Small Screen: Introducing 'Frog and Toad' and Nielsen Ratings Reinstated
Station 19 - ABC
Broadcast: Chene’ Lawson will return to The Young and The Restless as Devon’s mother Harmony beginning May 5. Lawson created the role in 2005, and last played Harmony in 2006. Bryton James, who plays Devon in the series, said of Lawson’s return:
“It was like stepping into a time machine, because even after 18 years, Chene’ looks exactly the same. . . And she was just brilliant in front of the camera. . . It really [is] a full-circle experience for myself and Devon[.]
Station 19 has been renewed for a seventh season at ABC, during which it is set to reach its 100th episode. Zoanne Clack and Peter Paige will serve as showrunners and executive producers on the new season after Krista Vernoff stepped down. Clack’s role as exec producer and head writer on the series will be her second promotion in only eight months, having joined the show in August after controversy over a racial slur present in an early draft of the script. Station 19 follows the lives of firefighters at Seattle’s Fire Station 19. It stars Jaina Lee Ortiz, Jason George, Grey Damon, Barrett Doss, Alberto Frezza, Jay Hayden, Okieriete Onaodowan, Danielle Savre, Miguel Sandoval, Boris Kodjoe, Stefania Spampinato, Carlos Miranda, Josh Randall, Merle Dandridge, and Pat Heal. Stacy McKee, Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers and Paris Barclay serve as executive producers on the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff, which is produced by Shondaland and ABC Signature. Station 19’s Season 6 finale will air on May 18. Of her new role, Paige says,
“I’m beyond honored to be handed the reins to Station 19 – a show I love, full of incredible, complex characters, and resonant, important stories. . . . A huge thank you to the entire team at Shondaland, and everyone at ABC for their faith in us. And eternal gratitude to Krista Vernoff, for bringing me into the 19 family, and for modeling conscious leadership in such a powerful and deliberate way.”
Spence Moore II, Aury Krebs, and Ashleigh LaThrop have been cast in the NBC medical drama pilot Wolf alongside Zachary Quinto. Wolf finds its inspiration from two Oliver Sacks books, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars. It tells the story of pioneering neurologist Dr. Oliver Wolf (Quinto) and his interns as they study the human brain while navigating their own mental health. Moore will play ex-college football player Dr. Jacob Nash, who turned to the field of medicine after an injury ended his sports career. Nash is known to self-medicate to cope with his fear of having sustained brain trauma during his time in football. Krebs will play Dr. Dana Dang, a famous social media doctor whose fatal flaw is a Xanax dependency that masks her issues with anxiety. LaThrop plays Dr. Ericka Kinney, a Type A first-year intern who is suddenly thrown into an unpredictable environment, and who is trying to hide a deep secret from her team. Lee Toland Krieger will executive produce the pilot with Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Leigh London Redman for Berlanti Productions.
The drama series Will Trent has been renewed for a second season at ABC, making it the first freshman show on the network to get a renewal decision this season. The series stars Ramón Rodríguez as Special Agent Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI), who was abandoned at birth and suffered through Atlanta’s foster care system. As an adult, Trent is galvanized to ensure that fewer children are abandoned as he was. The series also features Iantha Richardson as Faith Mitchell and Sonja Sohn as Amanda Wagner. Rodriguez told reporters,
“We’re so thankful to our ABC and Hulu fans for joining us on this wild ride and watching Will Trent. When we set out to bring the series to television screens, we wanted to do justice to the gritty, thrilling world that Karin Slaughter created with her bestselling book series [Will Trent]. [T]he creative team [has] developed complex and nuanced characters that people are relating to on a human level. . . . We’re so excited for the opportunity to dive deeper into these stories with season two.”
Will Trent’s Season 1 finale will air on May 2.
Bev is Boss, a scripted drama, follows the career of Deb Antney, who will also executive produce. Antney, who is also the mother of rapper Wacka Flocka Flame, earned notoriety when she launched the careers of artists like Gucci Mane, French Montana, and Nicki Minaj. Bev will run eight episodes, and, true to Antney’s reputation in the industry, will be candid and hold nothing back. Of the series, Antney told reporters,
“Being vulnerable and letting others in isn’t exactly a comfortable place for me. However, it’s where I needed to go creatively to tell this uniquely personal story. . . . Bev is Boss pulls back the curtain on my personal journey and invites the world to experience each step along the way.”
