practice incorporates photography, printmaking, drawing and installation to explore themes of time passage, impermanence and interconnectedness. She exhibits her work nationally and internationally with past sites including London Contemporary Art Fair; Wrexham Print International, Yale College, Wales; Edinburgh Printmakers, UK; School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Mixografia in Los Angeles and the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, CA.
As part of her professional practice, Sarah gives lectures and printmaking workshops at various institutions including Edinburgh Printmakers, Scotland; Indiana University; Herron School of Art and Design; and the Academy of Art, San Francisco. She participates in artist residencies, both nationally and internationally, and her work has been featured in publications that include the international print magazine, E-squared: Art + Science, New Linear Perspectives: Studio Series, The Hand Magazine, Art Ascent and The California Printmaker.
Audrey Sirota - ARTS Coordinator | Santa Cruz County Office Of Education
Audrey began her career at the age of 8 when she held her first summer camp in Chicago, teaching play-based lessons to 12 neighborhood children and earning $50 for her work that summer. Many lessons were learned in that first summer of teaching and learning including the importance of creativity; social and emotional learning especially involving individual and community expression; contextualizing instruction in what students knew and brought to the group; collaboration and joint activity; explicit and clear communication; infusing the arts into everything. Thus began a 30+ year journey of teaching and learning spanning preschool through the university level.
As the Arts Coordinator for the Santa Cruz COE since 2016, Audrey focuses on issues of Equity and Access to the Arts as well as the great importance of the Arts on social and emotional learning. Working with many local and state-wide Arts organizations in addition to all of our local districts, Audrey collaborates to bring high quality, systemic, standards-based Arts residencies and programs to our students throughout our county. Audrey is available to talk with organizations, individuals, and district personnel about increasing their Arts opportunities for students.
Careers in Music
Professor Jennifer Otter Bickerdike - Popular Culture Lover, Author, Academic and Commentator
Native Santa Cruzian, UK ex-pat
Popular culture lover, author, academic and commentator
Extensive music industry network
Refreshing and outspoken, knowledgeable and able to put anyone instantly at ease
Critically acclaimed and best-selling author of titles including You are Beautiful and You are Alone: A Biography of Nico (2021), #1 best-selling Being Britney: Pieces of a Modern Icon (2021), Why Vinyl Matters (2017), literary consultant for Will Sergeant of Echo and the Bunnymen’s Sunday Times charting Bunnyman as well as three monographs on popular culture, music, and pilgrimage.
- Over 30 years of music business expertise with a proven track-record of brand, event and project management; marketing across online and ‘bricks and mortar’ platforms; clients included 50 Cent, Facebook, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Chris Cornell, Rage Against the Machine, Gwen Stefani and U2.
- Expert commentator in over 30 pop culture focused documentaries, with frequent TV and radio appearances, including Discovery Channel, BBC World News, BBC Woman’s Hour, Channel 4, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4 and The Guardian.
- Creator and host of the Rock N Roll Confidential podcast.
- Extensive teaching, course leadership, project management, event planning and research experience in public and private Universities in the UK and US across music, writing and the arts.
- Archivist and curator, with recent projects including 40 years of WHAM! and 2-Tone Lives and Legacies Exhibition.
- Most likely the only person in the world to have not only an MA on Morrissey (from San Francisco State University) a PhD in Joy Division / Nirvana (awarded by Goldsmiths College, University of London) but to have also taught at Cambridge University and been a special guest with a multi-platinum selling artist at a Hell’s Angel Club House (not all simultaneously, however).
Jessica Carmen Evanjelista - Development Manager | Arts Council Santa Cruz County
Born and raised between Watsonville and Santa Cruz, Jessica is passionate about bringing the arts to her home county. She and her partner have been sharing their art as The Jams since they met in 2011 — with several First Friday and private gallery shows, community art and family events, and murals throughout the continental US. Jessica enjoys exploring new restaurants and creating art in various forms with her partner as well as traveling and creating connections between community members and organizations. Jessica graduated from Hartnell College with dual Associate of Arts degrees in World History and Developmental Psychology. Although the pandemic interrupted her studies, she is back at California State University Monterey Bay focusing on Social History and Visual Arts. Jessica's capstones involve writing the history of Chicano Muralismo and its positive influence within the tri-county area of Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey and muralism via the feminine perspective. Jessica is currently splitting her time as the Development Manager and PVUSD EL Arts Ed Associate with Arts Council Santa Cruz County. Spending time developing a more community centric and grassroots fundraising program as well as assisting with scheduling and teaching artist contracts between ACSCC and PVUSD via our arts education programs, Mariposa Arts and SPECTRA.
