Carl Reed is an Academy Award winning producer, who serves as Polarity’s Chief Creative Officer and President of Lion Forge Animation. 

As President of Lion Forge Animation (LFA), Carl jointly oversees the studio’s film, television and digital units. He directs LFA’s robust production and distribution practices as well as establishes and cultivates relationships with key creators and industry partners.  The company is credited for producing the Hair Love short film, distributed by Sony Pictures Animation, and winner for “Best Animated Short” in the 2020 Academy Awards. 

 Carl’s career includes 20 years in media creation. Over the course of his career, Carl has worked with high-profile clients to produce a variety of different types of content, from comic books to broadcast animated series, toys and videogames. He has worked with clients such as Disney, MTV, Spin Master Toys, Warner Media, Global TV (Canada), Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and more. Alongside founder David Steward II, Carl co-founded Lion Forge LLC in 2011, with a focus on leading creative operations. Some of his many roles at Lion Forge have included overseeing editorial and production; establishing and serving as president of the B2B services sister company, Lion Forge Labs; and his current role establishing and leading the efforts of Lion Forge Animation.  

David Steward II is an Academy Award-winning producer who owns and operates multiple companies with a mission of creating, discovering, and highlighting multicultural and diverse content in the entertainment industry.

In 2018, Steward founded Polarity, a holding company to oversee the operations of a portfolio of companies. The companies offer an array of content offerings including graphic novels and comics, animated television, streaming and cinematic features, and gaming. Key portfolio companies include Oni Lion Forge Publishing Group (the merged entity of The Lion Forge and the twenty-year comic book publisher Oni Press), the European publishing house Magnetic Press, the original content developer Illustrated Syndicate, the animation studio Lion Forge Animation, and Lion Forge Labs. In 2019, Polarity launched the Lion Forge Animation Studio, credited for producing the Hair Love short film, distributed by Sony Pictures Animation, and winner for “Best Animated Short” in the 2020 Academy Awards. Additionally, this new entity has partnerships in the works to highlight animators of color, and an ever-growing stable of properties under the Lion Forge banner.

Pearl Low is a Story Artist, comics artist, author and muralist based in Vancouver, BC. Most of her works are rooted in themes of self-love, acceptance and Chinese-Canadian and Caribbean-Canadian experiences. Low primarily works in animation for TV and Feature film and has worked on projects such as Hair Love (Sony Pictures Animation), Canvas (now on Netflix) and Craig of the Creek (Cartoon Network). Currently Low is storyboarding at Cartoon Network and is working with Scholastic, adapting The Adventures of The Bailey School Kids into graphic novels, with the first book VAMPIRES DON'T WEAR POLKA DOTS coming out August 2021.

Kenia Mattis is a founder of ListenMi, an award-winning Animation & Design Studio. ListenMi designs cultural digital content and products. Her productions of note include a Sesame Street short film collaboration ‘D is for Dress Up;’ the award-winning animation concept The Adventures of Kam Kam (now in development), and Fimimoji.com, a WhatsApp Sticker app that helps you express yourself in a creative, Jamaican way.

To help parents keep their creative kids active in 2020, she developed Greatercakes.com, which helped over 75 kids ages 7-14 to write and illustrate their own stories. Kenia was the Spark the Fire Pitch Winner at the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit at Stanford University, hosted by President Obama. Her mission is to inspire social change through immersive storytelling.

Michael has spent his career working tirelessly to create Wows! From FMCG, telecommunications, entertainment and media, his passion is creating connections with customers that are truly memorable. Schooled with global FMCG giants PepsiCo and Kraft Foods for great 10 years, Michael was part of the team that launched Flow in the Caribbean and prides himself with being part of the introduction of many firsts in content distribution in CARICOM including HD channels, Video on Demand, IPTV and real time media analytics.

Michael has responsibility for 11 TV networks including FLOW Sports, the 24/7 Caribbean sports channel and FLOW 1, Flow’s leading general entertainment network as well as other premium content services. He has additional oversight of Flow’s digital OTT entertainment platforms including Flow to Go and Flow Sports App.

His experience in proposition development and content distribution have allowed him the pleasure of working with some of the major vendors and providers globally including IMG, Turner, AWS, Viacom, The Premier League, Freemantle and others. A futurist at heart, Michael has a track record of developing motivated teams through the introduction of leading technologies to truly create magic for the Caribbean.

