Agent, Editor, Film Bios -- 2009 Conference

Taking film pitches

Geoff began as a writer and ended up working in development because of his love of creative collaboration. His first development experience was working for a T.V. Producer (Veronica Mars, Moonlight), and then he jumped into the feature side. 6-17 has made five movies in the last two years and has a slate of 3 films with MGM, Film Department and others in various stages of preproduction.

Geoff is looking for smart action, thrillers, psychological thrillers, very smart horror and true life.

Taking film pitches

Ali Bell is VP of Development and Production for Ivan Reitman's production banner, The Montecito Picture Company responsible for such films as Road Trip, Old School, The Pink Panther and Disturbia. Prior to joining The Montecito Picture Company, Ali was Director of Development for Heyday Films (The Harry Potter movies). Prior to that, she was an executive at Nickelodeon Movies. She contributed to the development of films such as Spongebob Squarepants: The Movie, Nacho Libre, and Lemony Snickett's: A Series Of Unfortunate Events.
Ali is looking for comedy, family and horror.

Taking film pitches

Jeremy Bell recently joined The Gotham Group, a management and production company representing artists in film & television, animation & live action, publishing (both books & comics), video games and new media. The Gotham Group recently produced The Spiderwick Chronicles for Paramount Pictures and currently has a first-look production deal with Sony Pictures Animation.
Jeremy is looking for family comedy.

Taking film pitches

Karen Rebecca Black is a Vancouver-based producer who keeps a (small, but definitive) foot in LA at all times. Formerly a development executive at The Weinstein Company, Karen worked on numerous films including Clerks II, Factory Girl, Fanboys, Fletch, Book Club and the Golden Globe-nominated The Great Debaters. Fat Rock is rolling into its 2nd year with a widely varied development slate, two features in pre-production, and two completed documentaries, including this summer's band reunion docu-comedy Get In The Van, which is Karen's first feature in the director's chair. The film features appearances by Andy Dick, Sugar Ray and Everlast. Fat Rock also recently had a successful inaugural run of its Uncommon Story Contest, optioning winner Megan Breen's script Something Incredible for production. Fat Rock Productions seeks to create "uncommon" - exceptional -- opportunities for female filmmakers.

Taking literature pitches

Looking For: Komenar publishes first-time novelists, mostly literary mainstream and mystery, some historical and adventure. We look for three things: Compelling story, engaging characters, and evocative setting.
Charlotte Cook, President of Komenar Publishing, co-founded this mainstream house in 2005 to bring attention and opportunity to remarkable first-time novelists. Writer's Digest featured Charlotte and Komenar in the February 2008 "Ask The Pro" column. Komenar's talented and nimble team has published four titles that have earned many awards, reviews, and sales. (My Half of the Sky was a Book-Sense Pick. Charlotte teaches public writing workshops/ classes, as well as the industry-oriented workshop entitled "Author Boot Camp" at writers conferences and adult schools.

Taking literature pitches

Lucienne Diver joined The Knight Agency in 2008, after spending fifteen years at NYC's prestigious Spectrum Literary Agency. Over the course of her dynamic career she has sold over six hundred titles to every major publisher, and has built a client list of more than forty authors spanning the commercial fiction genres, primarily in the areas of fantasy, science fiction, romance, mystery, suspense and erotica. Her authors have been honored with the RITA, National Readers' Choice Award, the Golden Heart, and the Romantic Times Reader's Choice, and have appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. She is a member of the Association of Authors Representatives, RWA, MWA and SFWA.

Taking literature pitches

Looking For: Adult literary ficiton. April does not represent mysteries or murders, thrillers, historical fiction or fantasy, nor does she represent children's titles.
April joined the Reese Halsey North Literary agency in 2008. Her specialty is adult literary fiction, particularly ironic family dramas and realistic midlife tales, often with a twist, preferably involving strong female characters. She is attracted to collections of interlinked stories with a common character or theme. An original voice and smart, speedy delivery are critical.

