PANELISTS
All panelists are alumni of the University of Arizona
As a casting director, Eyde Belasco (BA, 1991) has worked on the independent feature films Monos, Sorry To Bother You, Morris From America, Breathe In, The Words, Like Crazy, Pariah, Here, Lymelife, Don’t Let Me Drown and Half Nelson, all of which screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Most recently in film, she cast Drake Doremus’ newest film Endings, Beginnings. In television, she cast the CBS All Access series Interrogation as well as Transparent and I Love Dick for Amazon. Other films include 500 Days of Summer, Behind Enemy Lines and Rescue Dawn. For her work on Half Nelson and Transparent she won the Artios Award for achievement in Casting.
She is currently in her 25th year as the West Coast casting director for the Sundance Institute.
Darious Britt is a Director, producer, screenwriter and actor. He attended film school at the University of Arizona and graduated in May of 2012 with a Bachelors in Media Production.
He toured his short film Seafood Tester to four international film festivals including the Oscar qualifying Aspen Shorts fest in 2012. Darious created the YouTube channel D4Darious, in August of 2013 and it has since grown to over 400,000 subscribers and over 18 million views.
He toured his first feature film Unsound on the film festival circuit screening at over 20 international film festivals, winning 19 awards including best director at The Pan African Film Festival in 2015. 5 telly awards from the 40th annual telly awards in 2019, and a webby awards nomination in 2020. He released his second feature documentary How I Made My First Movie | MAKING UNSOUND in 2018. It has since garnered over 150 thousand online views, in addition to winning 4 tellys at the 40th annual telly awards in 2019.
Tyler Gillett (BFA, 2004) is a film, television and new media writer, director and producer based in Los Angeles. One of the founding members of the filmmaking collective Radio Silence, his recent film credits include the 2019 Searchlight hit Ready or Not, Sundance 2012’s V/H/S, 20th Century Fox’s Devil’s Due and The Orchard’s Southbound. He is currently set to direct the next installment of the SCREAM franchise for Paramount/Spyglass and has other feature projects in development at STX, Warner Bros and Legendary Entertainment. In addition to his film credits, he has sold three television shows — a horror anthology to NBC, an action comedy to Comedy Central, and an adventure show to Disney XD. Tyler got his start working with the online comedy group Chad, Matt & Rob whose work has garnered over 100 Million total views on YouTube.
Kyle Harris is a proud musical theatre alumni of the University of Arizona’s class of 2008. As a company member of the Arizona Repertory Theatre program, he lead productions of Side Show, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Tommy, Candide and Urinetown. He also was the co creator of the student produced theatre program on campus, SOS (Students on Stage). After graduation, Kyle has gone on to star on TV, Broadway and a Broadway National Tour. He made his Broadway debut in Sondheim on Sondheim in 2010, which lead him to star as Tony in the Broadway National Tour of West Side Story in 2011. He has worked across the country, regionally, in productions of Little Dancer (Kennedy Center) and Marie: Dancing Still (5th Avenue), both directed by Tony award winner, Susan Stroman. A Room With a View and The Rainmaker at The Old Globe as well as Hair at Arizona Theatre Company. His work in theatre eventually lead him to television. Appearing on: God Friended Me (CBS), High Maintenance (HBO), The Carrie Diaries (CW), “Beauty and The Beast” (CW), The Blacklist: Redemption (NBC) and eventually starring on the Freeform series,“Stitchers” for three seasons. Aside from his work as an actor, Harris is also a published author of the children’s book series, Katarina Ballerina, on shelves now. Kyle was most recently seen this season, back on Broadway, in the Olivier, Dram Desk and Drama League winning play, The Inheritance. He is continually grateful for the work and the people he’s gotten to work with throughout his career. All of which would not be possible if it weren’t for the training and opportunities he received at the University of Arizona. To stay updated on what’s next for Harris, follow him on all social media platforms @Kyleharris.
Peter Murrieta is a two-time Emmy Award winning producer and writer who has contributed his voice to multiple projects that have expanded and further legitimized the entertainment value of telling stories about diverse cultures.
After moving to Los Angeles, Peter was accepted into the esteemed ABC writing fellowship. His success during the fellowship led to writing positions on Jesse, Three Sisters and All About the Andersons, before he created the critically acclaimed series Greetings from Tucson, which tells the story of an upwardly mobile family of mixed ethnicity. The series’ Latino cast is a perfect example of how he’s been able to bring the lighthearted examination of his culture to the predominantly white television landscape. As a producer, Peter is dedicated to ensuring that diverse and underrepresented persons have opportunities in the industry on both sides of the camera, as evidenced by his work on the Emmy Award winning, Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place.
Peter has produced and written on NBC’s Welcome to the Family, ABC’s Cristela, TV Land’s Lopez, Norman Lear’s Netflix re-boot of One Day A Time and CBS’ Superior Doughnuts. He was most recently Executive producer and writer on Netflix’s Mr. Iglesias, starring comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias. Having taught at the prestigious American Film Institute, Peter is now a professor of Practice at Arizona State University, happy to have a foot back in his home state of Arizona.
Christopher Nataanii Cegielski (BFA, 2016) is a Director, Writer and member of the Navajo Nation. His work tackles many genres and ranges from documentary to narrative.
Christopher was a recent fellow of Commercial Diversity Directors Program (CDDP), created by the DGA and AICP to increase diversity representation in the commercial world. His New Balance spec, For Any Run, hit 30K views in the first three days and is now up to 40K. Recently he has worked with clients such as Google, Youtube, Emerson Collective and DIG DEEP on their Navajo Water Project.
