Inevitable Foundation Announces 2025 Elevate Collective Cohort

The winners of The Loreen Arbus Foundation and STARZ #TakeTheLead Awards receive targeted industry-specific support, including education, connections, financial resources, and community within the program and beyond. 

By Inevitable Foundation Staff

Inevitable Foundation has selected its newest Elevate Collective cohort in partnership with The Loreen Arbus Foundation and STARZ #TakeTheLead.

Ana Defillo, Erin Brown Thomas, Katherine Beattie, and Michelle Asgarali have been named as the 2025 recipients of The Loreen Arbus Foundation Awards. Cheryl Meyer, who in 2024 was named an Inevitable Foundation Elevate Collective Award winner, was tapped by STARZ as 2025’s #TakeTheLead recipient. 

Defillo, Thomas, Beattie, and Asgarali have each been awarded an $8,000 grant and connections designed to advance their careers. The Loreen Arbus Foundation partner grants focus on supporting women and nonbinary screenwriters within the disability community. Meyer will receive a $12,500 grant as well as mentoring and coaching from STARZ programming executives. STARZ #TakeTheLead awards select disabled talent that are good fits for premium cable. 

Launched to address the need gap between emerging creative pipeline programs and the foundation’s flagship – and recently evolved – Accelerate Fellowship, Elevate Collective is a six-month granting program that offers mid- and upper-level disabled screenwriters targeted industry-specific support, including education, connections, financial resources, and community in the program and beyond. 

Below, learn more about the newest members of the Collective, why they share the foundation’s mission and vision, and how they exemplify the creativity, ambition, and prowess of Hollywood’s disabled screenwriting community.  

Headshot Credit: Lucal Pool/@lucasinstylephoto

A Dominican-American writer, producer, and not-comedian, Ana Defillo (she/her) escaped her conservative, working-class upbringing through the glow of her 13-inch TV-VCR combo. Before entering the TV industry, she paved her road to hell with good intentions as a Christian missionary, a New York University political graduate student, and a nonprofit professional. Now, as a writer, she searches for truth in fiction. Drawing from her neurodivergent experiences and unconventional life, Defillo crafts absurd, surprising stories that challenge power and celebrate humanity through a singular lens. 

“I want to make people feel seen, understood, and less alone through humor and vulnerability. It’s what Inevitable Foundation does for disabled artists in a different way,” says Defillo. “It makes a huge difference when the administrators of a program understand your challenges as an awardee. That shared experience makes you feel less alone, more valued, and creates a genuine connection.”

Defillo’s credits include Showtime’s Desus and Mero, Fuse’s The Read, and PBS’ The Vote. Her honors and achievements include the 2025 Disability Belongs Entertainment Lab Fellowship, the 2024 Disrupters Fellowship, the 2023 MovieMaker Magazine’s Screenwriter to Watch list, and a 2022 Austin Film Festival Rooster Teeth Screenplay Award. She was also named a 2023 Rideback Rise Circle Member and was selected for the National Hispanic Media Coalition’s 2021 Series Scriptwriters Program. 

Headshot Credit: Ian Brown

An L.A. and Toronto-based screenwriter repped by Conrad Sun at Sundust Management, Meyer has typically focused on stories about women navigating messy, high-stakes worlds. Most recently, that’s been projects like Carved, a horror feature that reached #1 on Hulu’s streaming charts, and the dystopian thriller All the Lost Ones, starring Devon Sawa. Her thriller Invalid was also chosen for the Wscripted Cannes Screenplay List. An alum of the TIFF Series Accelerator, Athena Episodic Lab, Diversity Showrunner Bootcamp, Stowe Story Writers Room, and Disability Belongs Lab, this year she was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best TV Writing for her work on Amazon’s Beyond Black Beauty. 

“I'm thrilled to receive such incredible ongoing support from Inevitable Foundation. I feel like I have found a lifelong community through the foundation,” says Meyer. “This has given me motivation to continue the relentless march forward during a very tumultuous time. The last three years have been extremely challenging for us all, and holding on is becoming harder, financially and emotionally. Being selected shines a much-needed ray of hope and financial support. Secondly, being selected for a mentorship from STARZ is a huge personal accomplishment and will benefit me greatly as I work towards getting my pilots ready to be pitched.”

