NYWIFT member Archives - New York Women in Film & TelevisionNew York Women in Film & Television

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Molly Rydzel

Welcome to NYWIFT, Molly Rydzel! Molly Rydzel (WGAE) is a screenwriter specializing in female-driven horror and dark satire. She was a staff writer and story editor on Alejandro Iñárritu’s The One Percent for Starz and head writer of the web series Assisted Living. Her horror play, Serial Lover, was developed with Ars Nova and Sanguine Theater Company. Molly teaches screenwriting at New York University and Pace University, specializing in horror, fantasy, and science fiction. She is developing a slate of mythic horror features and is committed to creating more opportunities for women in genre film through bold, commercially viable storytelling.

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Julie Pham

Welcome to NYWIFT, Julie Pham! Julie Theresin-Pham is a Vietnamese American actor, storyteller, host, writer, producer, and business strategist based in New York City. A first-generation immigrant and mother, she creates experiences that bring people together through storytelling, hospitality, and community. Her work explores identity, family, belonging, and human connection across film, performance, and documentary storytelling. She trained at the William Esper Studio, graduated from the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) improv training program, serves on the Junior Board of TADA! Youth Theater, and is developing her first documentary, American Daughter: Stories We Carry. She is also an active NYWIFT member who values collaboration, mentorship, and connection.

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Maria Eleni Zollo

Welcome to NYWIFT, Maria Eleni Zollo! Maria is a writer, actor, director, and musician based in Astoria, Queens. As a singer, she has performed at the Norwegian National Opera House in Oslo, Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, and on Saturday Night Live. She works as an adjunct professor at CUNY Baruch, and as a Greek Orthodox Church chanter at St George in Hell's Kitchen and St Nicholas National Shrine at the World Trade Center. Maria Eleni also performs as a stand-up comedian in NYC. Her first short film was a semifinalist in Stage 32's 8th Annual Short Film Festival.

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Ayo Oti

Welcome to NYWIFT, Ayo Oti! Ayo Oti is a media creative, social impact professional, and emerging filmmaker. She publishes Sounds Like Impact, a curated resource for social impact podcasting, and hosts Audio For Action Live. Previously, she produced for How to Save a Planet and Degrees: Real Talk About Planet-Saving Careers. Ayo is currently developing two documentary films: one exploring first-generation Nigerian identity and another examining African American creatives inspired by Mexico and its artistic practices. Beyond her own work, she collaborates on social issue documentaries as a producer, supporting projects across production, strategy, and impact distribution to help stories reach and engage audiences.

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Allie Delury

Welcome to NYWIFT, Allie Delury! Allie Delury is an award-winning producer and director known for Fault (Tribeca 2026), The Last Goodbye (AFF 2025), Tender Thoughts (Tribeca 2024), and Ivy Grace (CNN NBC Nightly). She was featured on the cover of MovieMaker Magazine for producing All Is Well in 48 hours and has also been to over 100 countries, done vanlife in Australia, sailed around the world, and worked as a combat camera officer in the Air Force. She now owns Work Our Way Productions, a 100% veteran owned-and-operated production company in Brooklyn.

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Rhona Silverbush

Welcome to NYWIFT, Rhona Silverbush! Rhona’s windy career path led to her co-writing the award-winning pilot for Dark Ladies, a series she and Sami Plotkin are poised to take into the marketplace. Rhona studied psychology and theater, acted regionally, became a lawyer representing asylum seekers, and worked with the Roosevelt Institute before returning to her first loves – theater and writing. She co-produced/co-directed Conversations with Shakespeare with Daniela Varon at Symphony Space. She’s written Speak the Speech! Shakespeare’s Monologues Illuminated with Sami Plotkin; ‘wichcraft: craft a sandwich into a meal–and a meal into a sandwich’ for chefs Tom Colicchio and Sisha Ortuzar; and the Terrific Toddlers picture books with Carol Zeavin. She’s also a story consultant for documentarian George Nierenberg. In our interview, Rhona shares insight on pivoting careers, the lessons she’s learned along the way, and all things Shakespeare.

