Ray Richmond is considered one of the leading experts on television, media and the entertainment industry. For the past 25 years, Ray Richmond has worked as a television critic, columnist, and reporter for a number of publications including: The Hollywood Reporter, Daily Variety, the Los Angeles Daily News and The Orange County Register.Ray is also a prolific author.
His books include:
The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family (1997)
This is Jeopardy: Celebrating America’s Favorite Quiz Show (2004)
TV Moms: An Illustrated Guide (2000)
and My Greatest Day in Show Business (1999).

Ray is currently working on a memoir and film that carries the working title Improver of Love, centering on his life growing up in Hollywood with an eccentric mother who helped to invent the sex lube industry in the 1960s. He spends the remainder of his free time removing tags from mattresses in direct violation of federal law.

David Gittins started as a commissioned officer in Her Majesty’s Customs, David found himself changing careers once his play Madness and Vomit attracted the attention of TV producers. After spending some time writing for British TV, he segued into developing and financing independent features, working with companies in Italy, Ireland, France, UK and the US.

He has an MFA in screenwriting from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

David is also the Executive Director of The TV Writers Fund for the Future, a nonprofit dedicated to enabling experienced TV writers to find new employment opportunities. The Fund runs seminars, industry panels and workshops focused on informing writers and empowering them to stay current by optimizing their ability, attitude and, application.

Scott Kaiser, MD is a practicing geriatrician and Chief Innovation Officer at the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF), which provides services and support to the entertainment industry community.

Scott leverages his expertise to advocate for the improvement of aging services and geriatric care.Dr. Kaiser received his medical degree from the Keck School of Medicine at USC and later joined the Harvard Geriatric Medicine Fellowship, then came back to Los Angeles as a Health Medical Fellow with the UCLA/VA Primary Care and Health Services Research Fellowship.

Jordan Oslin is an associate at The Bloom Firm. He completed his undergraduate degree in English Literature at Loyola Marymount University and minored in Classics and Archaeology.

Jordan earned his Juris Doctorate from Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. The recipient of many scholarships, Jordan specialized in Labor and Employment Law and Intellectual Property. He participated in Southwestern’s Negotiation Honors Program, winning the prestigious Annual Entertainment Negotiation Competition . His wide range of passions includes post-modern literature, historical preservation of Art Deco architecture, classic film, and physical fitness.

In law, Jordan is dedicated to the proliferation of fair use in copyright, criminal legislative reform, equal protection for sexual orientation, and the fight against domestic violence.

Jordan recognizes the challenges for clients in today’s legal market and immediately seized the opportunity to work for The Bloom Firm, a firm of exceptional attorneys that strives to minimize the confusion and obstructions of a complicated legal world.

Moderator: Telly Davidson is a familiar face to IWOSC audiences, having moderated many panels for us in the past. He was senior film and TV reviewer for bestselling pundit David Frum’s FrumForum, has reviewed movies and TV and conducted interviews for FilmStew, 213 Magazine, iF Monthly, Entertainment Today, Guitar Player, All About Jazz, and has worked on TV specials for NBC and PBS including The Write Environment and Pioneers of Television. He currently works with top producer’s rep Jeff Porter of Porter Pictures on the placement of independent films.
Telly is the author of the Emmy magazine-cited TV’s Grooviest Variety Shows. His new book Culture War, on pop culture and politics, is now available on Amazon.

Ray Richmond is considered one of the leading experts on television, media and the entertainment industry. For the past 25 years, Ray Richmond has worked as a television critic, columnist, and reporter for a number of publications including: The Hollywood Reporter, Daily Variety, the Los Angeles Daily News and The Orange County Register.Ray is also a prolific author.
His books include:
The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family (1997)
This is Jeopardy: Celebrating America’s Favorite Quiz Show (2004)
TV Moms: An Illustrated Guide (2000)
and My Greatest Day in Show Business (1999).