Andrew Smith - Executive Director | Indexical
Indexical is led by Executive Director Andrew C. Smith, a curator, and composer holding a D.M.A. in Music Composition from UC Santa Cruz. Smith is the primary curator of Indexical’s performance programming and leads institutional development. Prior to Indexical, Smith worked as the Managing Director of the S.E.M. Ensemble throughout the John Cage Centennial at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Paula Cooper Gallery, as well as in marketing and fundraising at Issue Project Room and the Seattle Symphony.
Summer Red - Executive Director | Sonivore Inc.
Summer Red is the owner and lead producer of Sonivore Studio. A lifelong musician with proficiency and experience in multiple areas of the music world, Summer dedicates his focus to the pursuit of not only making great art but creating structures of holistic support for musicians both locally and beyond. The pioneer of the landmark program Solo Tracks, Summer has partnered with a number of other local media producers, musicians, businesses and organizations to give artists opportunities to experience a music-making process that is of the highest caliber, educational for them as individuals working in a modern marketplace, full of mentorship and networking, and completed with finished material equipped to help them step in the next phase of their professional path. Summer is also the Executive Director of Sonivore Inc, an arts and education based nonprofit centered around shifting the narrative of art being more than mere entertainment. Through these two platforms Summer offers a fully institutional approach to the tasks of empowering musicians to succeed and engaging the community in the act of creating a culture which knowingly values and uplifts its artists.
Film & Documentary
Andrea Alarcon - Labs & Artist Support Coordinator | Sundance Institute
Andrea Alarcon is a nonprofit arts administrator and curator who joined the DFP team in 2019 and supports the submission review processes for the program's artist-focused creative Labs, including the Documentary Edit & Story Lab, the Documentary Producers Track and the Contributing Editor Fellowship. Andrea also contributes to the submission review process for the Documentary Fund, where she has a passion for amplifying historically underrepresented communities and international voices. She is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz with a BA in Film and Digital Media, and a concentration in documentary production. Prior to Sundance, she worked with the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History to engage and empower communities in the arts before moving to Los Angeles. Andrea is a passionate community builder, lover of films and a coffee enthusiast.
Margie Chung - Director of Human Resources | Independent Television Service, Inc. (ITVS)
Teague Schneiter - Director, Oral History Projects | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Preservation) & Academy Museum
Teague Schneiter (she/her) is an audiovisual archivist, memory worker, and heritage professional who serves as Director of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Academy Museum's Oral History Projects department, responsible for new video productions and the acquisition of a collection of over 2,000 legacy interviews with filmmakers (1948-present). As the initiative’s founder in 2012, she has been responsible for strategic planning; developing born digital video production, research, description, metadata and access practices specific to oral history; collection development; digital preservation planning; curatorial projects; cross-institutional initiatives; and outreach. She has been involved in multiple grants projects, including co-developing an oral history project dedicated to documenting the stories of Latina/o/x and Latin American filmmakers which resulted in a richly searchable multilingual website using OHMS for the Getty’s 2017 PST:LA/LA cultural festival. Teague worked in the early part of her career with oral history, human rights and other cultural heritage materials in Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, and the United States with organizations such as WITNESS and IsumaTV. Since November 2016, Teague has served on the Board of AMIA, served as Vice President, and co-founded: AMIA’s CEA Task Force, the AMIA Pathways Fellowship, the Advocacy Committee of the Board, and Oral History Committee. She is an active member of the Oral History Association’s Archives Interest Group and founder of a best practices collective with the craft guilds called the MICD Alliance. She is a graduate of the University of California Santa Cruz bachelor's in Film & Digital Media bachelors, and the University of Amsterdam's Master of Arts in Preservation & Presentation of the Moving Image. Teague is the recipient of AMIA's 2022 William O'Farrell Volunteer Award, and is currently serving as the inaugural Project Director for the AMIA Pathway’s Fellowship, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
Game Design & Production
Eric Ellis - Founder and CEO | Disruptive Games
Eric Ellis is the CEO and founder of Disruptive Games, a company that develops innovative multiplayer games that support positive social play. His vision was to create a company that produces successful games and fosters a great work environment for its employees. With a proven track record of delivering exceptional titles, Eric and his team are currently working on an original game that seeks to offer a fresh and exciting take on multiplayer action-adventure gaming. When he's not working, Eric enjoys spending time with his family and hiking in Berkeley, California.
