Franklin Leonard AB '00 is a film producer, cultural commentator, professor, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of the Black List, the company that celebrates and supports great screenwriting and the writers who do it via film production, its annual survey of best unproduced screenplays, online marketplace, live staged script readings, screenwriter labs, and film culture publications.
Kate Hagen is a writer living in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in Playboy, Lenny Letter, xoJane, The Hollywood Reporter, Five Thirty Eight, Seed & Spark, and more. In 2019, she brought her essay "In Search of the Last Great Video Store" to TEDx - she’ll also appear in the upcoming documentary THE LAST BLOCKBUSTER to discuss the piece. Since 2014, she's been the Director of Community at The Black List, where she oversees a social media ecosystem with over 250,000 followers; edits, curates, and writes for the Black List Blog (where she created the 31 Days of Feminist Horror Films series; manages the entire blcklst.com online community; and runs point on all website partnerships.You can also hear her on podcasts like How Did This Get Made?, Scriptnotes, The Canon, and The Frame, and see her at festivals like the Toronto International Film Festival, the Los Angeles Film Festival, and BAMCinemaFest.
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