Ray is currently working on a memoir and film that carries the working title Improver of Love, centering on his life growing up in Hollywood with an eccentric mother who helped to invent the sex lube industry in the 1960s. He spends the remainder of his free time removing tags from mattresses in direct violation of federal law.

David Gittins started as a commissioned officer in Her Majesty’s Customs, David found himself changing careers once his play Madness and Vomit attracted the attention of TV producers. After spending some time writing for British TV, he segued into developing and financing independent features, working with companies in Italy, Ireland, France, UK and the US.

He has an MFA in screenwriting from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

David is also the Executive Director of The TV Writers Fund for the Future, a nonprofit dedicated to enabling experienced TV writers to find new employment opportunities. The Fund runs seminars, industry panels and workshops focused on informing writers and empowering them to stay current by optimizing their ability, attitude and, application.

Scott Kaiser, MD is a practicing geriatrician and Chief Innovation Officer at the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF), which provides services and support to the entertainment industry community.

Scott leverages his expertise to advocate for the improvement of aging services and geriatric care.Dr. Kaiser received his medical degree from the Keck School of Medicine at USC and later joined the Harvard Geriatric Medicine Fellowship, then came back to Los Angeles as a Health Medical Fellow with the UCLA/VA Primary Care and Health Services Research Fellowship.

Jordan Oslin is an associate at The Bloom Firm. He completed his undergraduate degree in English Literature at Loyola Marymount University and minored in Classics and Archaeology.

Jordan earned his Juris Doctorate from Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. The recipient of many scholarships, Jordan specialized in Labor and Employment Law and Intellectual Property. He participated in Southwestern’s Negotiation Honors Program, winning the prestigious Annual Entertainment Negotiation Competition . His wide range of passions includes post-modern literature, historical preservation of Art Deco architecture, classic film, and physical fitness.

In law, Jordan is dedicated to the proliferation of fair use in copyright, criminal legislative reform, equal protection for sexual orientation, and the fight against domestic violence.

Jordan recognizes the challenges for clients in today’s legal market and immediately seized the opportunity to work for The Bloom Firm, a firm of exceptional attorneys that strives to minimize the confusion and obstructions of a complicated legal world.

Moderator: Telly Davidson is a familiar face to IWOSC audiences, having moderated many panels for us in the past. He was senior film and TV reviewer for bestselling pundit David Frum’s FrumForum, has reviewed movies and TV and conducted interviews for FilmStew, 213 Magazine, iF Monthly, Entertainment Today, Guitar Player, All About Jazz, and has worked on TV specials for NBC and PBS including The Write Environment and Pioneers of Television. He currently works with top producer’s rep Jeff Porter of Porter Pictures on the placement of independent films.
Telly is the author of the Emmy magazine-cited TV’s Grooviest Variety Shows. His new book Culture War, on pop culture and politics, is now available on Amazon.

Jeff Porter is the founder, President, and CEO of Porter Pictures, one of the leading producers’ services agencies in Beverly Hills, providing both sales and investment strategies to indie filmmakers and reality producers.

He has successfully sold projects to HBO, Showtime, Starz/Encore, Discovery, BET, and countless international outlets.  Recent films include The North Star (RLJ Entertainment), Live Life! (Discovery), Mouthpiece, But Not For Me, and nearly 100 other titles from the horror, comedy, urban, and documentary/reality genres.

Jeff has worked with the Las Vegas Black Film Festival, Tyler Perry Networks, spoken at BET-Noize and the Las Vegas Film Festival, and helped found the Center for Music and Film at his alma mater, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

Carole Kirschner, Director of the Writers Guild of America’s Showrunner Training Program and the CBS Diversity Writers Mentoring Program, has a passion for helping aspiring writers, producers and executives break in, stay in and move up in the entertainment industry.

Having worked as a senior level television development executive for eighteen years (including at CBS and as head of Steven Spielberg’s first Amblin Television), Carole has heard over 3,000 pitches, bought hundreds of projects and was involved in developing dozens of television series.

