Jurors - Reel Sisters Fellows
Lorisa Bates
Lorisa Bates is Vice President of Programming Content Strategy, Co-Productions & Multiplatform at BET Networks where she oversees the day-to-day operations of licensing content, producing company initiatives and original movies and scheduling/planning for all VOD platform strategy. She is responsible for leading multiple teams that collaborate and communicate with key departments, including Program Scheduling, Ad Sales, Marketing, Digital, Creative Services, Social Media, Research, Finance, Corporate Communications, Content Management and Original Programming. Through these collaborations, Lorisa develops key business goals and strategies to increase ratings and revenue while supporting best practices and procedures for the company.
While working at Showtime Networks in Program Planning & Scheduling, Lorisa managed both Linear and On-Demand platforms, including The Movie Channel, The Movie Channel Xtra, SHO Beyond and SHO Family.
Lorisa holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Rhetoric & Communications from the
University of Virginia and a Master of Arts Degree in Media Studies from the New School University.
Ken LaZebnik
Ken LaZebnik is a playwright, screenwriter, and television writer. With Garrison Keillor, he co-wrote Robert Altman’s last film, A Prairie Home Companion, which starred Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, and Kevin Kline. He also wrote the popular holiday film The Christmas Cottage, starring Peter O’Toole and Marcia Gay Harden. Over the past twenty-five years, he has written for many one-hour television dramas, including writing over twenty episodes of Touched By An Angel. He was a writer/producer for that show for eight years, and wrote many of their most memorable Christmas episodes. He also wrote and produced for such shows as Star Trek: Enterprise, Jack’s Place, Army Wives, Providence, and When Calls the Heart. His most recent play, ANIMATE, premiered in St. Paul, Minnesota, in September of 2021. It is the tenth play he has written for The Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis. His play ON THE SPECTRUM was a recipient of the Steinberg Award, and his play THEORY OF MIND, commissioned by Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, has been performed across the country. He is the Director of the LIU M.F.A. in Writing and Producing for Television, based at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn.
Eunice Levis
Writer and director, Eunice Levis is a first-generation Dominican American from the Bronx, New York. Eunice's work focuses on genre bending stories that combine her love of horror, sci-fi, and fantasy often through a diasporic lens. She is a two-time Sundance Lab Second Rounder, a Stowe Story Lab Fellow, and a Netflix/NALIP Women of Color Short Film Incubator fellow. Eunice’s Caribbean folklore horror micro short FELL ENDS was an extraordinary selection at NYX’s 13 minutes of horror film festival and streamed on Shudder. Eunice has two short films in the festival circuit. INVADE, an environmental dark sci-fi which made the second round of the 2020 Sundance Episodic Lab with its pilot script. And, RO & THE STARDUST, a space fantasy short which won Best Narrative Short at the 25th Annual Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival, making it a 2024 Oscar® qualified Narrative Short Film. In addition to writing and directing, Eunice is an adjunct professor at Saint Joseph’s University and cohosts Café Negro con Genre, a podcast that promotes creatives working in the genre space. She has a graduate degree from New York University and is managed by 3 Arts Entertainment.
Michael Wells
Michael Wells Jr is a genre writer from the South Bronx. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Film & Television Production from the CUNY Baccalaureate Program (Brooklyn College), where he discovered his passion for storytelling could become a career. His character-driven stories highlight the nuance of intergenerational relationships and forgotten histories packaged as dark fantasy and sci-fi from an African American perspective. As the first in his family to pursue a non-traditional career, Michael's love for fish-out-of-water stories is no surprise, as he himself is a fish-out-of-water, bringing fresh and diverse narratives to the forefront of genre fiction. Michael is a 2022 Austin Film Festival second-rounder and a 2023 Orchard Project Episodic Lab fellow. His pilot, Children of The South, is an official selection for the 2023 Essence Film Festival.