Miguel Arteta (born 1965 in San Juan, Puerto Rico) is an American director of film and television, best known for his independent film "Chuck & Buck" (2000). Born to a Peruvian father and Spanish mother, Arteta grew up all over Latin America due to his father's itinerant existence as a Chrysler auto parts salesman. He went to high school in Costa Rica, but was expelled, and went to live with his sister in Boston, Massachusetts, where he learned filmmaking.

Allison Anders is an American film and television director. Anders has directed several independent films, on which she frequently collaborates with fellow UCLA film school graduate Kurt Voss. According to an article in "Creative Screenwriter Magazine": "Raised in rural Kentucky, Anders spent her teens hitchhiking across the country, …

Don Roos is a screenwriter and film director. Donald Paul Roos was born on April 14, 1959 in New York, USA. Roos attended the University of Notre Dame, in Indiana. After graduating, Roos moved to Los Angeles, where he pursued a career writing for television. Roos supported himself by working as a word processor, and to this day jokes that he has that as a fall-back plan.

Elizabeth Ann Reaser (b. June 15 1975, Bloomfield, Michigan) is an American film, television, and stage actress. She is a former student of the Juilliard School. She may be best known for co-starring in the feature films "Stay" and "The Family Stone". In October 2004, "Interview" magazine hailed her as one of the "14 To Be" emerging creative women.

Daniel Futterman (born June 8 1967) is an American actor and screenwriter. Although he is known for several high-profile acting roles, including Val Goldman in the film "The Birdcage" and Vincent Gray on the CBS television series "Judging Amy", he is also a screenwriter. In 2005, he wrote the screenplay for the film "Capote" for which he received an Academy Award nomination and an Independent Spirit Award, Boston Society of Film Critics award, …

Ron Nyswaner 's screenplays include Soldier's Girl (Peabody Award), Philadelphia (Academy award nomination) and this fall's The Painted Veil , starring Naomi Watts and Edward Norton . His first book, Blue Days, Black Nights: A Memoir , was nominated for a Lambda Literary award.

Anthony Mackie (born September 23, 1979 in New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American actor. Mackie has been featured in fourteen films, three television series and acted in several Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, including "Talk" by Carl Hancock Rux for which he won an Obie award in 2002. He appeared in Eminem's movie "8 Mile" as Papa Doc and with Denzel Washington in the remake of "The Manchurian Candidate".

Matthew Greenfield (born September 14, 1968) a producer of independent films and a senior vice-president of production at Fox Searchlight. He was formerly the associate director of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program. Greenfield attended the Crossroads School, a private school associated with the entertainment industry, and later attended Wesleyan University. At Wesleyan, he met future collaborator Miguel Arteta.

Born in Harlem and raised in the Lower East Side of Manhatten nineteen-year old Victor Rasuk started acting at the age of 13. He graduated in January 2003 from the Professional Performing Arts High School and has appeared in several plays and short films including the off-off Broadway play WHITE BOY. In 1999, Rasuk starred in Peter Sollett 's short film titled FIVE FEET HIGH AND RISING.

Rodrigo de la Serna (born April 18, 1976 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine actor. In 2004, he won an Independent Spirit Award for "Best Debut Performance" for the film "The Motorcycle Diaries." He played the role of Alberto Granado, the travelling companion of Che Guevara during their 8-month long journey through South America. Rodrigo is a second cousin of Ernesto "Che" Guevara. He has acted in several television series in Argentina.

Cyndi Williams is a voice actor. Cyndi Williams was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Actress for her performance in Kyle Henry's film, "Room (film)", which was nominated for the Cassavetes award.

Michael Emmet Walsh (born March 22, 1935 in Ogdensburg, New York) is an American character actor who has appeared in over 100 film and television productions. He first came to prominence in the 1978 crime drama, "Straight Time," in which he played a sadistic parole officer. One of his most acclaimed roles was as Bryant in Ridley Scott's cult classic "Blade Runner".

Jennifer Todd is an American film producer. She is partnered with her sister, Suzanne Todd, in a production company called Team Todd. Their credits include the three Austin Powers films, Boiler Room, Prime, Must Love Dogs, and Memento for which she won an Independent Spirit Award for best film. Her upcoming films include Across the Universe starring Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess, …

Ajay Naidu (born 12 February 1972) is an American actor. Naidu was born in Evanston, Illinois and raised in Chicago, the son of Indian immigrants to the U.S. As an actor, he trained with the American Repertory Theatre's Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University. On screen, Naidu has appeared in the film "Office Space", as well as "K-Pax", "π", "Requiem for a Dream", "Bad Santa", "The War Within", …

Gabrielle Zevin (born 1977) is an American author and screenwriter. She is a Harvard graduate and currently resides in New York City. Her first novel "Elsewhere" was nominated for a 2006 Quill Award, won the Borders Original Voices Award, and was a selection of the Barnes and Noble Book Club. The book has been translated into sixteen languages.

Cameron Watson is an American actor, screenwriter, and director, best known for playing Bart Fallmont in the TV miniseries "Dynasty: The Reunion". Watson wrote and directed his first feature film, "Our Very Own", in 2005. The film stars Allison Janney, Keith Carradine, Jason Ritter, Cheryl Hines, Hilarie Burton and Mary Badham (Scout in "To Kill a Mockingbird") in her first screen role in 40 years.