D. Squinkifer - New Media Artist
D. Squinkifer, aka Squinky, is a transgender and neurodivergent new media artist based in Montreal, with a background in game development and performance. They hold an MFA in Digital Arts and New Media from UC Santa Cruz and were recognized as part of Forbes' 30 Under 30 in Games in 2015. They are one of three cofounders of Soft Chaos, a worker-owned cooperative studio that designs experimental videogames, tabletop games, larps, art installations, and interactive performances.
Kara Stone - Artist & Scholar
Kara Stone is an artist and scholar making work about psychosocial disability, sexuality, and the environment. She works in different media but most often in interactive art and experimental videogames. Her artwork has been featured in The Atlantic, Wired, and VICE, and exhibited at Athens Digital Art Festival in Greece, Vector Game Art Festival in Toronto, Canada and a solo exhibition at Babycastles in New York City, USA. She is a member of the Different Games Collective, a horizontal organization dedicated to expanding the culture and industry of games.
She holds a BFA in Film Production and Master’s degree in Communication and Culture from York University, and a PhD in Film and Digital Media with a designated emphasis in Feminist Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary, Canada.
You can find her games on Steam, iOS app store, Google Play, and http://karastone.itch.io/
Opportunities at Museums
Trisha Lagaso Goldberg - Artist and Independent Curator
Trisha Lagaso Goldberg is an artist and independent curator. She recently served as director of Curatorial Affairs for the FOR-SITE Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the creation, understanding, and presentation of art about place through exhibitions and commissions, artist residencies and educational programs. Born and raised on the Hawaiian island of O‘ahu, Lagaso Goldberg spent 15 years in the Bay Area (1991-2005). As executive director of Southern Exposure, the acclaimed San Francisco Mission District artist-centered organization and gallery, she stewarded over 100 exhibitions and events and worked with hundreds of artists from around the globe. In 2005, Lagaso Goldberg returned to Hawai‘i where she led the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts’ commissioned works branch of its public art program. As the founding gallery director and curator of the Honolulu Chinatown art space thirtyninehotel, Lagaso Goldberg launched an artist residency program that invited artists from outside of the archipelago to create site-specific installations. Through this initiative, she commissioned works by artists such as Carolyn Castaño, Eamon Ore-Giron, Julio Morales, and Stephanie Syjuco. Her curatorial projects include Sino Ka? Ano Ka? San Francisco Babaylan(1998), which she co-curated with Carlos Villa for the Museo ng Maynila; and Lands End (2022), which featured the work of 27 international artists addressing climate crisis at the historic Cliff House in San Francisco. Lagaso Goldberg served as co-curator of the 2022 Carlos Villa: Worlds in Collisionretrospective exhibition, presented at the Newark Museum of Art (Newark, NJ), San Francisco Arts Commission Main Galleryand Asian Art Museum, San Francisco. She currently lives and works in San Francisco and on the island of O'ahu.
Museo Eduardo Carrillo
Museo Eduardo Carrillo is the only Artist Endowed Foundation in the United States devoted to the work of a Mexican-American artist. Museo presents the life and work of Eduardo Carrillo, former professor of art at the University of California-Santa Cruz. Alison Carrillo is the Founder and President of Museo and Betsy Andersen is the Founding Director of Museo.
Betsy Andersen - Founding Director
In 2000, Betsy Andersen became Founding Director of Museo Eduardo Carrillo, an online museum devoted to the art and impact of the pioneering artist Eduardo Carrillo. Museo fulfills its responsibility as a museum by exhibiting under-represented artists and developing free educational resources based on contemporary Latinx Art. The educational programs were developed with the Young Writers Project. Based on these programs, Museo was given the Rydell Award. Ms. Andersen developed the Califas Legacy Project to capture their untold stories.
She has been a radio host on NPR affiliate KUSP providing weekly in-depth interviews with visual artist; developed intimate documentaries on artists and was the first curator for the Santa Cruz Art League. She worked as an art teacher for kindergarteners to university students.
San Jose Museum of Art
Nestor Gutierrez - Finance and Development Assistant
Nestor is a highly accomplished professional with a degree in History of Art and Visual Culture from UC Santa Cruz. He currently serves as the Finance and Development Assistant at the San Jose Museum of Art Association, where he adeptly manages record care, Accounts Payable management, Gift Processing, and various administrative tasks within the Finance and Development departments. Prior to his current role, Nestor served as the Programs Coordinator for the Campbell Historical Museum.
Nestor's passion for leadership and community engagement led him to earn the John R. Lewis College's Leadership Certificate during his time at UCSC. He was actively involved with the CoCurricular Programs Office (The CoCo), PAC (Practical Activism Conference), Engage, and facilitated College Ten's Expressive Arts for Social Justice course. Nestor's professionalism, attention to detail, and commitment to excellence make him an invaluable asset to any team.
