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Chaitanya Tamhane
Biography
Chaitanya Tamhane is an Indian filmmaker, known for the 2014 Marathi courtroom drama Court. It was announced as India's official submission for the 88th Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Tamhane was nominated for best screenwriter at the 9th Asian Film Awards and won best director at the 16th Mumbai Film Festival. Court was Tamhane's directorial debut for a feature length film. His previous work includes the short film Six Strands, of which he was also the writer and director, as well as producer. Tamhane's second directorial feature, The Disciple (2020) premiered at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. At Venice, the film won FIPRESCI award presented by the International Federation of Film Critics and the Best Screenplay award.
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Jo-Lene Ong
Biography
Jo-Lene Ong is a curator working across Asia and Europe. She will begin her role as Curator of Buro Stedelijk on 1 March.
Her practice centres on collaboration, research and long-term projects that reconsider how institutions work with artists and audiences. She develops programmes that foreground shared authorship, sustained dialogue and public engagement.
She has co-initiated initiatives such as the CounterArchive Collective Filmmaking Lab, the Unpacking Infrastructure curatorial exchange for the 16th Sharjah Biennial, and the Thinking Ecologically seminar series at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. Ong was previously Curator at esea contemporary in Manchester and Program Advisor for the 12th Seoul Mediacity Biennale.
Her curatorial work includes projects with the Hartwig Art Foundation, Framer Framed, the National Art Center Tokyo and the Mori Art Museum. From 2020 to 2024, Ong was a theory tutor at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and is an alumna of the De Appel Curatorial Programme (2017–2018).
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Zoénie Liwen Deng
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Zoénie Liwen DENG is an art writer, researcher, poet, curator, and translator. She obtained her PhD degree from the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ACSA), University of Amsterdam. Being part of the European Research Council (ERC) funded research project, her PhD project focused on non-oppositional criticality of socially engaged art in contemporary China. She was the Secondary grantee of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Greater China Research Grant 2019-2020 in Asian Art Archive, and she conducted a project about self-organisation of cultural practitioners in Southern China, in relation to practices in southeast Asia. Her research and artistic interests cover social practices, feminism, the decolonial, otherwise ways of living together, and non-western epistemologies and cosmologies. She is a contributor to Leap and Artforum China.
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Marcela Santamaria
Biography
Marcela Santamaría is a Salvadoran model, TV presenter and media personality, born in El Salvador. She gained national recognition as Miss World El Salvador 2015, representing her country in the Miss World pageant and previously competing in international contests such as Reina Hispanoamericana 2010 and Miss International 2011.
She worked as a television host on Salvadoran programs including Play and the reality series Top Chef El Salvador, and later continued her career in media while residing in the United States. Santamaría has also studied acting and is a bilingual performer with experience in both English and Spanish-language projects.
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Mario Maffei
Biography
Mario Maffei was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor whose career spanned over five decades. He began his career as an assistant director in 1936, working on the film Pioggia d'estate directed by Mario Monicelli. During World War II, Maffei focused on documentary filmmaking, returning to fiction films post-war. He made his acting debut in 1947 with roles in Tombolo, paradiso nero and Le avventure di Pinocchio. Between 1963 and 1969, Maffei directed three feature films and a series of short films. His directorial debut was an adaptation of Alessandro Manzoni's novel I promessi sposi in 1964. Maffei's work is noted for its versatility, encompassing roles as a director, screenwriter, and actor, contributing significantly to Italian cinema.
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Jia Zhao
Biography
Jia Zhao is a Chinese-Dutch film producer based in Amsterdam. She founded Muyi Film and Silk Road Film Salon in 2012. Coming from Asia and based in Europe, Jia skillfully matches resources from the East and West to nurture and mentor emerging voices and to bring authentic stories to the world in high cinematic quality. In 2021, A MARBLE TRAVELOGUE by Sean Wang was selected for IDFA Frontlight. Jia also co-produced I’M SO SORRY (co-producer) by Zhao Liang, a mind-blowing documentary about the effects of nuclear power. The film got selected for Cannes film festival and is currently being screened in cinemas across the Netherlands, receiving positive reviews all around.
