THE SQUAD CLASS of 2025

Karla Braun

Karla Braun is an award-winning director and Emmy-nominated writer based in Los Angeles.
Growing up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil has deeply shaped her strong sense of storytelling,
unique creative eye and distinct ability to capture authentic performances. She has directed
episodes, brand campaigns, music videos and commercial spots for notable partners
including: Apple, Netflix, Marvel Studios, Activision, Disney and Amazon. Karla made her
television directing debut on season 6 of VIKINGS (History) and most recently directed
episode 814 of 9-1-1 (ABC) - part one of a two part special titled Contagion. She is an
alumna of Ryan Murphy’s Half Initiative and the 2025 Disney Entertainment Television
Directing Program.

Mentor: Amanda Marsalis

Anna Chi

Anna Chi is a Chinese-born writer/director whose career spans two continents and over two decades. She has directed award-winning features including Blindness, Dim Sum Funeral, Cicada Summer, The Boxcar Children: Surprise Island, and the short films Swimming and Tales of Legends. Her latest feature, The Disappearance of Mrs. Wu, was acquired by Picturehouse and is now streaming. It earned her Best Achievement in Directing at the 2022 UMFF.

Chi recently completed the short film Buried Above Ground and is finishing post on
another new short film Two Pennies. She served as Mandarin consultant on Disney+’s American Born Chinese and has co-produced U.S.-China collaborations including Asteroid Hunter (2020) and Burden (Sundance Audience Award, 2018).

As a writer, she has written for Hallmark, Miramax, Lion Rock, and Zoom Hunt. A former
Red Guard turned film editor, Chi immigrated to the U.S. and earned her MFA in directing from UCLA.

Mentor: Mary Lou Belli

Gia Rayne Harris

Gia-Rayne B. Harris is a Mississippi-born writer and director whose work explores identity,
desire, and belonging. She most recently directed on Netflix’s BRIDGERTON Season 4,
premiering in 2026, marking a milestone in her transition into streaming storytelling.
Harris creates character-driven stories that center womxn and BIPOC voices, blending intimacy
and social insight to reveal what often lies beneath the surface. Her short film Pens & Pencils
earned an NAACP Image Award nomination and streams on HBO Max. She made her television
debut on NBC’s CHICAGO PD through the NBCU Launch Female Forward Program, and
returned to the series in 2024.
A 2024 DGA DDI Protégé and WIF Directing Fellow, she now mentors WIF’s 2025–2026 cohort.
Harris is developing an original pilot and feature while prepping her debut feature, Holy Mind.
Beyond directing, she teaches filmmaking, reads everything from self-help to seedy fantasy, and
travels in search of the world’s best pasta.

Mentor: Pete Chatmon

Courtney Hoffman

Courtney Hoffman built a career as a Costume Designer on films like Baby Driver, The Hateful
Eight, and Captain Fantastic before expanding her storytelling as a writer and director. She
made her directorial debut with the Western short The Good Time Girls, starring Laura Dern,
and her passion for female-led genre and action continues with The Sisters of Scott County, a
1970s trucker movie starring Kaitlyn Dever. Most recently, she directed the season finale of
American Horror Stories: Thing Under the Bed.
As a writer, she’s developed and sold original stories to Max, Paramount, Sony, Peacock, FX,
and Freeform. Her recent television projects include Kentucky Blaze—a mother-daughter stoner
comedy created with Miley and Tish Cyrus—and Drama Majors, a mental health mystery
inspired by her NYU Tisch classmates.
Her work in costume design was immortalized on screen in a scene with Leonardo DiCaprio in
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.

Mentor: Rian Johnson

Kimi Howl Lee

Kimi Howl Lee is a multi-racial director and television writer from New York City whose
work spans short form, episodic, and prestige drama. A graduate of Stanford
University’s Film and Media Studies program, Kimi most recently directed an episode of
Showtime’s The Chi. Her award-winning short film Kama’āina screened at major
festivals, premiering at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, where it won Best
LGBTQ+ Short, and has also been featured on Vimeo Staff Picks, Short of the Week,
Nowness, The Future of Film is Female, and MoMA.
In television, Kimi’s credits include Apples Never Fall (Peacock), The Morning Show
(AppleTV+), Sunny (AppleTV+/A24), Locke and Key (Netflix) and The Expats (Amazon
Studios). She also has original pilots in development at AppleTV+, HBO, Netflix, Hulu
and Onyx.
Kimi was a participant in the Showrunner Training Program, Film Independent’s
Episodic Lab, Breaking Through the Lens, and was listed on the Young & Hungry List of
top emerging writers in 2019. She is repped by WME.

Mentor: Lucy Tcherniak

Jihane Mrad

Jihane Mrad Balaa was born in the mountains of Lebanon, where
her love for storytelling first took shape as a young actress on
television.
Her path carried her to the U.S., where she spent years behind the
camera on films and series like; Bumblebee, The Kominski method ,
Rizzoli and Isles and 9-1-1, standing just steps away from directors
as they sculpted stories, and collaborated with the cast and crew.
Those moments lit the fire that became her own voice. Through
Ryan Murphy’s Half Initiative, she shadowed on American Horror
Story, then stepped forward to direct her award-winning feature
Twisted Vines and later an episode of the series 9-1-1.
Fluent in English, French, and Arabic, Jihane wishes to tells stories
that cross borders but always return to the heart.