Michael has a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from St. Mary’s University, Halifax, Canada. He’s a fan of every sport, pop culture and likes outdoors activities with his family. He’s married with a son.

Having spent most of his professional career in applied social research and visual design, D'Oyen currently works as a strategy and change consultant, leading Jamaican firms to the frontier of their competitive space. A passionate and patriotic man, his exposure to business strategy, competitiveness, organizational design and leadership were fully engaged in his immediately past roles as Project Manager in the Google.org funded Caribbean School of Data as well as the Local Coordinator for the Korea-World Bank Partnership Facility at the World Bank (Latin America and the Caribbean). His perspective on progress and components required for the same has been sharpened through experience leading industrial growth programmes with a focus on animation; tech-driven education; open-data; aquaculture and cotton.

D’Oyen currently continues to consult with the World Bank on its involvement in the Jamaican animation industry while his expressing his mastery within the field of digital media and culture continues as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Mona where he delivers courses in Web Design, Animation for the Web, and Usability and the Online user Experience.

Josh Selig is the Founder and President of China Bridge Content, a company committed to building strong creative and business ties between China and the world.  He is the former CEO of Little Airplane Productions, a New York-based company that he founded in 1999 which was acquired by Studio 100 in 2017.  Josh is the creator of many popular preschool shows including Wonder Pets (Nickelodeon), Small Potatoes (BBC/Disney), 3rd & Bird (BBC) and P. King Duckling (Disney/CCTV). Josh has been awarded 12 Emmy Awards for his writing and musical compositions and has written about children’s media for The New York Times, Kidscreen, Animation Magazine, C21, and Shanghai Daily.

Storm Saulter is a filmmaker and visual artist from Negril, Jamaica, on a mission to create universal stories wrapped in the complex social and cultural dynamics of the Caribbean. Storm’s award winning debut film BETTER MUS' COME was hailed by critics as signaling a fresh new movement of independent filmmaking throughout the region. The film secured distribution with Ava Duvernay’s ARRAY Studios, which lead to its streaming debut on NETFLIX North America. BBCTWO streamed the film in the United Kingdom.

On the heels of his breakout film, Saulter co-founded the New Caribbean Cinema collective, a group of emerging Caribbean auteurs determined to get their stories on the big screen by any means necessary. The group used community filmmaking tactics to create 7 groundbreaking short films, by different directors, with virtually no budget. Those shorts were combined into one feature length anthology film titled “Ring Di Alarm!”, which premiered at the British Film Institute in London.

Storm wrote and directed his 2nd feature film SPRINTER which swept the 2018 American Black Film Festival winning “Best Director”, “Best Narrative Feature” and the “Audience Award”. The film went on to win several best-of-festival awards including "Best Narrative Feature" at the 2019 Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, and the “Audience Award” at the 2019 BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia.

SPRINTER is Executive Produced by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. It is currently streaming on NETFLIX in the USA, Canada, and the Caribbean. It is also streaming in the United Kingdom on SKY CINEMA, and in over 40 countries across the African continent with MULTICHOICE GROUP. Storm is represented for film & television by CREATIVE ARTISTS AGENCY (CAA) in Los Angeles, California.

Mikie Bennett, dubbed the “Quincy Jones of Reggae,” began his career in the early 80s as a member of the group Home T 4. In 1986, under his direction, the reformed group - now named Home T - had its most successful period with hits like -- “Don’t Throw It All Away,” “Who She Love,” “Pirates Anthem” and “Spreading Rumours” all massive reggae hits internationally.

This period saw him working with two of the leading producers at both King Jammy’s and Music Works studios as a vocal arranger and staff writer. Songs like "Telephone Love," "Rumours," "Champion Lover" and numerous other hits for Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, Cocoa Tea & Sugar Minott, brought him greater recognition. The demand for his services grew and in 1989 along with friend Patrick Lindsay formed Two Friends Ltd. a recording and management company.

Mikie has worked with Maxi Priest, Shabba Ranks, Roberta Flack, Cyndi Lauper, LL Cool J, Doug E Fresh, Caron Wheeler (soul to soul), Beres Hammond, Buju Banton, Aswad, David Hinds (Steele Pulse), Third World, John King, Nicholas Brancker, Chris Alman, Toni Norville (4D People) to name a few. In 1998 the Reggae Boys qualified for the World Cup and his song “Rise Up” helped champion their cause.

