The Best Fruit

Teju Prasad’s creative endeavors began as a child raised in an artistic family, with a mother trained in Indian classical dance and a father who’s acted in theatrical plays in India prior to emigrating to the United States. Growing up, Prasad was involved in many community theater productions, many of which were based on ancient Hindu mythology.

Prasad has written multiple screenplays, directed short films and spec commercials, as well as two documentary films: Not a Feather but a Dot, and Creating Utsava, Creating a Tradition. These have screened in film festivals and theaters across the country, and Not a Feather, but a Dot is included in over 30 university and public library collections. He has previously worked for entertainment companies such as Engel Entertainment and Radical Media, working on shows like Mad Men, and Iconoclasts.

Prasad has drawn leadership and collaboration skills from an 18+ year career in software engineering and information technology, where he has worked on a range of projects from satellite communications technology to mobile applications used by millions of users.

Kevin Christoffersen has been working in just about every form of media for nearly three decades, producing content internationally across four continents while living in five countries. He is an Educator and Development Executive of the new platform, ‘Film StartUp.’ In this role, Kevin guides filmmakers through the A to Z feature film development process with his workshop courses, development labs, webinars and consultations.

On the Executive Producing side, he works on establishing financing for different feature films of various budget levels both in the U.S. and in Europe. He is also consulting filmmakers on distribution deals within foreign markets that include tv broadcasters, distributors and streaming platforms.

Kevin also sits on the Advisory Board of the Art Of Brooklyn Film Festival and has recently completed co-writing a feature length screenplay. While based in Switzerland for seven years as Executive Producer of World Television, he managed large scale live broadcast event productions for Fortune 500 companies, United Nations agencies and NGO’s. He continues to form new industry partnerships throughout New York, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Europe.

Javier has worked in various Producer roles on the following Feature Films, Short Films and Web Series: “Halley” (Sundance 2013), “Valedictorian” (Rotterdam 2015), “Hepburn” (NY Film Festival 2014), “3rd Street Blackout” (LA Film Festival 2015), “The Transfiguration” (Cannes 2016), “Summum Bonum” (Cabo 2014), “Los Caprichos del Hombre” (Distrital 2013), “Sweet Little Lies” (Dances with Films 2010), “Bonne Annee” (Raindance 2008), “In the Radiant City” (Toronto 2016), “Mildred and the Dying Parlor” (Tribeca 2015), “Honeymoon” (NY Film Festival 2016); “Sugar” (PBS 2015), “It’s Bruno” (Netflix 2019), “The Privates” (Vimeo Staff Pick, July 2017), “Swallow” (TriBeCa 2019) and “This Teacher” (LA Film Festival 2018), and the 2024 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, “In The Summers.”

Danielle Pretsfelder Demchick is a seasoned casting director with a career spanning over two decades in the New York casting scene. She dedicated more than 14 years to Nickelodeon, where she played a pivotal role in casting for a variety of beloved children’s programs, including Dora the Explorer, Blue’s Clues & You, Bubble Guppies.

Her recent work includes casting for American Girl: Corinne Tan (the first American Girl of the Year film featuring a Chinese American protagonist) for HBO Max and MarVista Entertainment, contributing to Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and working on Tiny Time Travel for PBS. She also served as the kids’ casting director for Netflix’s You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah and Birth/Rebirth.

Elizabeth Hay has been an active member of New York’s casting community since 2017, committed to amplifying the voices of underrepresented communities in media. She is authentically part of and deeply connected to the Disabled and Hispanic communities striving to nurture voices that are often overlooked through thoughtful and accurate casting.

Andrew T. Barcello brings expertise in the entertainment industry with over a decade of representing producers, top-tier talent, and production companies in the development, financing, production, and strategic leveraging of their projects.

Andrew’s experience producing both documentary and independent films brings a unique understanding of the practical needs of production and enables him to provide clients with creative financing solutions and production legal services. Client projects regularly star Academy Award-winning talent and premiere at major festivals such as SXSW and Tribeca.

In addition to traditional media clients, Andrew represents independent video games, startup, and web3 clients, Top 100 podcasts, and Emmy-winning voice-over talent and composers across television, commercials, and animation.