Bev is Boss is executive produced by Jamie Foxx and Datari Turner Executive Produce for Foxxhole Productions. The series will run eight episodes on WEtv this summer.
The BBC has released new images of Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa, who will play the 15th Doctor. In the photos released last Thursday, Gatwa and costar Millie Gibson don 1960s attire, with Gatwa clad in a pinstripe double-breasted suit and Gibson donning a pair of white gogo boots and a matching mod dress. The BBC has remained secretive about details of the upcoming season other than their announcement that filming has commenced. Doctor Who will return from hiatus in November with three 60th-anniversary commemorative episodes featuring David Tennant as the 14th Doctor. Tennant’s costar Catherine Tate will appear in her role as the Doctor’s right-hand woman Donna Noble, and both Heartstopper’s Yasmin Finney and Neil Patrick Harris will make appearances in yet-to-be-announced roles. Showrunner Russell T. Davies said in October,
“If you thought the appearance of David Tennant was a shock, we’ve got plenty more surprises on the way. The path to Ncuti’s 15th Doctor is laden with mystery, horror, robots, puppets, danger and fun. We’re giving you a year to speculate, and then all hell lets loose.”
After Tennant’s reprisal of his role, Gatwa will adopt the role of a new Doctor. Now widely regarded as a British television stalwart, Doctor Who began in 1963 and tells the story of a Time Lord named Doctor Who, an “extraterrestrial being with a human appearance,” as he travels through time to explore the universe.
Natasha Rothwell - Gilbert Flores
Cable: Cruel Summer and Grown-ish will return to Freeform this summer, along with new animated comedy Praise Petey. Grown-ish will be airing its sixth and final season, with the first half of a two-part finale event airing June 28. Cruel Summer will premiere its second season on June 5 with a two-episode special. Praise Petey will follow “New York City ‘it’ girl” Petey (Annie Murphy) whose life seems to be crumbling around her until a gift from her father turns things around. The series premieres on July 21.
Natasha Rothwell will return to The White Lotus for its third season. Rothwell’s role in Season 3 has yet to be announced; in Season 1 she portrayed spa manager Belinda Lindsey, who was conned by wealthy resort guest Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge) with a promise to invest in her private practice. White Lotus Creator Mike White revealed after the finale of Season 2 that the third season will explore “a satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality.” Rothwell’s role on the series landed her a best supporting actress nomination at the 2022 Emmys, and she has also won an NAACP Image Award for her work on Issa Rae’s Insecure as an actress, writer, director, and producer. She is also known for her writing on SNL, and her acting in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Bojack Horseman, Bob’s Burgers, and American Dad. She is currently creating and starring in Hulu’s How to Die Alone.
HBO has revealed new cast members joining Season 2 of House of the Dragon, among them British actor Abubakar Salim. Salim will play Alyn of Hull, a sailor in the Velaryon fleet. Salim is known for his time on Max’s Raised by Wolves and for voicing Bayek in the video game Assassin’s Creed: Origins. The second season of House of the Dragon will air eight episodes.
Streaming: With Love, a “multi-generational rom-com” series from Amazon Prime, will air its Season 2 premiere on June 2. With Love tells the story of siblings Lily (Emeraude Toubia) and Jorge Diaz (Mark Indelicato); Lily as she navigates a love triangle between Santiago (Rome Flynn), herself, and Nick (Desmond Chiam), and Jorge as he questions his relationship with his boyfriend Henry (Vincent Rodriguez III) after meeting Henry’s conservative parents.
Apple TV+ has released the first official trailer for animated series Frog and Toad featuring the voices of Kevin Michael Richardson as Toad, Ron Fuches as Racoon, Margaret Cho as Turtle, and Yvette Nicole Brown as Rabbit. Based on the Caldecott and Newbery Honor-winning books by Arnold Lovel, Frog and Toad tells the heartwarming story of a friendship between the titular characters with a message of “embracing the things that make you different,” per the official show synopsis.