An award-winning Animator, Director and Producer, Adrian Lopez has been a passionate screenwriter, filmmaker, and visual effects artist for over 18 years. Born in Nairobi, Kenya, and educated in the US, Jamaica, Adrian completed his secondary education in Canada, earning double-degrees in Computer Science and Marketing from the University of Lethbridge. He later studied Directing and UP Management at Rockport Film School in Maine, returning to Jamaica in 1993 and starting Jamaica’s first animation and film studio, Liquid Light Digital, in 2002.

In 2018, Adrian expanded Liquid Light Digital into IP development under the brand Jamrock Animation, creating “Julie Jamrock” and “Irie Island” both children’s animated TV shows currently in development. Under the ADVRT360 brand, the company creates Virtual Reality narratives and experiences using 360 video and photography, and created the Jamaica National Anthem in immersive virtual reality. A Branson Entrepreneur, Adrian also penned “Roots:Emergence” a high concept sci-fi feature film selected for development by British Council Film Lab, and is developing “Dark Waters” a Caribbean horror anthology series.

Renee Robinson is the Film Commissioner of Jamaica, and a multi-lingual creative economy strategist and thought-leader. She has worked in Canada, Europe, USA, Africa, and the Caribbean - in film/TV, digital, arts and culture, entertainment, and communications. With almost 20 years in the industry, she has held executive roles at prestigious institutions like the Harbourfront Centre, Women in Film & Television, the Canada Media Fund, the Toronto International Film Festival, and since 2016 at JAMPRO. She has a MA in Communications and Cultural Policy and MBA in Arts Management from York University, and a BA in Art Studio and Art History from Williams College. Renee has travelled to over 40 countries, and is an advanced scuba diver, an amateur sommelier, and a yogi.

Jay Francis is Vice President, Current Series and Diversity, Disney Television Animation (TVA). He is responsible for managing the creative direction of production on current series for Disney TVA and working closely with the development and recruitment teams to identify, secure and mentor diverse creative talent for Disney TVA and Disney Junior.

Francis joined Disney TVA in 2007. During his tenure, he has overseen creative direction on a multitude of original animated series including Disney's five-time Emmy® Award-winning "Phineas and Ferb," Emmy® Award-nominated "Big City Greens," "Amphibia," "Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero," "Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja," and most recently, the Disney+ original animated adventure movie "Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe."

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Francis received a Bachelor of Science in Television and Film Production from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. He is a member of Disney's Leadership Learning Advisory Board, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and ASIFA-Hollywood.

Before joining Nickelodeon as its new VP of recruiting and talent development in late January, Camille Eden had spent nearly a decade at Walt Disney Animation Studios as a talent acquisition and outreach manager. There, she built a reputation for promoting diverse and inclusive hiring practices while helping staff projects like Frozen and Frozen 2, Wreck-it Ralph, Moana and Big Hero 6.

She has done stints at Sony Pictures Imageworks (recruitment), DreamWorks (production manager) and her new home Nickelodeon (production supervisor). Her experience caught the eye of Nick, which is up plenty of projects in the wake of the Viacom and CBS’ merger and its multi-year output deal with Netflix.

Mounia Aram is a professional of the animation industry with more than 18 years’ experience. She was born in Casablanca, Morocco and she grew-up in France. As a kid, Mounia had a passion for animation, video games and African cultures and languages. After oriental languages studies in Paris INALCO, she had the opportunity to join ShoPro Entertainment in 2003, a company specialized in Japanese animation based in San Francisco.

