Announcing the Inaugural Elevate Collective Cohort and the Winner of our Partner Award with Caring Across Generations

Image Description: Five headshots. From L to R: A man with brown hair, a beard and glasses in a tan sweater; a woman with long red hair in a blue top; a woman with blonde hair and a lip ring in a black and white sweater; a Black woman with braids in a white top and leather jacket; a black and white shot of a man with dark hair and glasses wearing headphones around his neck and a black puffer jacket.

Today, Inevitable Foundation is pleased to announce our inaugural cohort of Elevate Collective Award winners. They have selected Keisha Zollar, Gisselle Legere, Sheridan O’Donnell, Jenn Lloyd, and Brett Maline for our Winter 2022 Elevate Collective cohort. 

“We are honored to welcome such a diverse and creative community of disabled screenwriters to Elevate Collective, which empowers mid- and upper-level disabled writers with the mentorship, coaching, and connections they need to level-up their careers,” Inevitable Foundation co-founders Richie Siegel and Marisa Torelli-Pedevska said in a joint statement.

Keisha Zollar, who was selected as the winner of the Inevitable Foundation x Caring Across Generations Care Award, will gain additional access to ongoing script and development consulting services with the Caring Across Generations team, in addition to the $5,000 professional development grant and Elevate Collective benefits.

“Disability representation in media, entertainment and culture is critical to countering ableist values and narratives that hold all of us back. We hope this award will provide Keisha—and eventually many others—with the resources to be able to tell their full stories on their own terms,” shared Lydia Storie, associate director of culture change at Caring Across Generations.

Since launching in 2021, Inevitable Foundation has granted over a quarter million dollars directly to disabled screenwriters via its Accelerate Fellowship, Elevate Collective and Elevate for Podcasters programs. The foundation is supported by Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Spotify, AMC Networks, Ford Foundation, Conrad Hilton Foundation, and Nielsen Foundation, among others.

Each member of Elevate Collective brings their own unique experiences and perspectives to the program.

Image Description: Keisha is a dark skinned Black woman with a smirk on her face, with shoulder length brown locs, wearing a leather jacket and white t-shirt.

Keisha Zollar is a disabled comedian, writer, and showrunner, and at her core, she's a California neurotic with New York chill. Keisha has worked on Hulu's limited series Mike, Young Love, and Netflix's animated series Agent King, and is one of the co-creators and stars of Netflix's Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show. She’s currently developing her short film, WHERE THE F*CK IS SHE?!, which focuses on two estranged Black sisters who reconnect when they canvas the neighborhood looking for their mentally ill mother.

Image Description: Gisselle Legere, a Cuban-American writer with red hair, wearing a navy dress.

Gisselle Legere is a Cuban-American writer who grew up among the exile community in Miami. She is a drama writer who likes to explore authentic women in positions of power who make unorthodox choices, and the relationship dynamics that follow. Gisselle has written for multiple network and streaming shows, most recently on NBC’s New Amsterdam, where her episode, “Give Me a Sign” shone a light on some of the language deprivation issues that denying deaf children sign language can cause.

Image Description: Sheridan O’Donnell, an early 30s Korean American man with medium-length curly, brown hair, dark glasses, and a pierced ear stares into camera with a faint smile.  He wears a puffy, black Columbia jacket and has over-ear headphones around his neck.  He’s standing in a front yard with a variety of trees behind him in the distance.  The photo is in black and white.

Sheridan O’Donnell is a Texas-born, Korean-American writer and director who is low vision/legally blind. His work explores family, identity and human connection—character-driven traumedies that swing between moments of catharsis and humor. His upcoming feature Little Brother stars J.K. Simmons, Daniel Diemer (The Half Of It), and Philip Ettinger (First Reformed) and was inspired by his friend’s suicide.

Image Description: Jenn Lloyd, a caucasian woman in her mid-40s with short blonde hair and a silver lip ring smiles slightly while looking straight forward. She wears a navy blue sweater and stands against the blurry background of Sydney Harbor.

Jenn Lloyd is a New Jersey-born comedy writer who enjoys writing badass female characters and hard jokes. While working as an NBC Page, she was set up on a bad blind date with her writing partner, Kevin Bonani. Fortunately, while it wasn't love at first sight, it was a comedy match made in heaven. Jenn has over twelve years of experience writing network sitcoms and family comedies, including The War At Home, Shake It Up, KC Undercover, and The Barbarian and The Troll.

Image Description: Brett Maline, mid 30s, short-haired caucasian man with a small smile looking at the camera and his arms down, hands folded in front of him. He is wearing dark rimmed glasses and a tan sweater with a white background.

Brett Maline is a Los Angeles based actor/writer/director from rural Nebraska. A former cast member of the CBS Diversity Showcase, Groundlings Sunday Company, and 3-year UCB house sketch, he developed his half hour comedy with Sony this past year and wrote for the upcoming season of Marvel's Loki. He's niche because he lives with a rare type of scoliosis and drives a PT Cruiser.

Disabled people make up 20%+ of the population but represent less than 1% of writers behind the screen. The access, relationship and opportunity barriers holding the community back—for example, it’s 2x more likely for a disabled person to be unemployed and live in poverty—need to be broken down. Through Elevate Collective and their other programs, Inevitable Foundation is working to close this disability representation gap in film and television.

Applications for Elevate Collective and Elevate for Podcasting are now open. Learn more and apply at https://www.inevitable.foundation.