The Blackhouse Foundation and STARZ select Black female content creators for new producers’ fellowship

The partnership will help empower and uplift Black storytelling in the film and TV industry.

(Left to right) Sue-Ellen Chitunya, Jessica L. Funches, Moira Griffin, Dahéli Hall and Trevite Willis were selected to participate in The Blackhouse Foundation and STARZ new producers’ fellowship. (Photo: Screenshot/Deadline/The Blackhouse Foundation)

Five Black female content creators have been selected to participate in a new producers’ fellowship program, a collaboration between The Blackhouse Foundation and STARZ’s #TakeTheLead initiative. The fellowship will offer participants educational workshops, personal and professional mentorship, coaching and industry meetings with key stakeholders to support the mid-career producer community. 

STARZ #TakeTheLead focuses on shedding light on narratives about women and other underrepresented audiences, while also impacting them. Sue-Ellen Chitunya, Jessica L. Funches, Moira Griffin, Dahéli Hall and Trevite Willis were chosen as the first cohort of fellows in the program. 

“We are excited to partner with The Blackhouse Foundation to help cultivate new talent and drive an increase in Black female producers, which is essential to our business as a network focused on women and underrepresented audiences,” STARZ executive Kathryn Busby, said in a statement.

Selections were made from The Blackhouse Foundation alumni pipeline, which will welcome the creators during a three-day intensive this weekend in Los Angeles. “We’re thrilled to have found a partner in STARZ that allows us to reimagine the year-long programs we’ve done in the past and streamline the experience with a smaller cohort,” Blackhouse Foundation executive director Jenean Glover said.

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“The goal of the three-day intensive is to deliver personalized feedback and noteworthy direction, combined with the expertise of our facilitator Darrien Gipson, to prepare these candidates to enter an episodic room as non-writing or writing producers in the near future,” Glover said.

The fellowship will also provide a new mentor/alumni engagement process to support each participant’s current and future projects.

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