Mentor: Jennifer Arnold

Talia Osteen

Talia Osteen is an award-winning filmmaker whose feature directorial debut, comedy SEX
APPEAL, premiered on Hulu in 2022. She has directed episodes of GROWN-ISH, is a DGA
Directors Development Initiative alumna, and a fellow of Paul Feig’s Powderkeg Fuse Directing
Incubator Program, where her festival-favorite short film THE SHABBOS GOY was
produced. Her upcoming slate includes projects across genres. As a queer, Jewish
filmmaker, and mother in a blended, multicultural family, Talia thrives on subverting
expectations, infusing her storytelling with sharp comedy and emotional punch.
The multi-hyphenate began her career as an actress in 5 national TV series before
moving behind the camera. A graduate of USC’s Cinema-Television Production program,
she went on to hone her producing skills as Head of Development and Production at
Overnight Films (BLACK SWAN, MACHETE, THE LUCKY ONES). An accomplished
musician as well, Talia’s band, The Wellspring, toured widely and composed scores for
TV and film. Talia brings her breadth of experience to her work as a director, writer and
producer.
Talia is repped at UTA by Michael Sheresky, Ramses Ishak, Jordan Lonner and Echo
Matthews.

Mentor: Kat Coiro

Alexis Ostrander

Alexis Ostrander is an Emmy-nominated director whose work blends striking visual style with
deeply character-driven storytelling. She has directed over 30 episodes of television, including
the finale of AMC’s INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, SERVANT for Apple TV+, THE
CONSULTANT for Amazon, and the pilot and bookend episodes of Hulu’s LIGHT AS A
FEATHER, which earned her a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing.
She is currently packaging the independent feature THE HIGH LINE, written by Tony Basgallop
(SERVANT, THE CONSULTANT), and co-wrote the upcoming feature THE PATSY, produced by
CineMachine Media Works. Additional past development includes projects with Screen Gems,
101 Studios, Netflix, Stampede Ventures, Escape Artist, Gaumont, Wonderland Sound and
Vision, and Freeform.
A graduate of Syracuse University, Alexis has participated in the AFI Directing Workshop for
Women, Ryan Murphy’s Half Foundation, the Warner Bros. Television Directors Workshop,
Warner Bros. Emerging Film Directors Workshop, the Fox Filmmakers Lab, and the Fox Global
Directors Initiative. Named one of The Hollywood Reporter’s “Emerging Female Directors” via
the Alice Initiative, Alexis lives in Los Angeles and is represented by Verve and Range Media.

Mentor: Scott Beck & Bryan Woods

Lauren "LP" Palmigiano

LP began her career directing sketch comedy at Funny or Die, where she helmed dozens of
viral videos and celebrity-driven sketches before moving into television. With a background in
writing and improv, LP is known for her sharp comedic sensibility and her ability to bring strong
female characters to life. She has directed acclaimed series including It’s Always Sunny in
Philadelphia, Chad, Tacoma FD, and Girls5Eva among others. Her short film Cried Suicide
premiered at Tribeca and her debut feature, Desperados, is currently streaming on Netflix.

Mentor: Julie Anne Robinson

Letia Solomon

Letia Solomon is an award-winning filmmaker and former chemical engineer based in Los
Angeles. She made her TV directorial debut on Season 7 of ABC/Shondaland’s STATION 19
and was a fellow of the 2024 Disney CTDI Directing Program, Ryan Murphy’s HALF Initiative
Program and Netflix's 2023 Episodic Directors on the Rise Masterclass. The coming of age indie pilot she directed, 3 BLIND MICE, won Essence Film Festival's 2024 Audience Choice Award and her comedic mockumentary short, CLONES, won the 2022 Lionsgate/STARZ Award for Best Speculative Fiction Film. Graduate of USC's MFA program, her thesis film, THE CYPHER, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and was a finalist in the ABFF HBO Competition. With her most recent medieval fantasy romcom THE QUEEN, THE KNIGHT, AND THE WITCH, Letia is dedicated to telling bold, heartfelt, and unconventional stories of women and underrepresented voices for both film and television.

Mentor: Nicole Kassell

Noelle Stehman

Noelle Stehman is a writer, director, and showrunner whose work lives at the
intersection of horror, dark comedy, and feminist satire. She began her career in
the DGA Training Program on The Sopranos, Law & Order: SVU, and
Unfaithful, gaining hands-on education in production before stepping into the
creative lead. She co-created and showran Astrid & Lilly Save the World for
Syfy — a cult horror-comedy praised for its practical creature design and
subversive voice that’s been called “Buffy minus the male gaze.” Her recent
directing credits include the genre-bending shorts The Lady, Hi There, and
Frightier Night. A vocal advocate for local labor, she co-leads the STAYinLA
campaign to support film jobs and small businesses across LA. Fun fact: her
film debut was the evil child’s hand in the opening credits of Children of the
Corn V. She’s currently developing a horror-comedy feature with practical
effects, dark twists, and probably something gooey.

Mentor: Maggie Kiley

Candice Vernon

Candice is a Jamaican-born, U.S. raised director who did the unthinkable: quit her ad job and
actually made it work. Her debut short Make America Great? screened at 20+ festivals, caught the eye of The Hollywood Reporter and Decider, and somehow led to directing The Dream Still Lives, a MLK tribute, by Stevie Wonder, featuring The Obamas, Paul McCartney, Meryl Streep, and 50 people you may have heard of. Candice now directs commercials with stars like Regina King, Niecy Nash, Jenny Slate, and Sterling K. Brown for brands like HBO, Vaseline, Tillamook, and Cascade. Her genre-blending narrative work balances comedy, thrills, and drama to remind you life’s too short to be boring.
She’s currently touring festivals with 117 Years of Movie Bullsh*t and Cave Canem (winner of
two Best Horror awards), while plotting her debut feature between Ghana and D.C. because she likes a little diaspora magic.

Mentor: Dawn Wilkinson