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Rachel Schwartz

Welcome to NYWIFT, Rachel Schwartz! Rachel Schwartz has been a staff member at the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) since January 2019, in rising roles as the Manager, then Director, and now Head of Daytime and Children’s & Family Emmy Awards. Prior to that, she worked at the American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards, for eight years. Therefore, she is halfway to an “administrative EGOT.” Rachel graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern University with a BA in Theatre and a minor in Women’s Studies in 2005. The crowning achievement of her education was her undergraduate thesis on a proposed new voting system for the Primetime Emmys. She has been obsessed with awards shows since sixth grade, when she passed out Oscar ballots to the rest of her class. She is proud to be a native New Yorker, born and raised in Queens.

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Kaitlyn Diehl

Welcome to NYWIFT, Kaitlyn Diehl! Kaitlyn is an actor, producer, and screenwriter based between Philadelphia and NYC. She has starred in 25+ shorts, features, web series, and commercials in lead and supporting roles. Her first foray into filmmaking began when she co-wrote, co-produced, and co-starred in a short film with her sister, Jackie Diehl, titled Willow. The short was accepted into 13 festivals up and down the East Coast and won Audience Choice at the Media Film Festival. Inspired by the positive reception of Willow, Kaitlyn has since produced another short, Stand Up, and her first feature film, TINO. Both began their film festival circuits this spring. Kaitlyn continues to write and is currently in pre-production for a few exciting film projects. Stay tuned!

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Isabella Medina Sarria

Welcome to NYWIFT, Isabella Medina Sarria! Isabella is a New York–based film producer originally from Colombia, known for developing and producing internationally-recognized projects. Her award-winning short films include Delusion, which won at the Berlin Indie Film Festival and earned recognition at the LA Indie Film Festival and New York Shorts International Film Festival. She has expanded into feature films, working on Up in the Hills (starring Dylan Walsh and Paris Berelc), Tox (starring Margaret Colin), and Higher Love (starring Dennis Haysbert and Joe Pantoliano), which wrapped production in August 2025. Her work is driven by a strong creative vision, championing well-represented female characters and immigrant stories.

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Simone Butler

Welcome to NYWIFT, Simone Butler! Simone Butler is a New York–based actor and producer originally from California’s Bay Area, and a graduate of the College of Santa Fe and Royal Holloway University of London. She appeared as a recurring day player on the long-running daytime drama All My Children and has worked across mainstream and independent film, with her work screening at festivals including the LA Film Festival, Queens Film Festival, and Coney Island Film Festival. Simone trained with renowned acting coach Larry Moss and studied improv at The Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade. As the creator, co-producer, and co-star of the web series Below the Line, alongside writer-producer and fellow NYWIFT Member Erika Yeomans, Simone continues to develop bold, original stories that center complex characters and collaborative storytelling.

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Karen “Dr.K” Baptiste

Welcome to NYWIFT, Karen "Dr.K" Baptiste! Karen "Dr. K" Baptiste is an investigative journalist and media storyteller whose work explores the intersections of race, education, and the criminal legal system. She is an Emmy® award-winning filmmaker of the documentary Preschool to Prison, and also works as a speaker, leadership wellness coach, and organizational strategist. Her work centers lived experience, elevating voices that are often overlooked while connecting personal narratives to broader systems of accountability. Dr. K brings a rigorous, human-centered approach to storytelling that is grounded in care, amplification, and long-term generational impact. Originally from the Bronx, she collaborates with mission-driven organizations, creatives, and community leaders across the country to support storytelling and leadership practices that foster meaningful change.

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Alyssa Lomuscio

Welcome to NYWIFT, Alyssa Lomuscio! Alyssa Lomuscio is a TV editor, story producer, and assistant director based in NYC. Her work as a story producer has earned her two Daytime Emmy award nominations in the Outstanding Lifestyle Program category. She is also a science fiction writer of short stories, novels and screenplays under the pen name A.M. Lomuscio. A 2019 Clarion writer’s workshop alum, her short fiction can be found in Apex magazine and Uncharted. In our interview, Alyssa discussed her time balancing being an AD and a writer and shared stories of working in TV.