Truth Be Told will not be renewed for a fourth season at Apple. Star Octavia Spenser shared the news on Instagram, where she wrote:
“Hey y’all. I wanted to share the news that after three seasons of seeking truth and justice, Poppy Scoville is going on a much-needed vacation. I want to thank my partners at Orit Entertainment, Hello Sunshine, Chernin Entertainment, Fifth Season, and everyone at Apple for being so supportive over the past three seasons. Nichelle Tramble, Maisha Closson, Mikkel Norgaard and our incredible cast and crew – thank you for your creative vision during this incredible journey. Poppy Scoville signing off.”
Truth Be Told told the story of true crime podcaster Poppy Parnell (who used the name Scoville in the last season) and the cases she investigated. Head of programming for Apple TV+ Matt Cherniss said of the show’s end,
“This show has given us the opportunity to not only witness Octavia’s mesmerizing and nuanced portrayal of crime-solving podcaster Poppy Scoville, but to explore so many powerful and timely themes set against the backdrop of a captivating family drama. We can’t wait to find our next project together.”
Emjay Anthony (Physical), Chiara Aurelia (Cruel Summer), Kezii Curtis (Charm City Kings) and Nikki Hahn (Magnum P.I.) have been cast as series regulars in Peacock’s upcoming Hysteria! The show will also feature Modern Family’s Julie Bowen. Hysteria!, billed as a coming-of-age thriller, will dive into the history of American mass hysteria with the story of the 1980s Satanic Panic. The series will follow a group of high schoolers who “exploit the growing hysteria around teen occult activity.” The logline reads,
“When a beloved varsity quarterback disappears during the ‘Satanic Panic’ of the late 1980s, a struggling high school heavy metal band of outcasts realize they can capitalize on the town’s sudden interest in the occult by building a reputation as a Satanic metal band, until a bizarre series of murders, kidnappings, and reported ‘supernatural activity’ triggers a leather-studded witch hunt that leads directly back to them.”
Anthony will play Dylan Campbell, Aurelia will play Jordy, and Curtis will play Spud, all of whom are a group of outcasts who form a heavy metal band called Dethkrunch, which they bill as a Satanic metal group. Hahn will play Faith, a sheltered teenager who witnesses a gory crime. No release date has been announced.
Roku has released a statement claiming it can guarantee advertisers a larger reach than its cable challengers. Kristina Shepard, Roku’s co-head of U.S. brand sales, wrote in the statement,
“TV streaming has long brought precision and measurement to the largest screen in the home. Now, marketers can launch campaigns knowing they will deliver meaningful reach and impact quickly.”
Roku, which has 70 million subscribers, offers this statement as the media sector approaches its annual “upfront” market, where networks look to sell the majority of their ad inventory for the upcoming programming cycle. The streamer has not historically been considered a player to watch in these discussions, but the last few years’ streaming boom means services like Roku and Amazon have more eyes on them. The “primetime” hours of traditional television, 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., are still ideal for advertisers, even as more consumers spend these hours streaming rather than watching “regular” TV. Under Roku’s new offering, advertisers can select specific dates to run content, and Roku will prioritize the delivery of those ads on Roku Channel and its top 100 channels. Though both Roku and local cable systems get the same two-minute span each hour during which to run ads, Roku has the added ability to send specific ads to specific populations. Audience targeting is especially enticing for advertisers. Making their offer even more appealing, Roku’s pilot program implementing the primetime guarantee reports reaching 15% more TV households between 8 and 11 p.m. than an average program on a top cable network.
Disney+ has canceled National Treasure after its first season. The show was an offshoot of the National Treasure movie franchise, told from the point of view of Jess (Lisette Olivera), an undocumented youth who searches for answers about her family and begins “the adventure of a lifetime” to save lost treasure. The show also starred Zuri Reed, Antonio Cipriano, Jordan Rodrigues, Jake Austin Walker and Lyndon Smith.
Peacock will adapt Kennedy Ryan’s bestselling novel Before I Let Go for television. The series will be executive produced by Malcolm D. Lee with Debra Martin Chase, along with John Legend, Mike Jackson, and Ty Stiklorius’ Get Lifted Film Co. Before I Let Go follows a divorced couple whose complicated lives seem to be crumbling around them as they co-parent their two children. As Yasmen and Josiah Wade navigate life and its challenges, they begin to be drawn to each other again, wondering if they should give their romance a second chance. Ryan has also written The Kingmaker, Queen Move and Reel, and is the first Black author to win the RITA Award (now called the Vivian) for her book Long Shot. The adaptation is in its early stages and does not yet have a writer or a release date.
