Meet the 2019-2020 Mentors!
Meet the Mentors for 2019-2020 Cycle of the Tisch LA Mentor Program!
Acting Mentors
Emebeit Beyene is "The Ethiopian queen from Philly who took classes abroad and studied film and photo flash focus record" as The Roots put it... except she studied Acting and Africana Studies at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She appreciates the shoutout nonetheless. Emebeit is an actress, writer and co-creator of the webseries Downtown Girls, which she developed into a pilot at TBS. She's been featured in festivals like Just For Laughs, ABFF, and the LA Film Fest as well as on popular sites like Huffington Post, Glamour, Hello Giggles, Complex and Man Repeller. She enjoys watching tons of television (it's research!), the oh-so-great outdoors, and, making people laugh.
Chandra Russell is a Chicagoan til Chicago ends. A graduate of Tisch's Acting program she now works in LA as an actress/writer. Her webseries,
Downtown Girls, has been featured in Just For Laughs Comedy Festival Montreal, the American Black Film Festival, the LA Film Festival, Huffington Post, Glamour, Hello Giggles, Complex and Man Repeller. (if this looks familiar - her writing partner, Emebeit, is above and she literally copied and pasted - lazy). Most recently Chandra appeared as a series regular in the Comedy Central show
South Side. In her spare time she likes extended naps, junk reality TV and cuddling with her puppy.
Film & TV Mentors
Mina Baban is a Television Executive at Amazon Studios where she buys, develops and oversees shows for both the US and International markets. She graduated from Tisch in December of 2011 and began work in reality TV production before moving to LA to pursue scripted television. After some direction from her NYU-in-LA mentors, Mina started in the WME mailroom and then supported several TV literary agents. She eventually jumped to Amazon Studios working drama development. During her time at Amazon, Mina helped buy, develop and oversee such shows as A Very English Scandal, Zero Zero Zero, Absentia, Carnival Row and The Widow. In her spare time, she enjoys playing volleyball and watching The New England Patriots.
Justin Brenneman is a writer working in TV and film. Most recently, he spent two seasons on Quantico. Before that, he wrote for Smash and Monk. As a writers’ assistant or script coordinator, he worked on Red Oaks and Girls, and the pilots for Difficult People, Madam Secretary, The Affair and Masters of Sex, among others. He has also worked for Lifetime, MTV Networks, PBS, TBS, and in independent film. He graduated from the playwriting concentration in dramatic writing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. At one point, Justin planned to become a therapist, and he also has a degree from NYU’s psychology program. As a professor, Justin has taught in both the dramatic writing and film & TV departments at Tisch. He is originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Justin is represented by Kaplan Perrone.
John Logan Pierson is the lead scripted features producer for Film 44. He is an Executive Producer on the forthcoming Netflix action-comedy Wonderland (starring Winston Duke, Alan Arkin, Mark Wahlberg, and Iliza Shlesinger) and the USA Network series Dare Me, based on the novel by Megan Abbott and currently in production for a 2020 premiere. In earlier work for Film 44, he was an Executive Producer on Mile 22, Patriot’s Day and American Jihad. Prior to joining Film 44, Pierson was at TWC where he oversaw numerous feature and television properties. Prior to his time at TWC, Pierson had worked as an independent producer and an assistant to producer Scott Rudin and manager Joan Scott. His start in the industry was as a producer of new media and commercial content for brands ranging from Adidas to the Emmy Awards. Independently Pierson produced the forthcoming Hard Rock Havana - a feature documentary about a legendary Cuban rock band directed by NYU Alum Nicholas Brennan - and The Last of the Great Romantics - an indie comedy starring Kumail Nanjiani and Ben Rameaka.