Taking literature pitches

Nick Eliopulos left his native Florida in the fall of 2004 to pursue a career in children's publishing. He has been with Random House Children's Books ever since. He's the editor of several novels, such as the Tapestry series, the Obernewtyn series, and the forthcoming The Pricker Boy. Nick also has a passion for comics. He's editing a graphic novel series set to debut in 2010, and he's written and drawn a few comic stories for anthologies.

Taking literature pitches

Amberly Finarelli combines her academic background and extensive knowledge of English literature with a trained editor's eye, offering a diverse literary approach to her role as an agent. Her dedication to both the story and developing her authors' careers makes Amberly an invaluable asset to writers seriously pursuing publication. She is looking for authors who are passionate about the craft and savvy in the field of professional writing. Amberly works hard to create and maintain a productive yet supportive author-agent experience by helping her authors edit and chisel their manuscripts and proposals, and skillfully and knowledgeably guide them through the process of becoming published. She has worked in the book publishing and freelance writing business for over five years and joined Andrea Hurst Literary Management in 2008.

Taking film pitches

Before launching Royal Prospect, Neal Flaherty worked as an executive at Benderspink (A History of Violence, Red Eye, Monster In Law, Just Friends). Flaherty started his career as assistant to the then Chairman, CEO, COO and President of Sony Music worldwide, Tommy Mottola, before moving on to work at The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Over the last two years Neal has developed scripts with three unknown writers and gotten them studio deals at Dreamworks, Lions Gate and Warner Bros.
Looking For: Thrillers, Action, Horror, Family, Romantic Comedies, R-Rated Comedies and his sanity.

Taking literature pitches

Looking for: Jane purchases non-fiction books related to the craft of writing.
Jane Friedman is editorial director at F+W Publications in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she oversees the publication of more than 50 titles each year, under the imprints of Writer's Digest Books, HOW Books, Betterway Books, and TOW Books. Her editorial resume includes turns at Writer's Digest magazine, North Light Books, and The Evansville Review. In addition to her acquisitions work at F+W, she also serves as contributing editor at IdentityTheory.com and teaches composition at the University of Cincinnati. She holds a BFA in creative writing and a master's in English.

Taking film pitches

Rima Greer paid her dues at the Writers Guild of America, William Morris Agency, and Writers & Artists Agency before starting her own company. Established in 1994, Above the Line was designed to give complete personalized services to a short list of writer/director clients. Ms. Greer has been involved in over 50 produced films, including studio projects like Highlander, Backdraft, Jumanji, Charlie’s Angels, Constantine and the upcoming Nowhereland. Ms. Greer specializes in the finance and distribution of independent films from $10 million to micro-budgets of $100,000. Her first book, The Real, Low-Down Dirty Truth About Hollywood Agenting, was released in November 2007.

Taking literature pitches

Deborah Levine Herman joined the Jeff Herman Literary Agency, LLC, in 1990 as an agent primarily focused on project selection and development. She co-authored with Jeff Herman Write the Perfect Book Proposal: 10 Proposals that worked and Why. (Wiley) Deborah has authored or collaborated on nine other books including: The Complete Idiots Guide to Motherhood (Alpha), and Spiritual Writing from Inspiration to Publication (Beyond Words). Herman is an intuitive and often uses her gifts to help writer's discover their authentic selves.

Taking literature pitches

Jeff Herman founded The Jeff Herman Literary Agency, LLC, in 1987 while still in his twenties. The agency has sold many hundreds of titles to publishers, and is one of the most dynamic and innovative agencies in the business. Herman's agency has a strong presence in general adult nonfiction, including business, general reference, commercial self-help, technology, recovery/healing, and spiritual subjects. Herman's own publications include Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers and Literary Agents (more than 350,000 copies sold), and Write the Perfect Book Proposal: 10 Proposals That Sold and Why! His books are considered to be among the best tools available to writers. He's also the co-founder of his own indie house, Three Dog Press (3dp).