She’s also helped hundreds of talented ambitious newcomers break into Hollywood.

Now an international speaker and entertainment career coach, she teaches creative professionals how to navigate the often mystifying field of show business.

Her book, Hollywood Game Plan: How to Land a Job in Film, TV and Digital Entertainment, published by Michael Wiese Publishing, is assigned as a textbook in film/television classes at various colleges and universities.

Mike Vainisi is the Head of Editorial at ATTN:, an issues-driven media company with a mission to deliver engaging content to a mobile-first audience. Every day ATTN: produces videos, articles and commentary telling stories worth your attention.

Since joining the team in November of 2014, he has been managing the daily editorial operations for both the video and written content. He oversees a team of editors and writers and works with the video team to ensure that ATTN:’s content is issue-driven. In just two years, with no paid growth, ATTN:’s content receives more than 2 billion monthly impressions and over 400 million monthly video views.

Mike studied journalism at the University of Illinois and cut his teeth on political campaigns before attending law school. Mike and his wife Allison live in Los Angeles.

Josh Grapes graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 2013, one of LA’s prodigal sons returned from the East.
He’s a freelance editor and teaches writing and editing classes within the Los Angeles Poets & Writers’ Collective.His work in the field provides both inspirational and financial support for his own writing, and he hopes to publish a collection of poems by the end of 2017.

Jeff Porter is the founder, President, and CEO of Porter Pictures, one of the leading producers’ services agencies in Beverly Hills, providing both sales and investment strategies to indie filmmakers and reality producers.

He has successfully sold projects to HBO, Showtime, Starz/Encore, Discovery, BET, and countless international outlets.  Recent films include The North Star (RLJ Entertainment), Live Life! (Discovery), Mouthpiece, But Not For Me, and nearly 100 other titles from the horror, comedy, urban, and documentary/reality genres.

Jeff has worked with the Las Vegas Black Film Festival, Tyler Perry Networks, spoken at BET-Noize and the Las Vegas Film Festival, and helped found the Center for Music and Film at his alma mater, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

Carole Kirschner, Director of the Writers Guild of America’s Showrunner Training Program and the CBS Diversity Writers Mentoring Program, has a passion for helping aspiring writers, producers and executives break in, stay in and move up in the entertainment industry.

Having worked as a senior level television development executive for eighteen years (including at CBS and as head of Steven Spielberg’s first Amblin Television), Carole has heard over 3,000 pitches, bought hundreds of projects and was involved in developing dozens of television series.

She’s also helped hundreds of talented ambitious newcomers break into Hollywood.

Now an international speaker and entertainment career coach, she teaches creative professionals how to navigate the often mystifying field of show business.

Her book, Hollywood Game Plan: How to Land a Job in Film, TV and Digital Entertainment, published by Michael Wiese Publishing, is assigned as a textbook in film/television classes at various colleges and universities.

Mike Vainisi is the Head of Editorial at ATTN:, an issues-driven media company with a mission to deliver engaging content to a mobile-first audience. Every day ATTN: produces videos, articles and commentary telling stories worth your attention.

Since joining the team in November of 2014, he has been managing the daily editorial operations for both the video and written content. He oversees a team of editors and writers and works with the video team to ensure that ATTN:’s content is issue-driven. In just two years, with no paid growth, ATTN:’s content receives more than 2 billion monthly impressions and over 400 million monthly video views.

Mike studied journalism at the University of Illinois and cut his teeth on political campaigns before attending law school. Mike and his wife Allison live in Los Angeles.

Josh Grapes graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 2013, one of LA’s prodigal sons returned from the East.
He’s a freelance editor and teaches writing and editing classes within the Los Angeles Poets & Writers’ Collective.His work in the field provides both inspirational and financial support for his own writing, and he hopes to publish a collection of poems by the end of 2017.

GAYE HIRSCH serves as Co-Head/Senior Vice President of Scripted Development at The CW Network, where she oversees development and production of scripted pilots for the network. She originally joined The CW as Vice President of Current Programming.