Keith Powell was a series regular on NBC’s Emmy Award-winning sitcom 30 Rock, where he received a 2008 Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the ensemble. Prior to 30 Rock, Powell was the Producing Artistic Director of Contemporary Stage Company in Wilmington, DE for four seasons, where he produced, directed, and/or performed in plays starring Lynn Redgrave, Keith David, Jasmine Guy, Richard Easton and Sean Patrick Thomas. As a writer/director, his web series Keith Broke His Leg (Indie Series Award for Best Comedy), and his short films People We Meet (starring Scott Adsit and Frederick Weller), Nate & Abe (with voice talents Alyssa Milano, Robert Ben Garant, Aubrey Plaza, David Wain, and Rachel Dratch), and Pillow Talk have played in festivals like Raindance Film Festival, San Luis Obispo Film Festival, RiverRun Film Festival (where he won the SPARK Award), LA Shorts Fest, New York Television Festival, and SeriesFest. He has developed projects with MTV, Warner Brothers, and Sony Television, in addition to projects with various production companies like Broadway Video, YouTube, and Crackle. As an actor, Powell has appeared on over 100 episodes of television; and this past season, he made his episodic directing debut with an episode of the NBC sitcom Superstore.
Joe Brukner is a Development Coordinator at Fabrik Entertainment. Since leaving his homeland of Australia to work in the US entertainment industry, Joe has worked in both New York and now Los Angeles, where he has focused on premium scripted TV development. In his current position at Fabrik Entertainment, Joe is responsible for coordinating the efforts of the development team behind shows with devout global audiences such as Bosch, The Killing and Burn Notice.
Chris Hazzard is a screenwriter who, with his writing partner Michael Fontana, has written feature projects for Amazon Studios, Fox International, Alcon, Lionsgate, Sony, and others. On the TV side, Chris & Mike have developed two original half hours with FX Networks and currently have a comedy in development with Keshet, and an adult animated comedy set up at Hulu. In the coming year, they will make their directorial debut with Drunk Bus, a feature comedy which they also wrote. Previously, Chris was an executive at Sneak Preview Entertainment where he was a producer on the indie feature, The Secret Lives of Dorks, and the Fox Searchlight Pictures film, Baggage Claim.
NYU Tisch Staff
Lily Hung oversees the Tisch LA Mentor Program, in collaboration with the Mentors. As Tisch’s Director of Career Development, Lily connects artists with the tools and knowledge they need to effectively pursue their professional goals. Through individual career counseling appointments and group workshops, she advises students on job searches, resumes and cover letters, interviewing and networking skills, internships, grantwriting, and entrepreneurial strategies. Lily previously spent more than a decade in commercial and nonprofit theatre, where she worked with emerging theatre artists as a line producer and programming director. She holds an MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University and is now clumsily learning aerial arts.
Chandra Russell is a Chicagoan til Chicago ends. A graduate of Tisch's Acting program she now works in LA as an actress/writer. Her webseries, Downtown Girls, has been featured in Just For Laughs Comedy Festival Montreal, the American Black Film Festival, the LA Film Festival, Huffington Post, Glamour, Hello Giggles, Complex and Man Repeller. (if this looks familiar - her writing partner, Emebeit, is above and she literally copied and pasted - lazy). Most recently Chandra appeared as a series regular in the Comedy Central show South Side. In her spare time she likes extended naps, junk reality TV and cuddling with her puppy. 
Chris Hazzard is a screenwriter who, with his writing partner Michael Fontana, has written feature projects for Amazon Studios, Fox International, Alcon, Lionsgate, Sony, and others. On the TV side, Chris & Mike have developed two original half hours with FX Networks and currently have a comedy in development with Keshet, and an adult animated comedy set up at Hulu. In the coming year, they will make their directorial debut with Drunk Bus, a feature comedy which they also wrote. Previously, Chris was an executive at Sneak Preview Entertainment where he was a producer on the indie feature, The Secret Lives of Dorks, and the Fox Searchlight Pictures film, Baggage Claim.
Lily Hung oversees the Tisch LA Mentor Program, in collaboration with the Mentors. As Tisch’s Director of Career Development, Lily connects artists with the tools and knowledge they need to effectively pursue their professional goals. Through individual career counseling appointments and group workshops, she advises students on job searches, resumes and cover letters, interviewing and networking skills, internships, grantwriting, and entrepreneurial strategies. Lily previously spent more than a decade in commercial and nonprofit theatre, where she worked with emerging theatre artists as a line producer and programming director. She holds an MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University and is now clumsily learning aerial arts.
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