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Jackie Quinones

Welcome to NYWIFT, Jackie Quinones! Jackie is a boundary-pushing filmmaker with a career that seamlessly blends music, acting, marketing, development, and production. From her roots as a hip-hop artist to her evolution in film, she combines a rare mix of artistic vision and business savvy to create heartfelt, socially resonant stories that leave a lasting influence. Bilingual and Puerto Rican, she is a multi-hyphenate talent - writer, director, actor, and producer - whose work centers on emotionally rich, character-driven stories exploring psychology, identity, and trauma. Jackie's hybrid-genre narratives also reflect on social and political issues through the lens of fractured relationships and complex family dynamics. Committed to amplifying unheard and underrepresented voices, her work is both personal and thought-provoking. Her debut feature film Miles Away premiered at the Austin Film Festival in 2025. It went on to earn the New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) Award for Excellence in Narrative Filmmaking at the Urbanworld Film Festival.

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Carmen Matias

Welcome to NYWIFT, Carmen Matias! A graduate of Hunter College in the 1970s, producer Carmen earned a degree in Broadcast with a minor in Theatre. Television was both an escape and a source of fantasy throughout her early life, ultimately guiding her toward a career in the medium, which she came to see as the best possible profession for her creative ambitions. In our interview, Carmen discussed her experience producing and shared her advice for young creatives.

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Leah Gaydos

Welcome to NYWIFT, Leah Gaydos! Leah M. Gaydos is a New York-based attorney and independent producer whose work spans film, entertainment law, and nonprofit leadership. She has produced more than 20 shorts and two features, including Rounding, which premiered at Tribeca and was distributed by Doppleganger. Leah serves as Board Member & Entertainment Law Chair for Healing TREE and provides production counsel and strategic consulting to independent filmmakers. She currently practices law at Rebar Kelly while pursuing opportunities in business affairs and legal for film, television, and emerging media. Her career centers on balancing creative vision with the legal frameworks that allow meaningful storytelling to thrive. In our interview, Leah discussed her philosophy of producing, the production that shaped that philosophy, and her vision for the future of entertainment law.

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Hyten Davidson

Welcome to NYWIFT, Hyten Davidson! Hyten Davidson is a SAG-AFTRA actor and award-winning screenwriter, currently serving as one-third of Maternity Leave Films after years of touring the festival circuit with various films. Her short film The West Virginian Starfish, which she wrote and co-directed, won the Long Island Film Expo award for Best Short Film, in addition to a host of other nominations and screenwriting wins. Hyten has additionally been a Featured Female Filmmaker nominee at the Shortcut 100 International Film Festival, PANO grant recipient, and Mary W. Shelley Scholarship winner from the Horror Writers Association. In our interview, Hyten discussed her approach to writing horror, representing motherhood and female-driven stories in film, and her upcoming film Something of a Monster.

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Dolores Diaz

Welcome to NYWIFT, Dolores Diaz! Dolores Diaz is a Queens, NY native who grew up in a theater and musical theater world through Once Upon a Time in Richmond Hill. She later attended the American Academy of the Dramatic Arts and joined Angry Jellow Bubbles, an all-female sketch comedy group directed by Eva Minemar. While attending the MA Media and Social Change program at CUNY Queens College, Dolores served as an assistant to media theorist Douglas Rushkoff and co-produced the 1st Annual Queens College Arts Festival. She founded the production company Mulberry Queens Films LLC with Eva Minemar in 2018, and the duo has worked together on features, shorts, music videos, and documentaries. Dolores is now the Chair of the Board for Once Upon a Time Inc. and the Co-League Director for NICA (National Interscholastic Cycling Association), NY. In our interview, Dolores discussed her production company, transitioning from theater to film, and the project that left the biggest impact on her.

NYWIFT at Sundance 2026: In Conversation with Jamie Kiernan O’Brien

NYWIFT Member Jamie Kiernan O'Brien is celebrating a remarkable achievement: still a student at NYU, her narrative short film Gender Studies is premiering at 2026 Sundance Film Festival…with screenings at SXSW to follow! In Gender Studies, a trans college student learns the girl she idolizes is sleeping with their teaching assistant and takes drastic steps to emulate her. Jamie was also Production Sound Mixer for Crisis Actor, directed by fellow NYU student Lily Platt. The narrative short follows an impulsive actress – recently fired from her day job – as she crashes a support group and spirals into a chaotic night that forces her to face her addiction to drama. Jamie spoke to us about this exciting milestone in her career.

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