Brendan Eugene Sexton III (born February 21, 1980, in Staten Island, New York, USA) is an American actor whose work has included primarily independent films. Brendan made his debut in Todd Solondz's "Welcome to the Dollhouse" playing the troubled bully Brandon McCarthy, for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. He was the lead in "Hurricane Streets" and "Desert Blue" and also appeared in "Boys Don't Cry", …

Dina Korzun is a Russian actress. Korzun was born in Smolensk. She graduated from secondary school and Art school, studied ballet and modern dancing. After graduation from the prestigious Moscow Art Theatre School, she was asked to join the Chekhov Moscow Arts Theater Troupe, where she was a stage actress (1996 – 2000). Her major roles were Katerina in "Storm", She in "I Can't Imagine Tomorrow" and Elena in "Midsummer Night's Dream”.

Scott Coffey (b. May 1, 1971; Honolulu Hawaii) is an American actor, director, and writer. Coffey's first feature, Ellie Parker stared Naomi Watts and was an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival where it premiered in 2005. It was released in the fall of that year by Strand Releasing to mostly rave reviews. Coffey is writing the film adaptation of Lolly Winston's novel Happiness Sold Separately for Fox Searchlight that he will direct with Julia Roberts starring.

Matty Rich, born Matthew Statisfield Richardson (November 6, 1971 in Brooklyn, New York City), is a film director and screenwriter who broke into the film world with the 1991 film "Straight Out of Brooklyn" which was financed by credit cards and donations. Rich also plays a major character in the film. The low-budget independent film grossed $2.7 million dollars at the box office and only cost $450,000 to make. Rich was only 19 years old at the time.

Alison Folland (born August 10, 1978 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an actress. She tried out for the role in 1995's "To Die For" as a joke, having never acted previously, but she landed the part. She was nominated in 1997 for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead in "All Over Me". She's also had supporting roles in films such as "Good Will Hunting" and "Boys Don't Cry".

Craig Chester (born November 8, 1965 in West Covina, California) is an American actor and screenwriter. He is best known for his performances in independent films in the 1990s, starting with his debut in "Swoon" (1992), which earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination. After appearing in several more independent films, he took a break from acting and wrote the autobiographical "Why the Long Face?: The Adventures of a Truly Independent Actor" (2003).

Douglas Spain (b. April 15 1974) is an American actor. He lives in Los Angeles. In 1998 he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in the category Best Debut Performance for his role in "Star Maps". In 1999 he won the Rising Star Award at the Marco Island Film Festival and in 2006 he won the Camie awards at the Character and Morality in Entertainment Awards for his part in "The Reading Room".

Rick Rosenthal (born June 15, 1949, in New York, New York) is an American film director known for his work in both film and television. Rosenthal helped launch Sean Penn's career when he cast the then-unknown actor in the title role of the riveting 1983 film "Bad Boys". Rosenthal is also known for his work on the Emmy-winning ABC series "Life Goes On" as well as such series as "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit", "Providence", …

Patrick Sheane Duncan (born 1947) is an American writer, film producer and director. A graduate of Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, Duncan's career has been influenced by his Vietnam War experiences, which inspired the television mini-series "Vietnam War Story" (1987) and its sequel "Vietnam War Story: The Last Days" (1989) and the films "84C MoPic" (1989) and "Courage Under Fire" (1996).

Lisa Onodera is an American independent film producer, of such noted films as "Picture Bride", "The Debut" and "Americanese". She grew up in Berkeley, California, and attended UCLA where she received a degree from the School of Motion Picture and Television. Early film credits include serving as Associate Producer on Arthur Dong's documentary, "Forbidden City, USA" and the Frontline documentary, "The Monster That Ate Hollywood".

Robert Dillon is a screenwriter and film producer. In 1976 he was nominated by the Writers Guild of America for Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen for French Connection II. In 2001 he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay for Waking the Dead. Beginning his career in 1959, he has nearly fifty years of experience.

Nobu McCarthy was a former fashion model in Japan, who became and American actress and stage director. The only daughter of a Japanese diplomat, McCarthy was born in Canada, but was raised in Japan where she studied ballet. A modeling career eventually led to a beauty pageant where she won the title of "Miss Tokyo." She married U.S. serviceman David McCarthy in 1955 and moved to the States. While shopping in the Little Tokyo district in Los Angeles, …

Born in rural England, David W. Ross moved to London at the age of 17 and sought work as a film extra. His photo was spotted by a boy band producer, and he was signed to A&M Records U.K., as one of the four members of Bad Boys Inc. The group released one self-titled album, which spawned five hit singles, including the Top 10 smash, "More to this World." David then moved to Los Angeles, where he studied acting. He appeared in the award-winning short, "The Receipt", …

Ben Coccio is an American filmmaker from Niskayuna, New York. He is best known for directing the feature film "Zero Day". Coccio attended the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 1997 with a BFA Film/Animation/Video. Coccio's first directorial effort was the short film, "5:45am", released in 2000 by IFC.

John Roach is an award-winning television and film producer and screenwriter. He is president of JRP, an Emmy Award-winning video and film production company based in Madison, Wisconsin. John and Mary Sweeney co-wrote the screenplay for “The Straight Story,” a motion picture directed by David Lynch. “The Straight Story” premiered at Cannes and was released in October 1999 by Walt Disney Pictures. The screenplay was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, …