Taking film pitches

Josh Kesselman is a producer and manager with Principal Entertainment. His clients include Robert Knott (Apaloosa); Giancarlo Esposito (Gospel Hill); Laurence Malkin and Chad Thumann (Five Fingers); Dean Craig (Caffeine, Death At A Funeral); Stephen Lindsey (Hachiko); Ken Bowser (Easy Riders, Raging Bulls; Live From New York); and a host of other literary clients. Josh recently produced Frank Oz's Death at a Funeral and is in post-production on Five Fingers for Lion's Gate starring Laurence Fishburne and Ryan Phillipee. He is currently in pre-production on two other films – 20% Fiction starring Val Kilmer and Executive Produced by Robert Deniro and L.A. Gothic to be directed by John Carpenter. He is currently developing Living and Breathing starring Tom Wilkinson, Anjelica Huston and Sandra Oh as well as Mistral with Wind Dancer Films and Matt Williams.
Josh is looking for thriller and comedy scripts.

Taking film pitches

Dennis Kim was born and raised in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and his law degree from the Detroit College of Law. Putting his education to good use, Dennis headed to Los Angeles to become a secretary/gofer at a small talent agency. He worked his way to the United Talent Agency where he earned his agent stripes. He is currently the senior tv lit agent at the Rothman Brecher Agency in Beverly Hills, where he represents top-tier writers and directors for television. His clients include prominent directors and writers on a wide variety of shows including The Simpsons, Monk, CSI, Family Guy, Desperate Housewives and Friday Night Lights.

Dennis is looking for half hour and one hour scripted tv show ideas for cable and network. Live action and animation.

Taking literary pitches

Linda Konner Literary Agency, founded in 1996, represents approximately 80 clients writing practical nonfiction. Her clients include corporations such as Prudential, major health organizations such as Harvard Medical School, and prominent individuals including Congresswomen Loretta and Linda Sanchez, Broadway composer Charles Strouse and comedienne Phyllis Diller. Prior to becoming an agent, Konner was an author (her book The Perfect Weight has sold over ½ million copies) and was editor in chief of Weight Watchers Magazine and features editor at Seventeen and Redbook. As a freelance writer she has published dozens of articles in such publications as The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Glamour and Family Circle, and her article "Living Apart and Loving it" became the basis for segments on Donahue and Sally Jessy Raphael.

Taking literature pitches

Miriam Kriss is Vice-President of the Irene Goodman Literary Agency, with over five years experience as an agent. Her focus is on commercial fiction and she represents everything from young adult fiction to kick ass urban fantasies; from hardcover historical mysteries to all subgenres of romance; and everything in between. If it's fun to read, she probably represents it. She doesn't look for specific stories, focusing instead on finding a voice she can fall in love with and champion. This strategy of taking on only clients she's passionate about has lead to six-figure deals for first-time authors and numerous clients appearing on the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists. During one memorable week, she had two authors appear on the Times list at the same time.

Taking film pitches

Daniel Manus is the Director of Development for Clifford Werber Productions (Cinderella Story, Sydney White). Since joining the company in 2006, he has brought in a number of projects that are currently being developed and packaged. CWP recently set up a big budget family fantasy/adventure project at United Artists which Daniel is attached to co-produce. He is also attached to produce a few projects independently including Dreams of an Aspiring Romantic, starring Emily Osment and Strange Fruit, written by J.S. Cardone (Prom Night).
Daniel has written articles published in Script Magazine and Screenwriters and Playwrights Market and is currently writing a book about pitchfests that will serve as a "No B.S. Guide for Writers."
Danny is looking for broad, romantic, teen and family comedies as well as thrillers, horror and action. Everything must be commercial!

Taking film pitches

Marc Manus, a former award-winning photojournalist, attended USC film school before entering the field of artist representation. His first job was with manager Cathryn Jaymes who represented Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary, among others. He held positions at various management companies before partnering with a talent manager for two years. He ventured out on his own to form Manus Entertainment a few years ago, and has a short roster of up-and-coming writers and directors.
Marc Manus is on the hunt for original voices with a strong sense of concept in the action, comedy and thriller genres. He also enjoys good biographical (with rights).