Christopher’s narrative work has received international recognition from festivals such as the Berlinale, SXSW, imagineNATIVE and Sun Valley. He has received artistic development from the Sundance Native Lab’s Time Warner Producers Fellowship and Film Independent’s Project Involve Program. During his time with PI, he received the Sony Pictures Diversity Fellowship Grant.
Christopher is based in Los Angeles where he is developing and writing commercial projects, short films and features.
Mike Plante (BFA, 1994) is a Senior Programmer for Short Film at the Sundance Film Festival, where he has worked since 2001. He started working for The Arizona International Film Festival in 1993 and continued to be a programmer and projectionist at The Screening Room for a decade. He projected films at The Loft Cinema from 1996-1999, helped start The Loft Film Fest, and worked at Casa Video for longer than he can remember. Outside of fest work he makes documentaries, including the short The Polaroid Job (2016, New York Times Op-Doc series), the feature Giuseppe Makes A Movie (2014) and most recently the feature And With Him Came the West, which premiered at the 2019 MoMA Doc Fortnight festival.
The Twitter profile of Brad Slater (BA, 1996) proudly declares his loyalty: “Arizona Wildcat No Matter What.”
Since earning his degree in Media Arts from the University of Arizona, Brad has had a successful career in talent representation. He is a senior partner and motion picture talent agent at the prestigious William Morris Endeavor Agency, where he represents some of the biggest names in the industry, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Octavia Spencer, Lebron James, Ronda Rousey, Michael Strahan, and Odell Beckham Jr.
Brad understands the importance of connecting students early in their career and has maintained close ties with the UA. He has participated in a Hanson FilmTV Institute panel, presented to a class in the School of Theatre, Film & Television, provided career advice to students and alumni, and facilitated connections between the college and other alumni in the film and television industry. Brad has hosted Summer Internship Roundtables at WME’s headquarters. In addition to speaking, he enlists the participation of WME colleagues who are also UA Alumni.
For his outstanding career achievements and his unwavering dedication to the college and its students, the UA Alumni Association named Brad Slater its 2019 Alumnus of the Year for the College of Fine Arts.
Scott Stuber is the head of Netflix Films where he oversees the development, production and acquisition of the Netflix film slate. His deep ties to the creative community and decades of experience in producing commercially successful and acclaimed motion pictures have helped connect the company with some of the industry’s best talent and filmmakers, including Michael Bay, Alfonso Cuarón and Martin Scorsese. Recent hits under Stuber’s supervision include: Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, Academy Award winner Marriage Story; Murder Mystery starring Adam Sandler; Extraction starting Chris Hemsworth; Nahnatchka Khan’s feature directorial debut Always Be My Maybe; Bird Box directed by Susanne Bier and starring Sandra Bullock; and three-time Academy Award winner Roma directed by Alfonso Cuarón.
Prior to Netflix, he founded and ran Bluegrass Films, which produced such hits as Ted, Central Intelligence, and Safe House, among many others. A former vice chairman of worldwide production at Universal Studios, he was responsible for many of its critically-acclaimed, award-winning, and commercially-successful films, including A Beautiful Mind, Seabiscuit, Cinderella Man, Jarhead, 8 Mile, Meet the Parents and its follow-up films, plus both the Bourne and Fast and the Furious franchises. More than 20 of the films he supervised have grossed over $100 million at the U.S. box office.
Scott resides in Los Angeles with his wife Molly and their three children. Scott is on the board and active with a variety of organizations, including the Charlotte + Gwyneth Gray Foundation, Baby2Baby and Chrysalis.
Lindsay Utz (BA, 2003) is the editor of the 2020 Academy Award-winning documentary, American Factory. Her other credits include the Oscar-shortlisted Bully (Tribeca 2011), First Position (TIFF 2011), Buoy (Ashland 2013), In Country (Full Frame 2014), Quest (Sundance 2017) and Miss Americana (Sundance 2020). She has been nominated for every major editing award in her field, and in 2018 won the Cinema Eye Honors award for Outstanding Achievement in Editing for her work on Quest, which was also nominated for both Emmy and Peabody Awards. She is currently editing a documentary on Billie Eilish for Apple TV+. She is a member of American Cinema Editors and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Allison Vanore (BFA, 2004) is an Emmy Award-winning producer of the acclaimed series “After Forever.” Between 2015-2019 Allison served as the Head of Production for Canvas Media Studios where she produced pilots and series such as “Wear It to Win It” for Facebook and “Vanity” which garnered her first Emmy nomination in 2016. Allison’s latest feature credits include the award-winning films “Buck Run” (Palm Springs 2019), “The Rainbow Experiment” (Gravitas 2018), and “42 Seconds of Happiness” (Indie Rights 2017).
Allison’s latest series credits include five-time Emmy Award winning “After Forever” (Amazon 2018-), “Dark/Web” (Amazon 2019-), and “Limelight” (Yarn app 2018-19). Allison is published in the book “Thriving in Hollywood!: Tenacious Tales & Tactics from Ms. In The Biz.” She also serves on the executive board of Women in Media, an organization that advocates for gender parity in the entertainment industry.
Vinessa Vidotto (BFA, 2018) moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 2018; shortly after, she landed her first TV role as Remiel (recurring guest star) on the Netflix show, Lucifer. In the spring of 2019, she booked her first commercial for New Coke x Stranger Things. Vinessa credits Brady McKay (manager), Rob Cassandro (agent) and Rachele Fink (commercial) for guiding her through the world of ‘show biz’. She’s also learned from the truly wonderful teachers and classmates at UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade), John Rosenfeld’s studio and Margie Haber’s studio. Though the past few months have been challenging, Vinessa is looking forward to what’s ahead and is finding ways to seize this unexpected, yet ‘once in a lifetime’ experience.
Jeff Yanc holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in Media Arts from the University of Arizona, where he also served as an adjunct professor in film history.