During her career, she has been confronted to many aspects of this business worldwide, from Europe to Asia, America and Africa. If some cultures are well-represented throughout the world – like Japanese Anime – and some countries renown for the quality of their work – like France, Canada or USA – she noticed that Africa was almost not represented at all. She thus decided to tackle this problem by founding Mounia Aram Company in 2019, a company specialized in African animation, African culture, Africa in general. She launched her own company not only as business leader but moreover to defend her belief: Africa is a continent that should matter. With her network and wide experience she wants to build a bridge between Africa and the international market, by pitching animated projects to producers for coproduction and to broadcasters for distribution. She is part of a new animation channel in Africa: African Animation Network - for which she handles the acquisition of content and the distribution of the channel worldwide. Her goal is also to promote education in the animation field by launching schools in Africa, starting in Morocco her home country where she will have an office in 2021. She has been elected in September 2020 as a member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Corretta is a Swiss-born, Jamaican-grown, multi Award-Winning 3D Modeler, VFX and digital artist with 15+ years’ experience working on local, regional and international commercials and movies; 3D Character Modelling for Short films and commercials as well as 2D concept art and animation. She has worked alongside local Production houses such as Cinecom, and with international studios like Paper Tiger Films in Los Angeles. A meticulous problem-solver and explorer of new ideas, techniques and technologies, her local, regional and international animation connections, insights and experience have awarded her opportunities to be part of Jamaican Govt delegations to South Korea, France and the US.

Patrick Meikle is a Jamaican-based illustrator, animator and character designer. His passion for creating art led him to earn his BFA in Animation at the University of the West Indies, Mona. His desire to aid within the Jamaican and Caribbean animation industry has guided him to opportunities allowing him to serve. Some of these have been founding the Digital Media and Animation Network (DMAN) club at UWI, serving as the previous Community Development Manager of The Jamaican Animation Nation Network as well as a delegate for Team Jamaica Animation at Kidscreen. He currently serves at the award-winning animation studio, ListenMi Caribbean Ltd. Patrick also seeks to provide passion-driven content that benefits others and glorifies his God under his personal brand Heartoon Cartoon. An example of such content is his short film “Truly Valiant” which won 3rd Place in the Film Category of the Engage Art Contest 2019/2020.

Sheraine Peart is the current and youngest president (to date) of the Jamaica Animation Nation Network (JANN). She is a dual degree holder having graduated with second and first-class honours respectively in the Fine and Digital Arts, specializing in Virtual Reality, Animation and Illustration.

Sheraine had her first international sculpture exhibition, Carbonato di Calcio, in Tuscany, Italy as the first Jamaican to be accepted to the Digital Stone Project for which she also received the Edward Guiliano Fellowship and the Autodesk Student Scholarship. She has worked as an animator on the 2D animated short Agwe and more recently as the app designer for the Fimimoji app and through JANN, as a partner to the Animae Caribe Animation Festival. As a promoter of Jamaica’s culture, much of her work is inspired by Jamaican folklore and culture. She’s currently working on an animated short, Make Believe Miracles, inspired by Taino zemis (gods and spirits).

Founding Director of Animae Caribe Animation & Digital Media Festival and Programme Coordinator for Animation Studies at the University of Trinidad & Tobago

Camille Selvon is Founding Director of Animae Caribe Animation and Digital Media Festival and the Programme Coordinator for Animation Studies at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Media & Communication with specialisation in Animation, from Goldsmiths University of London. She recently served as Chairman of FilmTT under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Government of Trinidad & Tobago. Together with business partner Jason Lindsay they created the first Caribbean outsourcing animation studio called Full Circle Animation Studio in Trinidad. Creating work for international studios around the world.

With over 20 years in the animation and digital media industry Camille is the project lead for an IDB funded outsourcing studio at the University. The UTT TTAP Factory is an outsourcing centre for audio-visual digital services for the entertainment and ICT sectors. This Hub is an all-encompassing environment that provides services in animation, game art and music technology and allows local creatives and students to work collaboratively. Its mission is to train sections of society that do not have access to technological or digital tools so that they can be employed or create their own small studios. Awards include the Royal Television Society Student Award 2000 – London UK, Caribbean Tales Innovation in Animation in the Caribbean Award – Toronto Canada, Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival – Pioneer in Film Award 2014 – Trinidad & Tobago and she was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Foundation Award for Women in Business. She currently runs a NGO in collaboration with CARICOM called ‘The Shift Project’ which is an intervention program using digital technology to bring ‘at risk’ teens into the 21st century.

Born in London, UK, the youngest of three sisters who, at a young age, immigrated with their parents to Canada. It was during High School that Sonya developed a love of theatre, drama, fine art, and the entire artistic experience. After High School she enrolled at The University of Guelph, leaning more toward the technical side of theatre, Sonya began to shape her career as a technical artist focusing on lighting and sound.