Taking film pitches
Sasha Mervyn is Director of Development Columbia Pictures-based Laura Ziskin Productions (Spider-Man 1, 2 and 3, As Good as It Gets, 79th Annual Academy Awards). Originally from Canada, Sasha attended Harvard and consulted for KPMG before moving to Los Angeles for the Peter Stark Producing program at USC. During the strike, she and some friends started the industry resource www.filmindustrybloggers.com, which aims to have a blogger from every job in the business. LZP is currently gearing up to produce The Spellman Files for Paramount and How to be Good for Miramax.

Sasha is seeking smart comedy, unique romantic comedy, dramedy, animation, smart teen and family adventure.

Taking film pitches

Ray Miller began as an agent trainee at United Talent Agency. During his tenure he was approached to create and build the agency's story department, which he grew from a one-man operation to a full department.
After working for Behavior Worldwide, the Gersh Agency and Evolution Management, Ray founded Archetype, a Literary and Talent Management Company. Ray has executive produced the film After Sex (Jane Seymour and Marc Blucas) and recently partnered with Lin Pictures to set up Hiding In Time with Warner Bros. He is also attached to produce the indie sports film Silent Knights, starring Marlee Matlin and directed by client Doug McKeon, as well as the Scholastic book series, The Grey Griffins.
Ray is looking for screenwriters working in Action, Thriller and Comedy. Both Film and Television.

Taking film pitches

Matthew is the Vice President of Offspring Entertainment, the production company of director Adam Shankman. Matthew was the Co-Producer of Step Up 2 The Streets and the Associate Producer of A Walk to Remember. He has worked on numerous movies during his career including 17 Again, Bringing Down the House, and American History X. Matthew is currently the Co-Producer of Step Up 3, which is in post-production.
Matthew is looking for comedy and dramedy scripts.

Taking film pitches

Nick Nantell started with Contrafilm in January of 2006 on the sets of The Number 23 starring Jim Carrey and Journey to the Center of the Earth starring Brendan Fraser. Since that time, he has helped develop multiple projects, including What's Your Number an Anna Faris vehicle at Columbia, Puckface by Stan Chervin at New Line and the sequel to Journey among others.

Contrafilm is a New Line based production company started by Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson in 2004. The company has released The Exorcism of Emily Rose for Screen Gems, The Guardian starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher and Choke based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk.
Nick is looking for elevated Genre: Horror, Thriller, Comedy. Action-Adventure, Action, 3D movies.

Taking film pitches

Six years ago, Dave was getting his masters at Indiana University when he realized he hated everything about the program he was in. So he purposefully failed out and serendipitously ran into Luke Ryan, who was at the time running the story department at New Line Cinema and who successfully convinced Dave move to Los Angeles. So Dave sold off a vast majority of his belongings and went on a road trip. Luke, being the best human being on the planet, gave Dave an unpaid internship in the fall of 2003. Since then, Dave has worked at New Line as an intern, temp, departmental assistant, assistant to the Senior EVP of Production, and most recently, Creative Executive. He hopes to make movies that will make his college roommates laugh. New Line is responsible for such films as, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Number 23, He's Just Not That Into You and Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Dave is looking for Horror and R-Rated Comedies.

Taking film pitches

David Ready is Vice President of Development and Production at Di Bonaventura Pictures, responsible for such films as Transformers, Stardust, 1408 and the upcoming GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra. He has worked in film development and production for nine years. Previously, David worked at Warner Brothers and Jerry Weintraub Productions.
David is looking for high concept event movies.

