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Jean-François Mercier
Biography
Jean-François Mercier (born July 19, 1967) is a comedian, screenwriter and television host from Quebec, Canada. He gained recognition through TV shows appearances in The Mike Ward Show in the early 2000s, where he played a recurring character known as The Frustrated Guy. Mercier later had his own one-man show, appeared several times at Montreal's French comedy festival Just For Laughs and was one of the screenwriters of TV show Les Bougon. He hosted a late-night talk show Un gars le soir at V.
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Nicholas Colia
Biography
Nicholas Colia is a Brooklyn based filmmaker. He received his MFA from NYU Graduate Film School where he was the recipient of the Martin Scorsese and Maurice Kanbar Scholarships. His award winning short films include Alex and the Handyman and Untitled Short Film About White People. His first feature, Griffin in Summer, premiered at the Tribeca Festival, where it received awards for Best US Narrative Feature, Best Screenplay, and the Special Jury Mention for New Narrative Director. For his work on Griffin, Colia was nominated for the Someone to Watch Award at the Independent Spirit Awards.
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Piangpaitoon Satrawaha
Biography
Piangpaitoon Satrawaha is a co-writer of numerous television programmes. She studied a Bachelor and Master Degree in Dramatic Arts from Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University (Major in scriptwriting).
Piangpaitoon is a co-writer of numerous television programmes for example Thida Dance (Dancing Princesses) (Channel 3), Atita (The Battle from the Past) (Channel 7), Club Friday The Series in “Tee Pruksa” (The Counselor) and “Yak KepTher Wai Thung Song Kon” (I Wish To Keep Both Of You), Game Ritsaya (Envious Game) (Workpoint TV), KwamRuk Tee Pood Mai Dai (Unspeakable Love) (Bugaboo TV), Manny Myanmar (Myanmar) or It’s complicated (Line TV).
She’s also an acting coach and casting director for advertisements, promotional videos and an assistant director, theater and television producer and many more. She coached the acting for several TV dramas including Burumparumpara (Tale from Old Time), Nang Tas (Slave Woman), Dang Prom LikhitRuk (Love is a Destiny), Sao Noi Roi Laan (100-million Girl). She was also an acting coach for movies such as Looktoong Signature, Motel Mist, Pop Aye (Singaporean film) and for TV series like GPA Satabunpunsap (Gentlemen's Pride Academy), AF 11 The Series GuanzaLafun (Teenagers After Dreams), Prisana and Rattanawadee
Once in a while Piangpaitoon also appears in Thai TV series such as a role in Hormones the Series, TV commercials and multiple feature films. Now Piangpaitoon is the main acting instructor and the manager of SPARK DRAMA STUDIO and managing director of Chaiyo Hooray Productions company where she formed her own writing crew to fulfilled the clients’ aspiration.
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Sham Ka-Ki
Biography
At the age of 16, Kaki Sham participated in his first film, The Sunshine. After that, he has starred in several Hong Kong and Taiwanese TV dramas and movies. At the age of 18, he was a director of a film for the first time. With the documentary "Live in the Present", he won the 14th IFVA Youth Group Gold Award in a controversy and participated in several foreign film festivals, including the 32nd Hong Kong International Film Festival, the Singapore International Film Festival, the 9th Asian Film Festival, the Yokohama International Film Festival in Japan, and the Hannover International Film Festival Competition. After "Shadow Will", he was invited to shoot the short film "Hope".
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Hugh O'Brian
Biography
Hugh O'Brian (born Hugh Charles Krampe) was a prominent American actor and humanitarian best known for starring as the legendary frontier lawman in the ABC Western television series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp from 1955 to 1961 and the NBC action television series Search (1972–1973), as well as films, including the Agatha Christie adaptation Ten Little Indians (1965) and a notable supporting role in John Wayne's last film, The Shootist (1976). Known for his athletic, square-jawed build and quick-draw skills, he became one of television's definitive early Western heroes. Beyond acting, he left a massive global legacy as the founder of the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Foundation (HOBY), a nonprofit organization that has trained over 500,000 high school scholars in leadership and service.
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Joaquim de Almeida
Biography
Joaquim António Portugal Baptista de Almeida (born March 15, 1957) is a Portuguese actor.
