Kamilah Forbes is an award-winning director and producer for theater and television, and currently serves as the Executive Producer at the world-famous Apollo Theater. Her directing credits include By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, The Blood Quilt, and Sunset Baby. She has also worked as associate director on the Tony Award-winning "A Raisin in the Sun”, and Emmy Award-winning “The Wiz Live” for NBC. Ms. Forbes’ most recent directorial work, “Between the World and Me” aired as a special event on HBO and HBO Max in November 2020, bringing her a host of acclaim and recognition. Ms. Forbes’ recent projects include directing the sold-out world premiere, tour, and theatrical adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ New York Times best-selling novel Between the World and Me. In this episode, Fanshen and Kamilah discuss the pivotal role Howard University played in shaping Kamilah’s career and how community building led Kamilah to becoming a producer.

Nyanza Shaw is Executive Vice President, Scripted Business and Legal Affairs for FremantleMedia North America. She oversees all deal making pertaining to the development, production, and financing of Fremantle’s scripted series and new media content produced for the U.S.  Prior to joining Fremantle, Shaw was the Owner/Managing Partner of Shaw Esquire for more than 20 years. The firm represented talent, content creators, entrepreneurs, businesses, brands, and founders in the areas of entertainment and business law, intellectual property, sports, technology, and media. In this episode, Fanshen and Nyanza discuss her path to practicing law and Nyanza offers insightful advice to creatives looking to protect their projects.

Tiffany Walden is an award-winning journalist known for using her platform to advocate for systematic change shining a light on underrepresented voices in black communities. In 2017 she co-founded The TRiiBE which has now become a dominant news media outlet in Chicago, especially among the Black community. Before becoming editor-in-chief at The TRiiBe, she cut her teeth as a breaking news reporter at the Orlando Sentinel and is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. On this episode Fanshen and Tiffany discuss the role of journalism in reflecting a community, why Tiffany decided to create The TRiiBE and how they’re challenging other news organizations to re-examine their coverage.

Tanya McRae is an Emmy-Award winning television producer, with more than three decades of experience working in news, talk, lifestyle and reality TV. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in communications and is currently an anchor, journalist and host of the award-winning community affairs program “In Focus SoCal” for Spectrum News in Los Angeles. On today’s episode Fanshen and Tanya discuss Tanya’s path to journalism, her decision to reinvent herself mid-career and the responsibility she feels to give voice to the voiceless.

Sian Morson wears many hats. She is an entrepreneur, investor, producer and story-teller. She’s launched a number of companies and is the co-founder of the Starfish Accelerator. She’s a filmmaker whose film, “A Luv Tale,” is currently streaming on Amazon. She’s also an expert on Web3. If you’ve ever wondered what exactly Web3 is or “what’s a NFT” listen to this episode because Fanshen and Sian break it all down.