Jhay Santos - Human Resources Administrator
Jhay Santos joined San Jose Museum of Art as a volunteer in 2013, hired as a front-line staff in 2014, and returned to the institution with comprehensive knowledge of HR and CA Employment Law in 2022. Jhay earned his B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Biochemistry from San Jose State University.
Prior to rejoining the San Jose Museum of Art, Jhay joined a personal injury and employment law firm and began to dabble in case managements and office management. Over the years Jhay was awarded the opportunity to build the law firm’s official HR department from the ground up.
After law school in 2018, and after joining a personal injury law firm, Jhay returned to his passion for the art and serving local communities, and museum employees. While Jhay’s primary focus is Employment Law, he enjoys the role of Human Resources.
"Working in this role has allowed me to interact with a diverse range of individuals and gain insights into their unique personalities and backgrounds. It's a humbling experience to recognize that for every employee, there is a human being with a story. It's important to remember that we are the backbone of a business or an organization, and that every member contributes to its success." - Jhay
Jhay is a member of the California Chamber of Commerce, SHRM, and National Notary Association.
Outside of the office, Jhay enjoys weightlifting, traveling, music festivals, and oil painting.
Shannon Stearns - Education Program Coordinator
Shannon Stearns is the Education Program Coordinator at San José Museum of Art, where she has been introducing young minds to the world of art, and museum literacy for the last six years. Her favorite moment of a museum visit is when a student explains a piece of art in a way she has never thought of before and she gains a whole new appreciation of the work. Students teach us as much as we teach them. Outside of her work at the museum, Shannon has built a small business providing hands-on art education and is an avid seamstress and gardener. Shannon holds a Master's Degree in the History of Art from Temple University and Bachelors of Art Degrees in Anthropology and History of Art and Visual Culture with concentrations in Visual Culture from the University of California Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
Marla Novo - Director of Exhibitions & Programs
Marla Novo (she/her) earned a Master of Arts in Art History from San Jose State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from UC Santa Cruz. She has over 25 years of experience curating exhibitions at non-profit institutions as well as at unconventional spaces. She’s activated exhibitions with collaborative programming. Marla is especially interested in using art, history, and culture to create unexpected spaces for storytelling.
Oscar Paz - Education & Outreach Manager
Oscar Paz (he/him) was born and raised in Guatemala before moving to California. He majored in French and Spanish at UC Santa Barbara. He brings his passion for teaching to the MAH by developing educational programs, activating the exhibitions through guided tours, and facilitating art activities. He is committed to uplifting stories of the past and connecting them to people visiting the MAH.
Theater Arts & Performance Spaces
American Conservatory Theater
Jill MacLean - Young Conservatory Director
With more than 25 years’ experience in theater and education, Jill MacLean is passionate about bringing theater into the lives of young people. She holds a multicultural teaching credential in Spanish and a Master of Fine Arts degree in musical theater, and has experience as a director, actor, producer, and arts program administrator in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area. In her current role as Director of the Young Conservatory at American Conservatory Theater, she oversees all training programs for young actors ages 8-19, including classes, performance ensembles, private coaching and productions. Previous jobs include roles at Lincoln Center Theater, Marymount Manhattan College, Berkeley Repertory Theater, Z Space, Playwrights Foundation, StageWrite, Word for Word, and Las Positas College among others. Words to live by: "Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art." - Konstantin Stanislavski
Juan Manzo - Director of Education & Community Programs
Juan Manzo is an Arts Education professional & advocate with almost two decades of experience in the field. He has led arts education programs and professional development workshops in Arts Integration for teachers and young people in New York and California. Juan has worked as a Teaching Artist and Arts Education Consultant for multiple organizations including StageWrite, The Old Globe, San 2020-2021 4 Francisco Opera, Young Audiences of the Bay Area, La Jolla Playhouse and Center Theater Group. As a member of the Board of Directors for the Arts Education Alliance of the Bay Area, he has worked for a stronger and more equitable arts education community in the Bay Area. A strong believer in using the arts for creative engagement and problem solving, he is deeply committed to ensuring access to the arts to all students regardless of socioeconomic status or race.
Magic Theater
The Magic Theatre is a theatre company founded in 1967, presently based at the historic Fort Mason Center on San Francisco's northern waterfront. The Magic Theatre is well known and respected for its singular focus on the development and production of new plays.