Headshot Credit: Amber Shore

Erin Brown Thomas (she/her) is a diplopic, neurodivergent filmmaker who wrote her first screenplay while hooked up to an IV battling bedrest and Lyme disease. She’s best known for crafting “traumadies” — dramas masquerading as comedies until delivering an emotional gut punch — and her writing explores unchecked ambition, satirizes social imbalances, and critiques industrialized Christianity. A former editor, Thomas’ credits include the Elisabeth Moss and Ebon Moss-Bachrach starring Tokyo Project (Tribeca, HBO). She has also directed the shorts Subtext (Austin Film Festival, Cannes, AMPAV), Rekindled (Palm Springs ShortFest), and A Question of Service (HollyShorts winner). A Nicholl Semifinalist for The Body of Chris, the multihyphenate’s latest project, Chasers — a 31-minute single-continuous-shot pilot — world premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

“I know many people are suffering quietly under the physical and emotional demands of making movies. I’m a firm believer that we can find healthier, more sustainable ways to work without sacrificing output,” Thomas says of challenges facing disabled creatives and how she imagines a more inclusive industry. “Accessibility benefits everyone. Working with Inevitable Foundation will help me rise to a level where I can advocate for more inclusion behind the scenes — not just for myself, but for the crews, the industry, and the stories we tell.”

Headshot Credit: Maddy Ullman

Katherine Beattie (she/her) grew up as a disabled skate rat in mid-90s suburban Los Angeles with her much taller — even when they're both standing — twin sister. “Having been born both disabled and loving action sports, I love to write stories of outsiders and underdogs of all kinds,” she says of what she creatively gravitates to. Her relationship with her two sisters has also played a role in those stories being explored through the lens of female friendships and sisterhood. Before becoming a Hollywood screenwriter, Beattie represented Team USA in Para Surfing and continues to compete competitively. While she still hits the waves (and has a real love of comedy), her screenwriting work has put her on the path of high-profile network procedurals, including NCIS and NCIS: New Orleans. She is represented by Jennifer Good at Paradigm and Kim Stenton at Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobasser Younger & Light.

While Beattie’s work doesn’t always forefront disability, she says she hopes “to see disabled characters naturally woven into the fabric of scenes” onscreen. Offscreen, the writer has “been lucky in that the only real challenge I have faced in Hollywood is accessibility. So the more Inevitable Foundation can raise the profiles of disabled creatives, the more disabled people we'll have working behind the camera, which I anticipate will go a long way toward improving the industry's knowledge of access issues and barriers.”

Headshot Credit: Felicia Asgarali

Michelle Asgarali (she/her) is vested in building stronger networks of disabled creatives, so it’s no surprise she’s drawn to ensemble narratives exploring the multi-faceted lives of disabled characters. With a background as a creative producer and showrunner for character-driven docuseries like AMI’s Breaking Character and CBC’s Push, she has since transitioned into scripted storytelling, with a focus on children, youth, and comedy genres. Recent credits include two Lopii Productions children's educational series, Bestest Day for My Bestest Friend and Dream It to Be It!, as well as adult sketch comedy series The Squeaky Wheel: Canada. Asgarali’s stint showrunning the series, which highlights the absurdities of an ableist world and features over 50 disabled creatives, garnered her and the show a Canadian Screen Award nomination, as well as recognition via the 2024 MIPCOM Diversity Award.

“It’s challenging to find credible programs that understand the balance of industry connections and leaving space for fluidity and support of disability rights,” says the Toronto-based Asgarali about why she was interested in becoming part of the Inevitable Foundation community. “And coming from Canada, our arts community and entertainment industry is spread out and a bit fractured, which makes our progress for equality slow. Being a part of the Elevate Collective not only opens the door to a larger network but also validates that I am on the right path. It also feels like the cornerstone of the Inevitable Foundation, to move up together.”