He began his acting during the 1980s, appearing on the 1982 action movie The Soldier. He achieved international fame with his portrayals of Félix Cortez in the 1995 Tom Clancy's thriller Clear and Present Danger, drug kingpin Bucho in the 1995 action thriller film Desperado, Ramon Salazar on the Fox thriller drama series 24 and the corrupt businessman Hernan Reyes in 2011 street racing film Fast Five. His other well known films include The Honorary Consul (1983), Good Morning, Babylon (1987), Only You (1994), The Mask of Zorro (1998), Behind Enemy Lines (2001), The Death and Life of Bobby Z (2007), Che: Part Two (2008) and The Burning Plain (2008).
He has worked in Europe, Argentina, Mexico, the United States and Brazil in many film and stage productions, winning several international awards.
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Benoît Chamoux
Biography
Benoît Chamoux was a French mountaineer, born on February 19, 1961, in La Roche-sur-Foron, Haute-Savoie, and died on October 6, 1995, at the age of 34, on Kangchenjunga in Nepal.
A reserved but curious child, he grew up in a mountain environment where peaks were part of the daily landscape and developed a strong taste for physical exertion, navigation, and the outdoors from a very young age. As a teenager, he discovered mountaineering in local clubs, trained in climbing and ice climbing techniques, and quickly demonstrated extraordinary abilities, both in terms of his endurance and his determination.
Drawn to high mountains from a young age, he climbed the Diamond Couloir on Mount Kenya, Kenya, in 1982. The following year, in 1983, he climbed the south face of Huascarán in Peru, before turning his attention to the Himalayas, where he quickly established himself as one of the most brilliant mountaineers of his generation. From 1985 onwards, he summited a string of 8,000-meter peaks, climbing thirteen of the fourteen 8,000-meter peaks in the world between 1985 and 1995—a feat that made him a major figure in French mountaineering. A proponent of fast and lightweight ascents, which he called "express ascents," he completed several high-level solo climbs, notably on Gasherbrum II, Gasherbrum I, Broad Peak, and K2, which he summited in record time. A leader of international teams in extreme conditions, he also spearheaded the "Team Spirit" project, where he demonstrated his leadership qualities as well as his commitment to humanity.
In 1992, Chamoux distinguished himself by directing the first satellite measurement of Everest's altitude from the summit, installing some fifteen kilograms of instruments on the peak to obtain a reading of 8,846 meters with unprecedented precision. He then continued his scientific and sporting expeditions, notably climbing Dhaulagiri in 1993 and Lhotse in 1994, while also participating in high-altitude medical research. On May 7, 1995, he reached the summit of Makalu, his thirteenth 8,000-meter peak, although this ascent would later be debated by some Himalayan mountaineering commentators. In the autumn of 1995, he set out for his fourteenth and final major summit, Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest peak at 8,586 meters. On October 6, 1995, just a few dozen meters from the summit, he disappeared along with cameraman Pierre Royer and their Sherpa Riku, leaving his quest to summit all fourteen 8,000-meter peaks unfinished.
Five months after his death, his widow, Fabienne Clauss, established the Benoît Chamoux Foundation, under the auspices of the Fondation de France, to honor his memory and continue his commitment to the communities of the high Himalayan valleys. Through his sporting achievements, his penchant for taking risks, and his reflections on the meaning of commitment in the mountains, Benoît Chamoux remains an emblematic figure of modern Himalayan mountaineering, often referred to as a “little prince of the Himalayas.”
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Manu Dibango
Biography
Emmanuel N'Djoké "Manu" Dibango (12 December 1933 – 24 March 2020) was a Cameroonian musician and songwriter who played saxophone and vibraphone. He developed a musical style fusing jazz, funk, and traditional Cameroonian music. His father was a member of the Yabassi ethnic group, while his mother was a Duala. He was best known for his 1972 single "Soul Makossa". He died from COVID-19 on 24 March 2020.