After moving to Los Angeles, California, USA, and taking a personal interest in animation, she landed her first job working on Ren and Stimpy and Beavis and Butthead as a self-taught camera artist, using new technology surrounding digital 2D animation.

Within just a few years, this technology exploded and Sonya took that opportunity to return to Toronto and was hired by several studios as a composting artist. After years of expanding her software knowledge, Sonya also added producing and studio management to her skill set. With a strong technical background as a 2D compositor, combined with several roles as producer and manager, Sonya is now Producing series content for large broadcasters.

At the peak of her career, Sonya has now decided to teach through her own learning facility, called The Animation Lounge. The goal is to share knowledge that will allow others to achieve their full potential within the animation industry. Her focus is on the underemployed visible minority groups who are often not invited to the table inside of the entertainment industry. For the future, telling her own stories is next on the list!

Kimberly Wright joined Sesame Workshop ten years ago as the Film Producer, commissioning live action, animated, and mixed media short films for Sesame Street. She works closely with filmmakers and animators to guide them through the creative process in order to shape the films to best meet the show’s specific letter and thematic needs, while also staying within the films’ budget. She oversees all aspects of creative development of the short films and animations, from conception and deal-making, to production and delivery. As a means of finding new content creators to partner with, Kimberly attends various children’s film festivals and media conferences throughout the US and abroad. In 2013, she had the opportunity to travel to Melbourne, Australia and participated in the SPA (Screen Producers Australia) conference where she spoke about Sesame Street’s partnership with an Australian production company for the making of the live action music video “5 Kangaroos,” which featured one of Australia’s top pop stars, Jessica Mauboy. In April of 2018, Kimberly received her first Daytime Emmy Award for her role as Film Producer on Sesame Street. Since then, in October of 2018, she got the chance to travel to Auckland, New Zealand, and serve as a judge for the Show Me Shorts Film Festival, where she also presented the award for “Best Music Video.”

Prior to joining the Sesame Street family, Kimberly had been a producer for over 11 years. She spent the majority of her career as a daytime television producer, working for Telepictures, NBC, and Paramount Pictures, and producing several national daytime talk shows, including The Queen Latifah Show, The John Walsh Show and The Montel Williams Show.

Pilar is an animator, cartoonist and educator that started drawing her Snozzlewinks cartoons when she was 8 years old. Even at that early age it became clear that she wanted to pursue cartooning and animation. She got her start doing animation production art on shows such as Courage the Cowardly Dog for Cartoon Network and MTV’s Daria.

In 2008 she established her Brooklyn-based production company PilarToons, LLC. Pilar teaches animation at the City College of New York and the School of Visual Art. In summer of 2020 she received her MFA in Visual Narrative at the School of Visual Art. In October 2021 she introduced the Snozzlewinks to the world in the form of her first graphic novel.

Melanie was born in Monterey, CA, the youngest of three girls born to a military family. She lived in various cities across the country and beyond before settling in Atlanta, Ga in 2006 where she attended Spelman College and received her Sociology degree. Upon graduation, she remained there, working in various positions in media at Cartoon Network and CNN. She later got married and had her daughter, McKinley. 

 Melanie has a passion for children's content - which in part led to her authoring 2 children’s books, ABC's for Girls Like Me and ABC's for Boys Like Me, and is why she's excited by the work she gets to do everyday as a Content Executive in Netflix's Original Animation team.

Taylor K. Shaw is the youngest CEO in the animation industry and one of the brightest game changers in Hollywood. She created BWA Studios, the first and only animation studio designed to change the of animation by consciously hiring black women and nonbinary animators of color.

BWA studios offers DEI consulting to global media companies like Netflix and has an ongoing Training & Development partnership with Cartoon Network Studios. BWA has done 2D and 3D TV development for the likes of MTV Studios, Hello Sunshine and more. The company has also contributed works to shows airing on both HULU and Netflix.

Taylor also writes for TV & Film. As a creator and TV writer, she and BWA Studios have a first look deal with WarnerMedia through their 150 Program. She has been featured in Forbes, Deadline Hollywood, Emmy Magazine, Variety, Vogue, The Hollywood Reporter and the LA Times for her work empowering marginalized voices in entertainment.