According to a newly released analysis by consultancy Kantar, ITVX and Apple TV+ have come out ahead of a downward trend in UK streamer subscriptions. While the figures showed that the number of UK households subscribed to one or more streaming services fell in the first quarter of 2023 as compared to the first quarter of 2022, ITVX gained the most new SVOD subscribers in that time. Apple TV+ came in at a close second. Netflix showed the “largest ‘absolute losses’” in subscriber numbers.
Hulu has renewed The Onyx Collective original drama Reasonable Doubt and cast Morris Chestnut as a series regular. The series follows LA-based defense attorney Jacqueline “Jax” Stewart (Emayatzy Corinealdi) as she solves a murder case and deals with her own complicated family life. Chestnut will play a charming defense attorney named Corey Cash who has a passion for representing “underdogs.” When they start working on the same case, Jax and Cash clash at the firm and Jax worries that her position may be in jeopardy. Reasonable Doubt is executive produced by Raamla Mohamed, Kerry Washington and Larry Wilmore. Chestnut is most known for his roles in film, appearing in Boyz n the Hood, The Brothers, The Perfect Holiday, Think Like A Man, and Best Man and its sequel. On the small screen Chestnut has appeared in The Best Man: The Final Chapters, Our Kind of People, The Resident, The Enemy Within, Legends, American Horror Story, Goliath, Nurse Jackie, and Rosewood.
Melissa Fumero and Danny Trejo will guest star in Lopez v. Lopez on May 2. Fumero plays Natalia, a Latina mom who mistakenly believes Mayan to be white; Trejo will play Danny Martinez from George’s rival company Martin-E.Z. Movers. Fumero is most known for her role as Amy Santiago on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and has recently voice acted on Digman! and Velma. She has also worked as a director on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Grand Crew, Gordita Chronicles and Freevee’s upcoming Primo. Trejo is a ubiquitous industry name, with a lengthy career spanning films like Desperado, Heat, Con Air, and the From Dusk Til Dawn series, along with television credits on Sons of Anarchy, King of the Hill, Breaking Bad, The Flash, and American Gods. The May 2 episode will also feature Judge Marilyn Milian of The People’s Court.
Days of Our Lives breakdown writer Jamey Giddens recently announced his plans to exit the Peacock series in a tweet.
Giddens, who started as a blogger, podcaster, and co-owner of the soap opera news and commentary platform Daytime Confidential left in 2018 to develop and coproduce his primetime soap opera Ambitions for the OWN network, which debuted in 2019 and canceled the same year after one season. He joined Days of Our Lives as their first Black breakdown writer in 2021. Now he is exiting the role after two years to join the team of an undisclosed primetime soap opera.
Fuse Media
Industry: Latino-owned Fuse Media has added an additional two FAST channels to its deal with Freevee. The two channels, Latino Vibes and OUTtv Proud, will join Shades of Black and Backstage among Fuse’s programs on the streamer. Chairman and CEO of Fuse Media Miguel Roggero said in a statement,
“We’re thrilled to be extending our distribution deal with Freevee to include Latino Vibes and OUTtv Proud, and to be adding even more of Fuse Media’s empowering content to the Amazon Freevee portfolio of channels. We’re really proud of our FAST channels, each showing tremendous growth with a curated slate of inclusive programming. We can’t wait for Freevee customers to have access to this programming.”
After being suspended in 2021 by the Media Rating Council, Nielsen’s national TV ratings measurement has been reinstated. The Council, which applies standards for audience measurement, announced that after addressing issues pertaining to viewership undercounting, Nielsen’s widely-used ratings are now up to snuff. According to MRC director and CEO George W. Ivie,
“Nielsen has undertaken strong efforts to correct the issues that led to its loss of MRC accreditation 19 months ago and to restore key aspects of its panel performance. The MRC’s audit has shown these efforts have been successful, and as a result, our TV Committee and board agreed that accreditation should be reinstated.”
