
Meet Our Grantees
An incredibly talented and ambitious group of disabled creatives: writers, directors, filmmakers, and more.
Monica Cecilia Lucas
Monica Lucas is a neurodivergent, Puerto Rican screenwriter who writes stylistic character dramas about women and girls wrestling back power from the systems that seek to diminish them.
Zayre Ferrer
Zayre (they/them) is a screenwriter who was was born in Panama and grew up in Brooklyn.
Alys Murray
Alys Murray (she/her) is a screenwriter, novelist, and filmmaker from New Orleans, Louisiana, who writes genre fare for the romantic in all of us.
Filipe F. Coutinho
Filipe Coutinho (he/him) is a writer and filmmaker living with OCD with a passion for character-driven, inclusive, and commercial stories.
Simone Hawthorne
Bronx-born writer Simone, is a proud mom, who thrives on playing devil's advocate, and uses her writing to explore the complexities of human nature.
Jamey Perry
Jamey, a paraplegic TV writer, actor, and adaptive athlete from Seattle, is dedicated to using disability to offer new perspectives.
Ashley Eakin
Ashley, a writer/director with a physical disability, has directed for Disney+, Apple TV+, and Netflix, and is committed to changing the portrayal of disabled people in media.
Shea Mirzai
Shea Mirzai (he/him) is an Iranian-American, LGBTQ+ writer/producer, a Person Who Stutters, and Co-Chair of the WGA’s Disabled Writers Committee.
Alex Lora-Cercos
Alex Lora-Cercos (he/him) is a Spanish filmmaker who writes about the complexities of the human condition and believes in the power of cinema to reflect and effect change.
Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini
Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini (she/they) is an award-winning bionic playwright, screenwriter and author of Nigerian heritage from London who writes thought-provoking narratives that explore themes of identity, belonging and empowerment.
Melanie Abrams Fierstein
Melanie Abrams Fierstein (she/her) specializes in brow-raising dramas and true stories, combining her experience in politics with her unique perspective as a disabled woman.
Natalia Temesgen
Natalia Temesgen (she/her) is a playwright, TV writer/producer, who has written TV episodes for Dear White People on Netflix, Julia on Max, and Reasonable Doubt on Hulu.
Anne Hamilton
Anne Hamilton (she/her) is a director and screenwriter who writes about women, mental health, neurodiversity, and cancer.
Roma Murphy
Roma Murphy (she/her) has always wanted to make the world a better place, but as a comedy writer, she suspects she’ll probably make it worse.
Obiageli Odimegwu
Obiageli Odimegwu (she/her) grew up in Nigeria and worked on Wall Street before breaking her parents’ hearts by transitioning into screenwriting. Obiageli writes about outsiders in harrowing situations.
Cheryl Meyer
Cheryl Meyer (she/her) is a small-town girl with big-city dreams who dabbled in every job both in front of and behind the camera before becoming a bonafide scribe. As a physically disabled writer, she brings her unique perspective to narratives and loves to write about complicated women in messy situations.
Andrew Reid
Andrew Reid (he/him) is a disabled Jamaican-Cuban storyteller who migrated to the United States at the age of 10. He gravitates toward genre films and untold dramas within the world of disability, mental health, and the Caribbean community.
Kryzz Gautier
Kryzz Gautier (she/her) is a Queer, Afro-Latina, formerly undocumented writer-director from the Dominican Republic, who specializes in character-driven, grounded sci-fi and genre at large.
Charlie and Chris Frazier
Charlie and Chris Frazier (he/him) have written for film and television for ten years. They often center their stories on characters with disabilities, rooted in their own experiences with Cystic Fibrosis.
Hari Ziyad
Hari Ziyad (he/they) is a certified death doula, the bestselling author of Black Boy Out of Time, and the creator and former Editor-in-Chief of RaceBaitr.