Taking literature pitches

As a former editor at NAL/Signet, Pocket Books, Bantam Books, and as manager of book publishing for The Los Angeles Times, Angela Rinaldi has worked closely with first novelists and nonfiction writers. She has taught publishing programs at UCLA and was a member of the Literature Panel for the California Arts Council. She is a member of AAR. Her agency list is an eclectic mix of nonfiction and fiction and includes the former New York Times bestseller, Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr. Spencer Johnson, Zen Golf by Dr. Joseph Parent, Some Writers Deserve to Starve: 31 Brutal Truths About the Publishing Industry by Elaura Niles, My First Crush by Linda Kaplan, Reflections from the Heart: What Our Animal Companions Tell Us by Deborah DeMoss Smith, Rescue Me by Megan Clark and novelists Drusilla Campbell, Marjorie Reynolds, Stephanie Kane and Eben Paul Perison. She is actively looking for commercial and literary fiction, narrative non-fiction and practical and proactive nonfiction. She does not represent category romances, science fiction/fantasy, westerns, cookbooks, poetry, children's books, young adult titles or film scripts.

Taking film pitches in groups only

Luke Ryan arrived in Hollywood in 2000 and has had a diverse career, working as a screenwriter, producer, instructor at UCLA extension, and studio executive at New Line Cinema and MTV Films before arriving at MGM in 2008 as Vice President of Production. He is currently overseeing a varied slate of films including Robocop with Darren Aronofsky, The Three Stooges with the Farrelly Brothers, Poltergeist with Vadim Perelman, and, quite possibly the most important film of all time, Hot Tub Time Machine, starring John Cusack, Craig Robinson, and Rob Corddry.

Taking literary pitches

Looking for: Kristin is looking for well- written, smart commercial fiction with strong characters. She is especially interested in historical fiction, mysteries, and women's fiction.
Kristin Sevick joined Tor/Forge's editorial department in July 2006 after working for a few years in medical publishing. She received her bachelor's in Communications at New York University and is the editor of a new historical mystery series for Forge. She lives in Queens with her fiancé and their spoiled cavalier spaniel.

Taking literary pitches
Victoria Skurnick was the Advertising and Promotion Director of Holt, Rinehart & Winston before she switched to editorial positions at Pocket Books and St. Martin's Press. Before her switch to agenting, she was editor-in-chief of The Book-of-the-Month Club, where she worked for nineteen years. She is also the co-author of seven novels, published under the name Cynthia Victor. She has been with the Levine Greenberg Literary Agency since 2007.

Taking literary pitches

Anna Webman began at Curtis Brown in 2005. In working with Elizabeth Harding, she has worked with a list of esteemed children's authors and illustrators including Jane Yolen, Nikki Grimes, Gennifer Choldenko, Gordon Korman, Patricia McKissack, Jane Dyer, Caroline Cooney, Karen Cushman, Pat Mora, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and S.E. Hinton. Anna represents a range of young adult, middle-grade, and picture-book authors and illustrators. She is always on the lookout for first-time authors and is particularly interested in stories with a unique voice. Her ideal book would be one that has a driving narrative, a memorable message, and beautiful language. Anna graduated from The George Washington University and lives in Manhattan with her rescue dog Vinny.

Taking literary pitches

Deb Werksman has been an acquiring editor and editorial manager for Sourcebooks for the past ten years, before which she had her own publishing company. She is the country's foremost editor of Jane Austen sequels, including Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife and Old Friends and New Fancies, the first ever Austen sequel, originally published in 1914. She is acquiring single title romance in all subgenres--paranormal, historical, romantic suspense, erotic romance and contemporary. Sourcebooks is the country's largest woman-owned independent publishing house. We publish in hardcover, trade paper and mass market formats and distribute throughout the book trade and the mass market.

Taking literary pitches

Caryn has been an Agent with the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Inc. since early 2003, and has sold over 80 books. She handles children's books only: picture books through YA; fiction and non-fiction. She represents two New York Times bestselling authors, first-time authors, and authors at every stage in between. Caryn holds an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA, and a BS from the University of Virginia. Please see her website www.andreabrownlit.com for more information.