School of Theater Virtual Alumni Panel: TV/Film
Register for the first of two School of Theater Virtual Alumni Panel events!
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! OHIO School of Theater alumni reflect on the TV and film industry in the wake of COVID-19 and with the BIPOC movement
OHIO School of Theater alumni working in the TV and film industry—from actors to screenwriters to musicians—gather to reflect and discuss how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted their professional life and how the intersection of the pandemic and the BIPOC movement has manifested for them individually as artists.
Check here for updates about our second panel in this series, Back on the Boards: Theater after COVID-19 & moving forward with BIPOC, in September.
Moderator
Bianca Sams, MFA ’14
Bianca Sams is a Writer/Actor hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work spans different genres and mediums (Plays, Television, Novels and Feature films). Her original pieces are often described as lyrical investigations of found stories out of today's headlines or the pages of history, that ask audiences to face their own complex love affair with misery. She’s drawn to stories that question the roles of women, ethnicity, and family in modern society. Her work often deals with the search for “self” in the collective identity and also explore the underlying connective threads of mankind. Awards and honors include Ingram New Works Fellow (Nashville Rep), Warner Brothers TV Workshop, Tracking Board 2016 Young & Hungry List, WriteHerList 2017 and Tracking Board HIT LIST 2018. She previously worked as a writer on Training Day starring Bill Paxton, The Originals with Julie Plec & Jeffrey Lieber and Titans for DC.com/WB/Berlanti. She’s currently a Co-Producer on CW's Charmed. Bianca is represented by Echo Lake Management and Verve.
Panelists
Maya Lynne Robinson, BFA ’02, is a Cleveland born and raised American actress, writer and producer. She is known for her role of Helen in the film Dead Women Walking, the role of Geena Williams-Conner in the Roseanne television spin-off The Conners, and currently portrays Michelle on the CBS series The Unicorn.
Vanessa Bell Calloway, BFA '79 has earned eight NAACP Image Award nominations. She won the NAACP Theater Award for Best Actress for her role as Zora Neale Hurston in her one-woman critically-acclaimed play “Letters From Zora”. Vanessa was invited to become a 2018 member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for her contribution to the entertainment industry.
Vanessa co-stars in the Focus Features film “Harriet” and Nate Parkers soon to be released “American Skin”. She reprised her role as Princess Imani Izzi in the soon to be released “Coming To America 2. Vanessa’s currently featured in “Dragged Across Concrete” starring Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn, and an independent thriller entitled, “Thriller” both can be seen on Netflix. Some of Calloway’s other film credits include: “South Side With You”, “Unbroken: Path To Redemption”,“Coming To America” “What’s Love Got to Do With It”, “Biker Boyz”, “Daylight”, “Crimson Tide”, “Cheaper By The Dozen” and “The Inkwell”.
Calloway is currently starring in Bounce TV’s one-hour hit-drama “Saint & Sinners”, as the matriarch Lady Ella now in it’s fifth season. She directed a few of the episodes as well and just completed directing a movie short for BET HER health initiative “A Long Look In The Mirror”, which will be seen later this year. Vanessa recurs in Showtimes “Black Monday”,“Shameless”and BET’s new hit drama “The Games People Play”. Her other TV credits are many, including:“Unbelievable”, “Love Is”,“Survivors Remorse”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Real Husbands Of Hollywood”, “Hawthorne RN”, “The Closer”, “NCIS”, “Castle”, and “The Temptations”…just to name a few.
An original cast member of the Broadway hit “ Dream Girls” Vanessa has also starred in “Seven Guitars” at The August Wilson 20th Century Theater Festival held at The Kennedy Center. The Los Angeles productions of “The Piano Lesson”, “The Divorce”, and “Crowns”.
A professional concert dancer for many years, Vanessa can now be seen dancing a trio with her two beautiful grown daughters Ashley and Alexandra in a viral video on You Tube to the song “If I Could” by Regina Belle.
Calloway has three hit web series that she created and produced,“In The Company of Friends” and In The Company Of Friends...All Things Healthy” in conjunction with Susan G. Komen to celebrate her 11 years as a breast cancer survivor. “Cookin’ & Hookin’ Up” as well as her Blog Talk Radio Show, “That’s So Very Vanessa”. All are on demand anytime at www.inthecompanyoffriends.tv. Vanessa has been married to her anesthesiologist husband Dr. Tony Calloway for 32 years and they live in Los Angeles California. You can follow Vanessa at www.vanessabellcalloway.com IG:@vanessabellcalloway twitter:@nessabcalloway FB: Vanessabellcalloway
Nathan Ramos, BFA ’09, (1/2 Korean 1/2 Filipino) is an award-winning Writer, Actor, and Musician. Most recently he finished writing and EP’ing a Disney Southeast Asia show. His song Gay Asian Country Love Song went viral.
He was Writer/Songwriter, Music Director, and a Creative Producer for Disney’s Club Mickey Mouse. His song ‘When December Comes’ opened the ABC Christmas Day Parade and was chosen as Seventeen Magazine’s Top 17 Holiday Songs of 2017.
He was a CAPE New Writers Fellow and works as a Script Doctor for both Independent and Studio Films. He was nominated for a Webby for his work on 'The Station by Maker'. Nathan won the See Change 2042 National Playwriting Competition, and his play 'As We Babble On’ had a successful World Premiere at East West Players in 2018. His plays have been workshopped at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Artists at Play, and the LA LGBT Center's Renberg Theatre.
He was chosen as a Kollaboration Scholar 2017, an organization that represents Asian Americans in Popular Music, Arts, and Culture. His writing has also been featured in various publications, most recently Thought Catalog. As an Actor, he has been featured Regionally across the country, and Off-Broadway. He has gone viral on many digital spaces and has been featured on Tosh.0, Buzzfeed, RyanSeacrest.com, the Front Page of Reddit, and his work has amassed millions of hits on YouTube and other platforms.
He strives to be a funny/ serious/ thoughtful/ poignant/ lighthearted/ subversive/ queer/ asian voice through the cultural din.
Director, assistant director and writer Jeff Rosenberg, BFA ’04 (playwriting), is a Shaker Heights, Ohio, native. While at OU, Jeff won a Student Emmy Award and MTV Film’s Best Film on Campus competition judged by Gus Van Sant, Allison Anders and Joel Schumacher. His short films have screened at festivals throughout the world and his senior thesis project, RELATIVE OBSCURITY won best narrative at the Columbus International Film Festival.
His feature film debut, OJ: THE MUSICAL, screened at over 30 festivals around the world, was named a top pick by The Washington Post, called “a brilliant satire” by Michael Moore and won the audience award for Best Feature Film at the Friars Club Comedy Film Festival.
In late February of 2020, Jeff finished shooting his second feature film, WE BROKE UP, starring Aya Cash and William Jackson Harper and produced by Mason Novick, wrapping production just two weeks before stay-at-home orders were issued across the country.
As an assistant director, Jeff has worked on many film and television projects including WINE COUNTRY, THE GOOD PLACE, DOCUMENTARY NOW! and various projects with Larry Charles. Most recently, he won a Director’s Guild of America Award for his work on the acclaimed HBO series, VEEP.