Nielsen’s pledge to improve its estimates of broadband-only households in its national sample and commitment to providing more transparency about the inherent possibility of error in its estimates were both credited as factors in reinstatement. Nielsen isn’t out of the woods yet, however: accreditation of its local TV ratings remains suspended, and its Nielsen One cross-platform measurement initiative is still under audit. And in the 19 months during which Nielsen’s rankings were suspended, other analytics providers were able to get a stronger footing in the industry, leaving Nielsen behind in a space where it once dominated.
In Canada, where paid sharing has already been implemented, Netflix reports that the paid subscriber base has surpassed where it stood before the crackdown on free sharing. As for the US, Netflix expressed confidence that while viewership numbers may dip in the short term after enforcement of the new policies begins, they are expected to rebound in the long term.
In the ever-changing and incredibly vast industry that is entertainment, marketing experts are increasingly interested in cultivating personal and lasting relationships with audiences and consumers. In the world of social media and a dizzying news cycle, the culture among young people is evolving at a blinding pace that presents new challenges to marketers and platforms trying to reach this population. Young people consume content on a multitude of apps and screens, from streaming services to social media platforms to independent creators and, though occasionally, live and broadcast television. Industry players are finding it increasingly difficult to apply an outdated “blanket” approach to marketing. Ellene V. Miles, senior VP of intersectional marketing for Sony Pictures Entertainment, says,
“People are just consuming our messaging in a thousand different ways. . . . [T]hat sort of blanket one size fits all approach isn’t as viable. I think being authentic to these audiences and meeting them where they live and meeting them with messaging that really speaks to them is critical to success[.]”
Many strategists have taken to building a social media presence for their clients and content, increasing their visibility and interaction with and to a younger crowd. Ian Trombetta, senior VP of social and influence marketing for the National Football League, finds success by working with digital creators to get NFL players on social media. He says,
“We’ve activated over one hundred social creatives across the country to film and work with [tNFL players] year-round[.] [Our content] looks vastly different than it did three, four or five years ago, and it really is tailored to each platform. The other thing that we’re doing now, more than ever, is working with this democratization of celebrity and fandom. It’s vast to look at because fans want that look into the lives of the players. It’s also daunting to think about, because literally anyone can go viral at any time.”
It’s true – the pace at which younger audiences cycle through news, memes, and culture is nearly supersonic. Miss one day of TikTok content, and one will find that they have missed multiple “meme cycles,” placing them squarely behind in the times after just 24 hours of absence. The expertise with which the generation that was raised on social media navigates a vast swath of apps is hard to learn for outsiders. David Tinson, CMO at Electronic Arts, spends many of his hours at work simply catching up to Gen Z.
“In marketing, we spend a lot of time getting to know Gen Z . . . They’ve always known limitless content, which means any experience they have with us needs to grab them, hook them and meet them exactly where they are. If it doesn’t do that quickly and without friction, they will move on. They have fast and smart filters.”
While this new frontier is challenging to navigate at an appropriate pace, it offers unprecedented opportunities for personal, integrated, and inescapable marketing. If used correctly, social media and the Gen Z consumer base can be a silver bullet to marketing success. Entertainment marketers, therefore, must buckle down and spend a few dozen hours on the platforms within which their audiences live if they want to capitalize on these new opportunities.
Canada’s Showrunner of the Year and prominent Canadian TV writer Anthony Q. Farrell recently sat down to discuss building a path for BIPOC writers and the impacts of the WGA strike on the industry in Canada. Farrell began his career writing for Greg Daniels on The Office, and has appeared on The Parker Andersons/Amelia Parker and Overlord and the Underwoods on his way to industry fame. In 2022, the Writers Guild of Canada named Farrell its 2022 Showrunner of the Year. He has spent much of his career mentoring BIPOC creators with projects like the BIPOC TV & Film Showrunner Bootcamp, a program he ran with Jinder Qujla-Chalmers in 2021. The initiative taught over 100 writers the ropes of running a project with lessons on writing, production, and postproduction, as well as featured BIPOC speakers with a foothold in the industry. Farrell wanted to underscore the necessity of teaching “cultural heritage before even getting to the art.” In an industry saturated with white leadership and suffering from a lack of BIPOC people in positions of power, Farrell understands the importance and difficulty of this work. He told reporters,
“The fact is, most of the time you’re dealing with white executives and a lot of the time they’re very open and love hearing about this stuff, but the real situation we’re in is sometimes they just need to be educated to understand why certain characters are doing certain things. That’s not something I think is common with white showrunners.”