Previously, Ms Hirsch served as a Senior Executive at Cruise/Wagner Productions, where she managed the development slate and was a producer on “Shattered Glass” and “Suspect Zero.”

Prior to Cruise/Wagner, she was Vice President of Production for HBO Films, supervising development and production of Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning films including “Gia” and “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.”

Before HBO, Ms. Hirsch served as Vice President, Production at Robert Lawrence Productions.

She began her career at Touchstone Pictures as a Creative Executive, ultimately becoming Vice President, Production. Gaye is sorry but legal affairs will not permit her to accept any scripts or hear any pitches.

ALEX METCALF is currently a Writer/Producer on the Peabody Award-winning series UnREAL (Lifetime).

Alex has written for Kingdom (DirectTV), Mercy Street (PBS) and the short-lived Lucky 7 (ABC).

His features include God’s Pocket with Phillip Seymour Hoffman and An American Affair with Gretchen Mol and author of the hardboiled novel, Where the Sun Don’t Shine.

Alex has taught screenwriting at UCLA, LMU and the Stark Program at USC.

STEVE CUDEN has written nearly ninety teleplays for many familiar TV series, such as X-Men, The Batman, Iron Man, Xiaolin Showdown, Loonatics Unleashed, The Mask, Goof Troop, Bonkers, Quack Pack, Gargoyles, Beetlejuice, Pink Panther, RoboCop, Extreme Ghostbusters, Stargate Infinity, ExoSquad, and Mummies Alive.

Steve directed and co-produced the cult-favorite horror-comedy feature Lucky, winning the award for Best Director at the Nodance Film Festival. Lucky also won awards for Best Feature at the New York City Horror Film Festival, Shriekfest in Los Angeles, MicroCineFest in Baltimore, and The Weekend of Fear in Nuremberg, Germany.

He also authored the popular book, Beating Broadway: How to Create Stories for Musicals That Get Standing Ovations and his new book is Beating Hollywood.

Steve Cuden is perhaps best known for co-creating the hit Broadway and international musical Jekyll & Hyde, writing the show’s original book and lyrics with noted composer Frank Wildhorn.

He has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Screenwriting from UCLA. He teaches a wide variety of screenwriting classes to the many talented Cinema Arts students attending the Conservatory of Performing Arts at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

MARC WEINGARTEN is a writer, editor and filmmaker. He is a producer for the shows THE BACHELOR, THE BACHELORETTE and BACHELOR IN PARADISE.

As a journalist, Weingarten’s work has appeared in countless publications, including GQ, Details, Oxford American, The New York Times, Wired, GQ, Esquire, Los Angeles Times, Salon and Slate.

His 2009 Salon story, ‘The Lear Jet Repo Man,” was purchased by Paramount pictures and is to be made into a feature film with producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzmann (Transformers, Star Trek).

He has written the books THIRSTY: WILLIAM MULHOLLAND CALIFORNIA WATER AND THE REAL CHINATOWN, STATION TO STATION, an LA Times bestseller and a finalist for the Ralph J. Gleason award for music book of the year; and THE GANG THAT WOULDN’T WRITE STRAIGHT, a history of New Journalism.

He is also the editor of YES IS THE ANSWER, a prog-rock anthology, and co-editor of HERE SHE COMES NOW, n anthology of essays about female musicians.

Weingarten has also produced two documentaries. GOD BLESS OZZY OSBOURNE premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and can be seen on Showtime; THE OTHER ONE: THE LONG, STRANGE TRIP OF BOB WEIR is Netflix’ first original music documentary.

Moderator:
GREG MILLER (producer and moderator) is the author of “How To Be A Writer Who Writes” and the new reference e-book, “Miller’s Compendium of Timeless Tools for the Modern Writer”.Greg has written for magazines, radio, tv and film. He has taught classes and workshops for writers and now consults and coaches writers for books and scripts.

You can learn more at OtherNetwork.com.