BMGFly Fest 2020 Judges
Fanshen Cox
Award-winning playwright, actor, producer & educator, Fanshen Cox recently completed touring her one-woman show: One Drop of Love. Fanshen is also a Producer and Development Executive at Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Pearl Street Films. She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cape Verde, West Africa, and holds a BA in Spanish & Education, an MA in TESOL, and an MFA in TV, Film & Theatre. She has been honored with Distinguished Alumni Awards from CSULA and from Teachers College, Columbia University. She serves on the board of The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative and on the Kennedy Center’s Turnaround Arts Equity Advisory Committee. Fanshen is also a co-author of the Inclusion Rider which was announced at the 2018 Oscar awards by Frances McDormand.
Quan Lateef-Hill
QUAN LATEEF-HILL is a multi-hyphenated: Creator, Producer, Director, Writer, and Filmmaker with hands-on experience in multi-platform content including: Television, Film, Digital, Radio/Podcast, and Live Event & Experiential Production.
Throughout her 20+ year career Quan’s work has included development, pre & post-production, impact strategy, talent booking and management, and knowledge and firsthand experience of the overall creative process. She has worked with many national and independent production companies and networks to include Viacom Networks, Quibi, Discovery Communications, BRITDOC, Tool of America, Phenomenon, Citizen Jones, NBC, PBS, Bravo TV, Issa Rae Presents, and others.
Her goal to inspire change and use storytelling to shift the global consciousness drives her project choices and creative endeavors. Quan formed her production company, Too Qute Productions, in 2009 to produce and create projects that expand current perspectives of marginalized communities and focus on the narratives of women, youth, and people of color.
Effie T. Brown
Effie T. Brown is the CEO of Gamechanger Films, which launched in 2013 as the first film fund for women filmmakers and now under Brown’s leadership includes projects by and about people of color, LGBTQ+ and people with disabilities as well as its expansion into television and digital content. Brown is also an award-winning film, television, and digital producer known for her highly acclaimed, multi-platform repertoire as well as championing inclusion and diversity in Hollywood, both behind and in front of the camera.
Brown has produced several critically acclaimed films and award-winning projects including Real Women Have Curves (directed by Patricia Cardosa) Dear White People (2015 Independent Spirit Awards Best First Screenplay), HBO’s Project Greenlight (Executive Produced by Matt Damon & Ben Affleck), among several others. Brown also served as an executive producer on Lee Daniels’ STAR on FOX and Disney Channel’s Zombies. Prior to Gamechanger, Brown founded Duly Noted Inc., a company dedicated to ground-breaking narratives that use genre to challenge and advance our culture in a disruptive way. Brown’s dream is to change the world through film and TV – celebrating our differences while bringing us all closer together.
Hisham Tawfiq
Hisham Tawfiq is the son of Shaykh-Allama Al-Hajj K. Ahmad Tawfiq, founding Imam Of the “Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood” which is the oldest African American Mosque in the country located in Harlem. Hisham’s father was a student of El Hajj Malik and like him also studied abroad at Al azhar University.
Long before becoming widely known as "Dembe," a Sudanese Freedom Fighter and right hand man to Raymond Reddington on NBC's hit show The Blacklist, Hisham Tawfiq discovered his passion for The Arts in his High School while performing the poem "I Know Why The Caged Byrd Sings" by Maya Angelou.
Hisham then studied at the world renowned "Negro Ensemble Theater Company" which has brought forth such Notable Actors as Denzel Washington, Ossie Davis and Phylicia Rashad. He also studied with Susan Batson, whose know for coaching actors such as Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise and Jennifer Connely.
Throughout his career, Hisham, continues to call on his life experiences and training to inform his choices as an Actor and Artist. Be it as a Marine in Desert Storm, A Correction Officer at Sing Sing Correctional Facility or as one of New York's Bravest NYFD.