Bio – Emerging

RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab, Summer 2019

Keith Hedlund

As the progeny of union laborers and therapists, Keith Hedlund has a penchant for stories that combine deft navigation of social issues with overconfident assessments of human relationships. By the time he earned his MFA in film and television directing from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television, Keith had worked as a detective’s assistant, a community organizer, an ice cream man, a schoolteacher, and a maple syrup sap tapper—experiences that all find their way into his writing and directing.

Keith’s work has received a Sloan Science & Film Feature Screenwriting Award and multiple short film awards. He’s worked with George Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures, Creative Differences Productions, the AMDA College and Conservatory, and UCLA’s Center for Engineering, Media and Performance. He writes and directs using multiple forms, including live action narrative, documentary, and animation. In addition to his degree from UCLA, he holds an MFA in creative writing from Brown University. He is a member of the Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors.

Keith’s experience with epilepsy has strengthened his long-time commitment to social advocacy and has been an important inspiration for his work.

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RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab, Summer 2019

Tyler Hoog

Tyler Hoog is originally from Colorado, where he enjoyed the full range of outdoor activities that his home state has to offer. Additionally, he was a varsity baseball player in high school. However, after a car accident left him paralyzed from the neck down, he decided to hang up his cleats and hiking boots. As one would imagine, his accident changed his trajectory in life in a way he never expected. Tyler has always been a storyteller. Whether he was telling his own stories or repeating every line from a movie, he has always been drawn to storytelling. During his three month stay in inpatient rehab, he discovered a new passion for film and television. He began to channel this new found passion and combined it with his natural affinity for storytelling to pursue a career as a screenwriter.

That passion took Tyler to the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, where he majored in Communications with a focus in Media Production and a minor in Writing for the Screen and Stage. After graduating from UNC, he attended the University of Southern California’s John Wells Division of Writing for Film and Television and completed his MFA in May of 2019. 

Tyler enjoys writing characters confronted by a world so big and scary the only thing they can do is laugh in the face of it. Life as a teenager can be rather intimidating as it is. Add to that dealing with a life-changing disability at the age of 17, you’ve got a recipe for a challenging journey through life. From the outset, Tyler has done the only thing that made sense to him: laugh often, derive joy from the people and experiences in his life, and take note of the absurdities and incongruities around him. This has helped cultivate a unique perspective that allows him to create and explore characters that do the same.

LEARN MORE

After an extensive search and interview process, 22 individuals were invited to participate in RespectAbility’s Summer 2019 Lab for Entertainment Professionals. This 5-week, nine-session innovative summer lab series for people interested in – and with experience in – development, production and post-production, including careers as writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, animators and other production roles, takes place June 18 – July 18, 2019. Participants include diverse people with physical, cognitive, sensory, mental health and other disabilities. Learn more: www.respectability.org/respectability-la-lab.

This program, which continues building the talent pipeline of young professionals with disabilities looking to work behind the scenes, is made possible with support by: Comcast NBCUniversal, Jonathan Murray and The Walt Disney Company.

RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab, Summer 2019

Wendy Jane Cohen

Wendy Jane Cohen grew up a stone’s throw away from the Kennedy compound on the idyllic shores of Cape Cod Massachusetts, where her Nixon-sympathizing father encouraged her love of historical fiction, obsession with the Watergate scandal, and deep distrust of humanity. After attending Emerson College, she was hired as the first Writers PA on Mad Men, where she learned how to make screwdrivers and helped oversee the show’s research staff. She then served as a Development Assistant for The Black List, covering industry and awards Q&As throughout Los Angeles. A published poet, her work also has appeared in several literary journals.

Wendy is a passionate activist in the entertainment and disability communities, serving as a member of 5050by2020’s disability cohort and a key organizer of The Media Access Awards, an annual award show which honors disability representation in film and television. A recent MFA graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, she writes historical and political dramas about the corruption of power, because if the past has taught us anything, it’s that people never seem to learn from their mistakes.

She is repped by Bohemia Group.

LEARN MORE

After an extensive search and interview process, 22 individuals were invited to participate in RespectAbility’s Summer 2019 Lab for Entertainment Professionals. This 5-week, nine-session innovative summer lab series for people interested in – and with experience in – development, production and post-production, including careers as writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, animators and other production roles, takes place June 18 – July 18, 2019. Participants include diverse people with physical, cognitive, sensory, mental health and other disabilities. Learn more: www.respectability.org/respectability-la-lab.

This program, which continues building the talent pipeline of young professionals with disabilities looking to work behind the scenes, is made possible with support by: Comcast NBCUniversal, Jonathan Murray and The Walt Disney Company.

RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab, Summer 2019

Ru Kazi (pronouns: Ru/Ru’s/They/Them) is a disabled non-binary director of South Asian descent. Ru has directed award-winning short films for the 48 Hour Film Festival and a critically acclaimed production of Stephen Adly-Guirgis’ OUR LADY OF 121ST STREET at the Victory Theatre in Burbank, CA. They have also co-written a feature film called AUNTIE HAS THE PERFECT GIRL a dram-com about two thirty-something South Asians navigating a relationship where they both want different things. Prior to writing and directing, Ru was classically trained as an actor at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting Professional Conservatory (NYC)/Art of Acting Studio (LA). Ru is currently part of the Class of 2021 of the Director’s Guild of America Assistant Director Training Program and works to destigmatize mental health and disability in storytelling. Ru is also a mainstage improvisor at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and Second City Hollywood, and was a fellow of the 2019 RespectAbility Lab.

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RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab, Summer 2019

Shireen Alihaji

Shireen Alihaji is a First Gen, Ecuadorian-Iranian, Muslim and Disabled filmmaker. Her intersections inspire her to create space through film technologies. Given how we remember is pivotal to healing, her films use memory as a central gaze to de-internalize surveillance, uncensor the imagination and mirror our infinite reflections.

She Co-Authored Flipping the Gaze Restorative Filmmaking Techniques and served as Artist Support for the Islamic Scholarship Fund where she co-created Muslim-Centered film programming; an evolving framework that supports Muslim filmmakers to restore, center and define their narratives. Today, Shireen is a student of UCLA Arts Healing and is prototyping a creative lab for caregivers.

In addition to RespectAbility, Shireen has received support from Sundance Institute, The Black List, the Cannes List, The Gotham, NALIP, Athena Film Festival and Women in Film. [continue reading…]