Andre Gaines

Andre Gaines is a Los Angeles-based Producer, Writer and Director whose credits include the HBO four-part documentary series, The Lady and the Dale, the remake of Stephen King’s Children of the Corn, Spike Lee’s Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, and the award-winning film Bill Nye: Science Guy. He will make his directorial debut at the Tribeca Film Festival with The One and Only Dick Gregory about the legendary comedian and activist, featuring Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, Wanda Sykes, W. Kamau Bell, Lena Waithe and Harry Belafonte. Andre and his wife Lauren Dandridge Gaines have two sons, Julian and Wesley.

Cortney Wills

Cortney M. Wills is the Entertainment Director at theGrio and host of their latest podcast initiative, Acting Up. Born and raised in Los Angeles, the Medill alum began her career at Time Inc. and has since covered music, film, television, and pop culture for numerous publications including Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, MTV News, JET, AOL, and more. Much of her work at theGrio focuses on holding Hollywood accountable and examines how stories about our people, our culture, and our communities are being told on screens big and small. She’s currently based in Los Angeles where she resides with her husband and children.

Lena Waithe

Valerie Edwards

Valerie began her producing career working for Dateline NBC, Trading Spaces and FOX’s Texas Justice. She entered scripted television in 2001 on the drama, Soul Food: The Series, and assisted renowned producers Bob Balaban and Amy Robinson with the indie hit Game 6. She went on to develop original programming for Chicago TV station, WJYS, before becoming a producer for the No.1 daytime show, Judge Judy. She recently executive produced The Purple Onion, Glorious Empire and the animated feature, The Immortal Warrior. Currently, Valerie splits her time between Houston and LA where she’s producing The One and Only Dick Gregory.