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Ashley Rickards
Biography
Ashley Nicole Rickards (born May 4, 1992, height 5' 3¾" (1,62 m)) is an American actress, known for her role in MTV's Awkward as Jenna Hamilton, and as Samantha "Sam" Walker, a troubled young girl taken in by Brooke Davis who becomes her foster-mother, in The CW teen drama series One Tree Hill. She also starred in the 2011 independent drama film Fly Away as Mandy, a severely autistic girl.
Rickards grew up on a horse farm that catered for children with special needs. She attended a local Montessori school where, at age 13, she had her first taste of acting in an opera production. Rickards graduated from high school at age fifteen and is a member of Mensa. After attending a local talent showcase, organized by Lou Perlman, Rickards traveled to Los Angeles where she eventually gathered a team of representatives. Upon graduating, Rickards began to appear in a number of minor roles, as child labor laws restricted the number of hours she was able to work. After making a number of guest appearances and shorts, she landed the role of Samantha Walker, a runaway foster child, in One Tree Hill for the 2008-2009 season. Although not aware of the show before auditioning, Rickards found that she "learned so much from acting techniques to different ways of shooting things".Her character did not return the following season, while in the same year she had a bit part in her first feature film, Gamer.
Rickards spent much of 2009 attending auditions while a proposed lead-role in the film Dirty Girl fell through. In 2010 she appeared opposite Jimmy Smits in an episode of the legal drama Outlaw while she also auditioned for the lead-role in Awkward. Initially rejected, her manager Adam Griffin sent the producers a tape Rickards had made for Fly Away "to show how she can do anything". The actress landed both roles and filmed the pilot for the MTV series prior to Fly Away, a feature where she played a severely autistic girl.
A former competitive equestrian, she helped to launch the Project Futures Somaly Mam Foundation (2011), which works to prevent and end human trafficking and sexual slavery in Southeast Asia. Rickards writes poetry, scripts, and enjoys painting in her spare time. She also appeared in The Fray's video for "How to Save a Life", and also in The Format's video for "She Doesn't Get It".
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Steve Varnom
Biography
Steve Varnom is a UK-based actor, screenwriter and film-maker. He trained at LAMDA. He will soon be seen as King Custennin, a series regular in the upcoming historical fantasy TV show "The Pendragon Cycle." (Bonfire Legend/The Daily Wire.) He played Eddie Rubinski in the movie "The Sweeter Side of Life," a romantic comedy directed by Michael Damian for The Hallmark Channel - and Ben Goeser in "Obsession: Dark Desires," a true life drama for Discovery I.D. Other television and film work includes "Eastenders", "Coronation Street", "Holby City", "Level Up", "God The Father", "The Storyteller", "London's Burning", "Down to Earth", "The Bill", "Dalziel and Pascoe", "Sugar Rush" and "Doctors". He also wrote, directed and starred in the feature film "It's Been Real", and has a supporting role in "Heroes and Villains" and "Level Up". He starred in "Broadside", a costume drama for American television, in which he played General George Monck, directed by the award winning David Hickman. Steve has had a long and successful career in the theatre, playing leading roles in London's West End and working with renowned directors at the Royal Shakespeare Company, RUG, The Manchester Royal Exchange and The New Vic. His company, King Ziggy Films is developing several feature film projects.
- IMDb mini biography by: Steve Varnom
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Len Cariou
Biography
Leonard Joseph “Len” Cariou (born September 30, 1939) is a Canadian actor. He gained prominence for his Tony Award-winning title role in the original cast of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979). Prior, Cariou had earned nominations for his performances in musicals Applause (1970) and A Little Night Music (1973). Cariou has had supporting roles in films such as The Four Seasons (1981), Thirteen Days (2000), About Schmidt (2002), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Prisoners (2013), and Spotlight (2015). On television, he is known for recurring roles in the shows Murder, She Wrote (1985–1992), Brotherhood (2005-2006), and Damages (2010) and his starring role in Blue Bloods (2010–2024).
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Liam Kyle Sullivan
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Liam Kyle Sullivan (born July 17, 1973 in Norfolk, Massachusetts) is an American comedian, actor, and director and went to King Philip Regional High School. Sullivan has made several guest appearances on television programs—including Gilmore Girls, 8 Simple Rules, and Alias—but is best known for his internet videos. He won a 2008 People's Choice Award in the user generated video category for "Shoes".
He starred in the VH1 series I Hate My 30's.
More recently, Sullivan appeared as Kelly in the FCKH8, anti-gay bullying campaign videos.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Liam Kyle Sullivan, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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