The wealth of projects occupying Farrell’s time are, like so many others, in limbo as the WGA/AMPTP negotiations continue on. A member of the WGA and WGC himself, Farrell serves on the Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility subcommittee, and is intimately acquainted with the negotiations and looming possibility of a strike.
“I do think if there is a strike, a few more shows will probably try and come to Canada to do stuff here instead of the States,. The way this will work is if they are companies that already do business in Canada — that’s fine. [But] if they’re coming to Canada for the first time now because of the strike, we’re not going to take that work. That’s how I understand it, but I can’t speak for the council.”
He notes that the WGA and WGC share similar goals in their negotiations, saying that, as in the States, jobs for Canadian writers are on the decline, and writers rooms have shrunk even as the industry expands. A staunch supporter of writers’ rights, Farrell hopes to “get to a place where [writers] can make a living wage and do what we love doing and make a living doing it.”
Executive VP of development and production at Walden Media Naia Cucukov has signed a first-look producer deal. Under the deal, Cucukov will develop and produce a slate of upcoming and current TV and film projects. President and CEO Frank Smith said of her departure,
“Naia has been an incredible executive and colleague both creatively and strategically . . . during her tenure, including bringing Walden its first Emmy award for the Netflix series The Baby-Sitters Club. We’re sad she’s leaving the Walden team, but thrilled that she has chosen to be based at Walden to launch her producing career. We look forward to collaborating closely with Naia on many projects to come.”
Cucukov started at Walden Media in 2013, working on projects like The Giver, Everest, The BFG, A Dog’s Purpose, A Dog’s Journey, Wonder, and Manhunt, among others. She writes in a statement,
“I take immense pride in the work I accomplished during my decade-long tenure at Walden Media. It has been an incredible journey to be part of such a passionate and creative team, and I am proud of the fantastic slate of films and television we have produced together. . . . I am excited to continue my partnership with Walden Media and delve into new projects that showcase diverse voices and explore narratives for a broad range of audiences.”
Don Cheadle’s production company The Radicle Act will develop Lamar Giles’ novel The Getaway for TV. The horror series, set in the near future, follows teenage employees at a famous resort that has been selling shares in an “end-of-the-world oasis” without their knowledge. Giles is also the author of The Last Last-Day-of-Summer, Not So Pure and Simple, SPIN and Fake ID, and has written for DC Comics, Star Wars, and National Geographic.
Writer-producer Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm, a newcomer to TV from theater, has signed with Artists First. Chisholm wrote and directed the plays P.Y.G. and Br’er Cotton, the former of which had a critically acclaimed run at Theatre503. He won a Helen Hayes Award in 2018 for his play Hooded: Or Being Black for Dummies, as well as the National New Play Network’s Smith Prize for Political Theatre that same year for Uncle Vayne. Chisholm graduated from Juilliard’s playwriting program and has an MFA from Catholic University. In the TV world, he most recently executive produced and served as showrunner on AMC’s Damascus and wrote for FX’s upcoming series The Sterline Affairs. He is currently adapting his play Black Dick for UCP.
April Yuan, a founding partner of Vital Artists Agency, will join Verve’s rebranded non-Fiction team. Vital, founded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic by Yuan and Rebel Entertainment’s senior unscripted agents Cal Boyington and Phil Irven, recently decided to split. Yuan will continue to represent clients like Asabi Lee (Project Greenlight), LaNee Griffin (Hart to Heart with Kevin Hart), Wendi Wan (MILF Manor) and Carolina Saavedra (Leguizamo Does America). Yuan, who has been a key player in expanding representation for women and BIPOC in non-scripted TV, has said,
“We’re just making reality TV. But we can do our part in making a difference for women, for people of color. I am thrilled to be joining Andy, Lanie and the team at Verve. Their commitment to innovation, authenticity and their clients align with my approach to representation, and I am excited to be a part of such a dynamic group and forward-thinking agency that will enable me to expand my reach and continue creating opportunities for those voices to be heard, and stories to be told on a larger scale.”