Kevin Nelson - Managing Director
Liam Vincent - Director of Growth & Associate Lead Director
Liam Vincent (he/him) is currently the Associate Lead Director and Director of Growth for the Magic Theater in San Francisco. Prior to moving into arts leadership he was a professional actor in the Bay Area for twenty-five years. Credits include productions with Shakespeare Santa Cruz, American Conservatory Theater, Huntington Theater, Portland Center Stage, Alliance, Aurora, SF Playhouse, Marin Theater Company, and work off-Broadway. Last year he directed Sleeping Beauty at The Presidio Theater in San Francisco, which will be remounted in December of 2023. He and his husband live in the Mission District of San Francisco and is a proud graduate of the Boston University School of Theater Arts.
Jodi Cobalt - Chief of Operations | Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Jodi Cobalt has been active in Bay Area theater and dance for over twenty years. As a performer, choreographer, lighting designer, and production manager, she has a unique understanding of the needs of YBCA and the communities it serves. Joining the YBCA staff in 2007, Jodi served in several roles, including the Director of Production, before becoming the Chief of Operations in the Spring of 2020. As the chair of IAVM’s Performing Arts Committee, she collaborates with venue professionals across the country in reimagining the future of the performing arts sector.
Nikki Meñez - Curatorial Director | Z Space
Nikki Meñez (they/she/siya) is a director, movement artist, and arts administrator based in the San Francisco Bay Area who is moved to challenge what performing arts look like and how stories are told. A graduate from the University of California at Santa Cruz, Nikki received degrees in Environmental Studies and Theatre Arts and is an alum of Rainbow Theater. Nikki is the Curatorial Director at Z Space where they curate and cultivate the rental partnerships that populate the venue side of the organization and coordinate Z Space's various residency programs in order to make the venue more accessible to the local arts ecosystem. When not at Z Space or directing, Nikki works in casting and artist outreach, theater education, and arts advocacy for a more equitable, sustainable, and humane creative ecosystem. Bay Area creative affiliations include Queer Cat Productions, Awesome Theatre, Custom Made Theatre. Faultline Theatre, Epic Party Theater, & PianoFight.
Working in the Entertainment Industry
Rishika Advani Tartaglia - Director of Current Programming | CNN Original Series
Rishika Advani has been developing, writing and producing non-fiction programs for over two decades. She’s produced dozens of documentary and reality shows, including Showtime’s political reality series, American Candidate, TLC’s groundbreaking docuseries, Lost in Transition, Morgan Spurlock’s 30 Days for FX and TLC’s cult favorite, Toddlers and Tiaras. From 2018-2020, she served as Senior Producer on a docu-hybrid series for Apple + called Dear ... featuring such icons as Oprah Winfrey, Lin Manuel Miranda and Gloria Steinem and Spike Lee. The series highlights how these individuals inspired others to do remarkable things in their own lives and communities. Advani also produced the critically acclaimed comedic documentary, Meet the Patels, which screened in multiple film festivals around the world, and earned an Emmy nomination. Advani’s work spans a wide variety of topics from politics and social issues to food and travel. Currently, she is the Director of Original Series at CNN, where she develops and oversees premium documentary programs such as the Emmy Award winning series, Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, The Murdochs: Empire of Influence, Lincoln: Divided We Stand, This is Life with Lisa Ling, and Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World. While at CNN, she has spearheaded multiple diversity initiatives with non-profits, to forge relationships with filmmakers from under-represented communities. Advani graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in Sociology, and is a member of the Television Academy, the International Documentary Association, Women in Non-Fiction and Brown Girls Doc Mafia. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband Pete and their two kids, Maya and Marco.
Margy Elliott - Strategy and Business Manager | Prime Video & Amazon Studios
Margy Elliott is the Business Manager for the VP of Prime Video in the US. She has been working with Prime Video since February of 2020. She was one of the creators of the Amazon Studios Inclusion Policy & Playbook, and previously led the team that inspected how Prime Video’s content represents the world we live in – both on screen and behind the camera. Previous roles at Amazon have been in corporate DEI, and inclusive marketing with AWS. Prior to joining Amazon 6.5 years ago, Margy worked in higher education and early-stage technology marketing. Margy has a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s degree from New York University where she studied international health policy. She loves living and working globally, and has done public health work in the Philippines and in India. She currently lives in Panama City, Panama with her husband, two kids, and dog named Juguete.
Matthew Prescott - Editor at All American (2018 -)
Matthew Prescott graduated UCSC 2012 Porter College. Film and Digital Media Major + Spanish Minor. Currently working as a picture editor on the show All American for CW.