Emmanuel "Manu" Dibango was born in Douala, Cameroon in 1933. His father, Michel Manfred N'Djoké Dibango, was a civil servant. Son of a farmer, he met his wife travelling by pirogue to her residence, Douala. Emmanuel's mother was a fashion designer, running her own small business. Both her ethnic group, the Douala, and his, the Yabassi, viewed this union of different ethnic groups with some disdain. Dibango had only a stepbrother from his father's previous marriage, who was four years older than him. In Cameroon, one's ethnicity is dictated by one's father, though Dibango wrote in his autobiography, Three Kilos of Coffee, that he had "never been able to identify completely with either of [his] parents".
Dibango's uncle was the leader of his extended family. Upon his death, Dibango's father refused to take over, as he never fully initiated his son into the Yabassi's customs. Throughout his childhood, Dibango slowly forgot the Yabassi language in favour of the Douala. However, his family did live in the Yabassi encampment on the Yabassi plateau, close to the Wouri River in central Douala. While a child, Dibango attended Protestant church every night for religious education, or nkouaida. He enjoyed studying music there, and reportedly was a fast learner.
In 1941, after being educated at his village school, Dibango was accepted into a colonial school, near his home, where he learned French. He admired the teacher, whom he described as "an extraordinary draftsman and painter". In 1944, French president Charles de Gaulle chose this school to perform the welcoming ceremonies upon his arrival in Cameroon.
In 1949, at age 15, Dibango was sent to college in Saint-Calais, France. After that he attended the lycée de Chartres where he learned the piano.
He was a member of the seminal Congolese rumba group African Jazz and has collaborated with many other musicians, including Fania All Stars, Fela Kuti, Herbie Hancock, Bill Laswell, Bernie Worrell, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, King Sunny Adé, Don Cherry, and Sly and Robbie. He achieved a considerable following in the UK with a disco hit called "Big Blow", originally released in 1976 and re-mixed as a 12″ single in 1978 on Island Records. In 1998, he recorded the album CubAfrica with Cuban artist Eliades Ochoa. At the 16th Annual Grammy Awards in 1974, he was nominated in the categories Best R&B Instrumental Performance and Best Instrumental Composition for "Soul Makossa".
The lyrics of the song "Soul Makossa" on the record of the same name contain the word "makossa", which refers to a style of Cameroonian urban music and means "(I) dance" in Dibango's native tongue, the Cameroonian language Duala. The song has influenced popular music hits, including Kool and the Gang's "Jungle Boogie". Source: Article "Manu Dibango" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Jukka Virtanen
Biography
Jukka Jalmari Virtanen (25 July 1933 – 1 September 2019) was a Finnish entertainer and author. He worked as both a film and television director, actor and host. He was also an accomplished songwriter. Starting originally as a newspaper columnist, Virtanen began his television career in the 1950s and his film career in the 1960s.
He won the Rose d'Or in 1965 for the entertainment program Lumilinna (The Cold Old Days). He starred in and directed many films written by Spede Pasanen, including Millipilleri, Pähkähullu Suomi and Noin 7 Veljestä, as well as playing bit parts in the Uuno Turhapuro franchise.
He was also the long-standing host of the TV show Levyraati (1980–1997) as well as Runoraati. Additionally, he was a songwriter for a number of prolific Finnish musical artists such as Ilkka Lipsanen.
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Nadeem
Biography
Nadeem Baig (born Mirza Nazeer Baig; July 19, 1941), best known by his screen name Nadeem (Urdu: ندیم ), is a legendary Pakistani actor, singer, and producer whose career spans over five decades. Widely regarded as one of the most iconic figures in South Asian cinema, he dominated Pakistani Urdu cinema during the 1970s and 1980s as its leading box-office hero.
After starting as a playback singer, Baig made a star-making acting debut in the 1967 blockbuster Chakori. He went on to star in over 200 films, forming an iconic on-screen pairing with actress Shabnam in classic hits like Pehchan (1975) and the record-breaking romance Aina (1977). As cinema evolved, he transitioned smoothly into respected character roles, featuring in modern hits like Superstar (2019), Parey Hut Love (2019), and television dramas such as Ishq e Laa.
A decorated veteran, Baig holds a record 16 Nigar Awards for Best Actor and was honored with the prestigious Pride of Performance award by the Government of Pakistan in 1997.
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